The Progress of Railroading
The Progress of Railroading is a group of public artworks designed by American artist Louis Saint-Gaudens and sculpted by Italian stonemason Andrew E. Bernasconi. The collection of six allegorical sculptures was created between 1909 and 1911, and are currently located at Union Station in Washington, D.C., United States. The statues depict Greco-Roman deities and thinkers meant to symbolically represent concepts related to rail transport in the United States.
Description
On the main entrance facade of Union Station, six granite statues, each 18 feet tall, are placed atop columns that decorate the three archways composing the building's main pavilion. The figures are paired to represent overarching concepts related to rail transportation: the western pair represents the major elemental forces that operate the railways; the eastern pair represents the industries most aided by rail transportation; and the central pair symbolizes the more abstract concepts that allowed the creation of rail travel. Moving from west to east, these six figures and what they represent are:- Prometheus – Fire
- *The Titaness is shown wearing a flaming headdress and holding a large torch in her arms.
- Thales – Electricity
- *The philosopher wears a crown of lightning, while holding a bundle of lightning bolts in his left hand and a lump of coal in his right.
- Themis – Freedom
- *The goddess is wearing a Phrygian cap and holding a sword in her left hand, with a bundle of olive branches in her right arm.
- Apollo – Imagination
- *The god wears a crown of laurels, holding an open scroll in his left arm and a pen in his right hand.
- Ceres – Agriculture
- *The goddess, wearing a diadem of intertwined wheat stalks, holds a bundle of wheat in her left arm and a sickle in her right hand.
- Archimedes – Mechanics
- *The engineer's left hand is resting on a sledgehammer, while he holds a large compass in his right.
The western archway is inscribed:
The center is inscribed:
The eastern archway is inscribed:
Extending on either side of the central pavilion are additional archways, each with two eagles at the top flanking additional inscriptions. The inscription above the westernmost archway is a quote from Samuel Johnson:
Above the easternmost archway, the inscription is composed of two quotes - one from William Shakespeare and John Fletcher's play Henry VIII, and the other from James Russell Lowell:
An additional inscription can be found on the northeastern side of this archway, also composed of two quotes - one attributed to Homer, and the other to Ralph Waldo Emerson: