We may have forgotten that the blimp or zeppelin was once a contender as a mode of international travel, rivaling the airplane.

The Empire State Building, constructed 1930-1931, was built with a zeppelin landing deck at the spire.

The effort failed, largely because the welcome breezes that flow between the Hudson and the East Rivers made mooring too difficult to accomplish.

Only one zeppelin was moored successfully to the Empire State Building.

This well-preserved illustration of a blimp passing the Statue of Liberty was printed on a postcard circa 1930.

This would have been the height of enthusiasm for air travel by zeppelins.

(The explosion of the Hindenburg in 1937 ended any hopes of further commercial development of the zeppelin.)

Mailed from Palisades, N.J. on November 23, 1936, the postcard was addressed to our friend, Virginia McAllister, of Glendale, Arizona.

(I have shared several postcards related to the McAllisters; I suspect a huge trove of family correspondence was acquired by the dealer in old paper from whom I purchased one “lot”.)

Weston (?) reports that he visited the Statue of Liberty and was writing the postcard on a “rocking boat”.

I assume he crossed the Hudson by boat.