Last month’s view showed the Girard Avenue Bridge completed in 1874 after the designs of Philadelphia architects Henry A. and James P. Sims. The wrought-iron bridge, razed in 1971, was used by the Pennsylvania Railroad and replaced the old Girard Avenue Bridge that was demolished in 1871. In the background, the New York Connecting Railway Bridge, a bridge built by the P.R.R., is visible. By the late 1890s, one-third of all bicycle models produced by manufacturers were designed for women. Bicycles provided late nineteenth-century women with an outlet for increased physical and social freedom, including the waning of the bustle, corset, and chaperone.

Erika Piola
Visual Materials Cataloguer

Congratulations to the following people who correctly identified the image:

James M. Bergquist
J. Del Conner
Christine Ruggere
Steve Stamm
Andrew Terhune
Joseph F. Wolos