Harvard College made Money because of this Bridge!

The bridge that stood into the 21st century was built in 1900 under chief engineer William Jackson, and was designed to carry the Charlestown Elevated railway in addition to vehicle traffic. In the post card to the left you can see horse and buggy (mailed September 23, 1909) as the vehicle traffic.

On the Wikipedia page there is an extremely similar picture, but there are cars instead of horse and buggy (picture from 1928). Our friends at Wikipedia tell us the following: The first government-sanctioned ferry crossing of the Charles was chartered at this location in the 1630s. It was operated by various individuals until it was given to Harvard College "in perpetuity" in 1640, to support the college financially. In 1640, the Massachusetts General Court granted Harvard College the revenue from the Boston-Charlestown ferry to help support the institution. The Harvard Corporation in its capacity managed the Charlestown ferry from the 1640s until 1785, and after the completion of the Charles River Bridge in 1785. The first bridge on this site was known as the Charles River Bridge, chartered in 1785 and opened on June 17, 1786. As a condition of chartering the bridge, a sum of £200 was paid annually to Harvard College to compensate for the lost ferry income. The bridge was privately built and operated, with tolls producing profits for the investors during the charter period, after the initial expense was paid off. In 1792, the West Boston Bridge was chartered, connecting West Boston to Cambridge. In compensation, the legislature extended the charter period of the Charles River Bridge by 30 years, but the unpopular double tolls on Sundays were eliminated. Traffic to the bridge was facilitated by the laying out of the Medford Turnpike in 1803. https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/last-elevated-train-runs-in-boston.html On June 25 in 2004, Boston's last elevated train pulled into North Station. For over a century, Bostonians had avoided the congested streets below by riding trains carried on huge steel tracks overhead. When the El was built in 1901, people were thrilled to pay the five-cent fare to travel in mahogany-paneled cars from one shiny station to another. But over time city officials and most residents came to see the once-elegant El as a noisy eyesore. Gradually elevated lines were replaced with subways, and the tracks were demolished. The final run of the Green Line trolley on the last half-mile of elevated track marked a milestone in the modernization of the nation's oldest subway system, and, at the same time, the end of an era. The bridge (both the structure built in 1900 and its replacement) was officially named the North Washington Street Bridge until 2024. In October 2024, the new bridge was officially named the William Felton "Bill" Russell Bridge in honor of Bill Russell. Russell was a player and player-coach for the Boston Celtics during 1956–1969, during which the team won 11 NBA championships. Locally, the bridge has been commonly known as the Charlestown Bridge,[ although The Boston Globe has noted that residents of Charlestown called it the North End Bridge. The Globe has opined the 2024 naming of the bridge after Bill Russell "puts an end to the hundred-year argument over whether the span should be known as the 'Charlestown Bridge' or the 'North End Bridge'."

The post card was published by the Reichner Brothers who had offices in Boston, Munchen, and Leipzig. This was printed before World War I (September 23, 1909) so the printers were still in Germany. The company lasted from 1906 to 1914.