That’s quite a curve in the elevated tracks on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge. I wonder what it felt like as you crossed into and out of Brooklyn while sitting in a rattling old train car, like this one pictured in this 1907 postcard.
The elevated train wasn’t your only transit option for traveling between boroughs. Check out the streetcars in the left lane and at right. And the horse and wagon barely visible at bottom.
There’s also a decent number of pedestrians too, just like there are today. One thing missing: cars. I wonder if it was even possible to cross the bridge in a car in 1907, or if the bridge was only able to handle mass transit and walkers.
This postcard is part of the Walker Evans postcard exhibit at the Met. It runs through May 25.
Tags: Brooklyn bridge, elevated train over Brooklyn Bridge, streetcars Brooklyn Bridge, subway tracks on Brooklyn bridge, Walker Evans Picture Postcard Collection, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge
Ephemeral New York 
April 22, 2009 at 10:13 am |
I can’t help but feel a bit tense walking up the incline of the bridge can’t imagine what the rising curve must of felt like.