Focus on the Train, Not the Battle!

The picture on this post card is of a Baltimore & Ohio train crossing over

Brandywine Creek in Wilmington, Delaware. I bought the post card because of the train on the front. Evidently, the publishers of the post card were more interested in the history related to the site. The description on the back of the post card focuses on a battle that was fought there in the Revolutionary War on September 11, 1777 which led to the occupation of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by the British Army. I went on line and looked up the bridge. This website gives an excellent description of the history of the bridge and the railroads that are related to it. https://historicbridges.org/delaware/brandywineviaduct/inventory.pdf Delaware’s most visually impressive stone arch bridge is the 1909-1910 Brandywine Viaduct built by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad over Brandywine Creek in Wilmington. The seven-span bridge is slightly less than 1,000’ long and rises over 110’ above the creek. The bridge was built as the railroad’s replacement of an 1888 iron deck truss bridge, which had proven inadequate to heavier locomotives. Although the B&O could have chosen to build another steel truss bridge, or a reinforced concrete bridge, there were few bridge types that spoke to permanency and stability as well as a stone arch, even if stone construction was very costly. The iron truss bridge in the background of this picture on the post card was abandoned by the railroad in 1910. It was then transferred to the City of Wilmington, which converted the bridge for use by pedestrians and motorized vehicles. Today, the railroad bridge is owned by CSX.

The post card was published by a company from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This may account for the interest in the historical aspect rather than the railroad aspect of the scene. The company, the Post Card Distributing Company, existed from 1911 to 1919. They have a great logo – see the picture of the statue of William Penn on top of City Hall in the top middle of the post card back. The post card was printed by Curt Otto Teich. His numbering system (to the right of the statue, above the word POST) suggests that this card was printed in 1917; probably early 1917, since the post rate went from one cent to two cents on November 2, 1917 and the rate for this card is one cent.

Let's Go to New Jersey

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey a distance of about 400 miles. Incorporated in 1853,

the D. L. & W. was profitable during the first two decades of the twentieth century, but its margins were gradually hurt by declining traffic in coal, competition from trucks, and high New Jersey state taxes. In 1960, the D. L. & W. merged with rival Erie Railroad to form the Erie Lackawanna Railroad.

The train that we see on the front of this post card is from the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad while it was still going strong. The tracks going across the bridge are of the standard gauge size, as one would expect. However, it wasn't always this way. On March 15, 1876, D. L. & W. converted its line to standard gauge from 6-foot gauge.

If I have found the proper bridge on the internet (Bridgehunter.com), this one was built in 1903. It is of the Deck Truss Swing design. Its longest span is 221 feet and the total length is 870 feet and the deck is 30 feet wide.

The post card is an early example of the Divided Back Era post card. You can see that the address is on the right-hand side and there is a message to Andrew Robbins on the left-hand side. It confirms that the bridge was used for passenger service, as shown in the picture. The message reads, "I suppose you have been over this bridge many times. This is out back of where I board about 1/4 mile." It was mailed 6 months after the law came into effect that allowed people to write something other than the address on the back of the post cards.

The post card was manufactured in Germany for the Illustrated Postal Card Company from across the Hudson River in New York City. I have scanned their logo and the information on the post card that tells us who they are. This major publisher produced a wide variety of color halftone lithographic cards in series that were printed by Emil Pinkau in Leipzig, Saxony. Each city or location of their color card sets were assigned the same number prefix. They also published an unnumbered series of chromolithographic fine art cards that were printed in Dresden. Many of their early cards do not have their name on them, only their distinct eagle logo. This one happens to have both.