An Engineering Marvel for Pauline – New York, NY (1936)

Miss Pauline Fisher lived in Malden, a city in the hilly, woodland area north of the Mystic River in eastern Massachusetts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malden,_Massachusetts

In September of 1936, Pauline received a postcard photograph of the new Triborough Bridge – a complex of bridges and elevated viaducts that carry traffic between northern Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx.

Completed in 1936, the “Triborough” was brand new when Pauline received her photograph.

(Although most New Yorkers still refer to the “Triborough Bridge”, the highway complex was renamed in honor of the assassinated Senator Robert Kennedy in 2008.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy_Bridge

This enterprise of interconnected bridges, access roads, and toll structures has been described as the “largest traffic machine ever built”.

It is considered an American Engineering Landmark.

This massive project was projected in various plans throughout the 1920’s, but there were numerous disputes about the path, the costs, the preservation of shipping transport on the East River, and the relocation of populations from apartment buildings that would need to be demolished for the roadways.

The construction became a reality with additional Federal funds through Depression-era public works projects.

The dramatic photograph is attributed to Brown Bros.

To appreciate fully the wonders of this complex, you need to speed across the elevated roadways with a river, an island, other roadways, and boats passing beneath you.

Below, you can see a current (free common-use) photo from Wikipedia.

On the reverse of the postcard, we learn that the sender is “haven’t stopped going yet” and is “going strong”.

It is unclear if the last words on the reverse are a signature, perhaps, “Mazie Luden” (or, Lander)

The sender expects to see Pauline soon, perhaps before she receives the postcard.

Pauline seems to have been pleased by the postcard as it was preserved in very good condition.

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