The Delightful Federal Street Bridge 1906 - Camden NJ - A Technological Wonder - Was Derelict - Now Restored - The City Beautiful Movement
Regular price
$35.00
Sale
Print size 24 x 16, and consciously formatted to work with a 24 x 16 frame, or custom framed as you see fit. For further easy, inexpensive framing options, please feel free to contact us.
THE FEDERAL STREET BRIDGE, Camden, New Jersey.
I love to sing the praises of a job well done. How many times do we read about a billion dollar hospital in Afghanistan or a billion dollar water treatment in Iraq built with our tax money that aren't worth, as I once heard Myrtle Love yell around 1970 or so "a pound o' cold piss"? Useless. Worthless. An infuriating embarrassment ultimately causing more harm than good and contractors, OUR contractors, pocketing the money and walking away, never to be prosecuted? Yet here we have a little bridge in Camden, New Jersey, long neglected and in really rough shape, that people had the vision enough to restore back to its former glory. Now understand, Camden is one of the roughest, poorest neighborhoods in the US, our own little battle zone, the scene of much misery and a gauntlet thrown for those of us who want espouse American exceptionalism. The easy thing to do would have been to just flatten this gem and move on. I'd like this bridge and its successful restoration to be one small reminder to the exceptionalists that being exceptional isn't a state of being. It means a million positive steps forward every day.
I would like to acknowledge and thank, in no small way, the vision and daring it took to make this happen. Thank you, NJDot. and thank you, Agate Construction.
For those of you who're sure you've seen this bridge but just can't figure out where, if you're heading towards the shore on the Admiral Wilson Boulevard, look to your left, roughly across from where the old Sears building just came down. On your way back from the shore? Look to the right just past the bus dealership that always has a bus up on a display ramp. Then get off at the next exit (last exit before toll!) and drive across it. It is worth that 'gee whiz' moment, and becomes something good to share with friends!
Handmade item
- Materials: Art stock enhanced matte paper, archival ink
- Made to order
- Only ships within United States.
SHIPPING
All prints are shipped in a sturdy mailing tube for $8, which covers postage, tube and S & H.
BUYING MORE THAN ONE PRINT? Add a second print or any number thereafter of this or any other prints in our catalog and shipping is still just $8, total!!!
International shipping is available and reasonable. Please contact us for details.
A NOTE ON OUR PROCESS, OUR CHOICES AND THE QUALITY OF THE GRAPHIC CRAFTSMANSHIP THAT GOES INTO OUR PRINTS.
Every print we deem exciting enough to present to the public via our Etsy store or available here at our studio has gone through a number of steps. The first of those is always discovering and falling in love with an obscure image, always an original that we can hold in our hands. That image is speaking to us, sometime screaming “Don’t leave me here. See what I am, what I was, what I can be, what I SHOULD be!”
There is a real sense of excitement involved, and a great many smiles and knowing grins when we make that deal and bring that ancient print, that battered photo, that scrap of ephemera that contains some scrap of genius from an unknown commercial artist home with us, knowing already how we mean to approach its restoration.
There is the heady promise of a further hunt just as real as what drags a weekend fisherman out of bed at 3AM to work a favorite brook as we start our research, looking for that great backstory, and both ready and willing to tumble down as many rabbit holes as are revealed to us to get that story.
Then there is a meticulous digital restoration that is as often as much fun as riding a vintage Moto Guzzi on a winding coastal road. I don’t care if that sounds crazy, it really is like jumping in the saddle! So many choices, so many chances to take to subtly or spectacularly give new life to otherwise permanently obscure images.
This dedication and the ongoing rush of joy in the accomplishment of it, and the opportunity to share the results in our studio and here on Etsy, is the fire of passion that keeps these engines roaring. We make every effort to ensure our customers are not just satisfied but thrilled, and we happily stand 100% behind our work.