Pasadena, California

Pasadena has beautiful houses and an ideal climate. It also has the annual Tournament of Roses Parade,  a tradition since 1890.  Here you can see the students from Madison School marching in one of the early parades.

Below is a view of Pasadena showing the Colorado Street Bridge, also known as the Arroyo Seco Bridge. The bridge is still there after some seismic retrofitting in recent decades. It's on the National Rregister of Historic Places and has a also been designated National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

 Although it still stands, the bridge is dwarfed somewhat by the adjacent freeway bridge.

Photo by Bobak Ha'Eri Source

The first card has no message on the back, but the second one does. I'm interested in the name of the recipient, Miss Cunard W. Lind. I find her in the 1910 Census as a two-year old boy. I can only think that the census taker wrongly assumed it was a boy. The parents were Swedish.
The message is a little difficult to read.

Here's a quick try.

L.A. 2-6-26
Loved _____ at Home. The weather is _____ clear and warm here saw some of Los Angeles yesterday.  _______ this morning for San Diego for a few days will return here and ____until the Boat sails _______
Grant Widel's son in Law is the captain of the boat. Have called for mail but nix so far. 
Joe

Williamsburg Bridge - New York City

The Williamsburg Bridge crosses the East River, connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan with the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn. When it was built in 1903, it was the longest suspension bridge on earth.

There was great fanfare when the bridge opened and it was all caught on film.


Here's the back of the card.

Bridge Over the River Elbe

What an extraordinary bridge. It was built in 1899 and survived World War II. The ornate portals were  removed in 1960.

Here are the backs of the cards in the same order. The first one was postmarked at sea in 1930. the second one was sent in 1905.

Here's a photo from Wikipedia, showing a British tank guarding the bridge in 1945.

Iowa

This is some of the most beautiful corn I've seen. Nice composition, color, and lettering.

And here are some more lovely views from this circa 1930 postcard folder.

The Longevity of Bridges

This week's Sepia Saturday theme has to do with bridges. That started me thinking about various bridges and their durability. I had visions of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge swaying and twisting in the wind and the collapse of the Honeymoon Bridge near Niagara Falls.

And then there's the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, still standing today. It was completed in 1883 and is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. This is a tiny little (1.75" x 2.75") view card that fits inside an equally tiny folder with a number of other views as a souvenir from a visit to New York.  Despite the diminutive size, it is magical and a little haunting.

One of the best features of the Brooklyn Bridge is the pedestrian promenade, which allows large numbers of people to cross the bridge above the automobile traffic. Although the original bridge designers probably didn't foresee the importance of the promenade for transit strikes, traffic issues, and calamities, it has proved to be extremely useful in ensuring that people could cross the bridge during these events, perhaps most notably following the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

A bridge built in 1883 doesn't seem so old when you contrast it with a bridge built by the Romans in 134 AD. Here is my father standing on the Ponte Sant'Angelo in Rome. Both father and bridge have withstood the tests of time very well.

And here is my mother standing in front of the sandstone bridge across the Neckar River in Heidelberg, Germany. This is a bridge with many incarnations. The original wood bridge was built in 1284, but fell victim to high water and ice, as did a number of bridges that followed it.  A  stone bridge was built in 1786, and lasted until it was partially destroyed in 1945. The bridge was quickly rebuilt, but has now been added to the World Monuments Fund, a list of the world's most endangered monuments. I am certain that I bear responsibility for this status, because as a child when we lived just down the Neckar, my friend and I would scratch our initials and whatever else into the sandstone with a stick. It's amazing how soft sandstone is. Even then I wondered how a sandstone bridge could hold up to the elements.

And then there are bridges that are never intended to be anything but temporary. Here is my brother with a self-built bridge across a creek in Oregon. Rest assured that he did not go on to become an engineer.