More of the Detroit Publishing Company’s postcards, which were their less-expensive, colorized, popular alternatives to the high-quality photos that I often use. Above, the “Steamer ‘Hendrick Hudson; on the Hudson River.” Hendrick Hudson ran on the Day Line from 1906 to 1948. Given the open sides, it was obviously a summer excursion steamer – I like cold weather but I would not want to be that exposed on the river in the winter. Note that a 400-foot length (a slight exaggeration, as the ship was actually 379 feet long) was a respectable size for an ocean-going ship in 1906.
Here’s a Day Line ship – maybe the Hendrick Hudson, maybe not, passing under the Poughkeepsie rail bridge:
The ships ran on regular schedules, so in theory the photographer knew when to set up to capture this exact shot. But I still picture someone standing there patiently, waiting and watching the ship come up the river to be framed by the bridge. It’s a nice view of early-1900s mechanical engineering and late 1800s structural engineering, with a pretty natural setting across the river from the city.
Finally, speaking of cities, lower Broadway:
This entire series (the 70000s) is labelled as 1913 to 1930, but this one can be dated a bit more exactly. If you look closely, there’s some scaffold around the tower of the Woolworth Building, off in the distance. That implies it was in the last stages of construction, which would put this photo in 1913. That makes sense from the business perspective, as this would have been a popular card – the Detroit shots of New York monuments apparently were – so they’d want to get it out at the beginning of the new series of cards.
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