1908 Garcia Meza Railroad Map of Bolivia

This is a 1908 Luis Garcia Meza railroad map of Bolivia, created at the beginning of Bolivia's railroad boom. As a landlocked country, Bolivian railroads were critical to national economic infrastructure and moving raw materials (saltpeter and silver) to market. Here, dashed lines illustrate operating railroads, while red lines highlight railroads in various phases of development.

Building a National Railroad Network

Roughly half of Bolivia's railroad network was built between 1900 and 1929, the greater extent of which is evident here. Projected rail lines stretch across the map, winding through the Andes to the silver region, thence to the Pacific coast. Other lines extend to border points with Paraguay and Brazil, thus providing access to Atlantic and European markets.

A Look at the Details

Cities, towns, and villages are identified along both the operational and projected routes. Thin red parallel lines appear as well and mark roads. Color indicates topographic changes. An inset in the lower left illustrates the distribution of plants and animals around Bolivia, specifically noting that the highest mountain regions were the exclusive domain of the Andean Condor. A second inset compares the lengths of Brazil's major rivers. A topographical profile of Bolivia occupies the space below the map and emphasizes the drastic elevation changes between the Pacific coast in Chile and the rainforest in eastern Bolivia.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Luis Garcia Meza and printed in Switzerland by Kartographia Winterthur. We note seven cataloged examples distributed across five OCLC entries: Stanford University, the University of Kansas, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, France, the Université Claude Bernard in Villeurbanne, France, the Université Laval in Quebec, and the Dibam Biblioteca Nacional de Chile. Rare on the private market.