Walking across the Ben Franklin Bridge in 1939, from Philadelphia to Camden


Today I'm walking across the Ben Franklin Bridge from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Camden, New Jersey in 1939. I'm crossing the Delaware.

This image is from the Duke University site, and with the help of my top history adventurer, who prefers to remain unnamed, I know that I'm looking east. This bridge, of course, is still there, and you can still walk across it. I prefer to do it in my imagination.


That's me there, with a hat inspired by Chico Marx. My trousers are a little baggy, but that's OK, they're roomy! I'm assuming that's you, walking towards me, close to the edge. I'm afraid of heights, so I stay away from the railings! I'm wondering what I'm carrying, it looks like a book, maybe it's a satchel of some kind.


Look at those cars! Every one of them is a classic! I especially like that little roadster there. I wish that I could bring it back with me to the 21st Century. Thank you for walking with me!



Images from the Duke University Library Digital Collections.

Update: More information from the Good Captain - see comment below
If you like pictures of old-time Phoenix, please become a member of History Adventuring on Patreon. I share a LOT of cool old photos there, copyright-free, with no advertising. Your support makes it happen! Thank you!

Click here to become a Patron!

Comments

  1. Cpt. CrankyAugust 27, 2021 at 9:55 PM

    Very familiar with this bridge! The view is towards Camden, my home town. If you look closely, you can see that the 1st traffic lane is separated by a curb. When they built this bridge in 1925/6, the outer lanes were designed for trolley tracks which were to lead to a mostly underground trolley terminal at the Philly end of the bridge. If you look at an aerial photo of the Philly side, you'll see traffic has to go around either side of a large island, this is where the unfinished terminal remains But by the time the bridge was completed, all NJ trolleys had been converted to busses permanently. Many years later, the unused trolley lanes were converted to traffic lanes.

    What you cannot tell from these photos, is a heavy rail line (subway) that is still in use runs underneath the walkway. So actually if you look over the edge, the rail line is below you and projects 6-10 feet further out. I think it was possibly designed that way to deter jumpers.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is ...
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the...
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me...
Read more