The Central Station of Santiago de Chile. Metallic architecture and nineteenth-century avant-garde

Abstract

After national independence (1810-1818) our country is experiencing an interesting process of emancipation in all areas, particularly in its economic condition, a situation that will be helped by the industrial revolution. The role that the American nations will play will be essentially the provision of raw materials, for which the presence of the railroad will be essential. For this purpose, the first railway was installed
in Chile and America, connecting the port of Caldera with the mining deposits near the city of Copiapó (1851). Then there will be the railway line from the capital to the port of Valparaíso (1852-63) and to the south of Chile (1855), being the key point of integration to the new world of industrialization the Alameda or Central Station, the first metallic structure to be lift in our country. We will see a first station in 1857, a second and larger structure in 1885 and finally the great ship that we know today in 1897. In a few years our country renovated the same function with three large metal structures, which allowed it to be part
of this new world globalized and own the strategies of industrialization, using the avant-garde expression that constituted metallic architecture.