Wheeling Suspension Bridge looking toward Wheeling Island, Wheeling, West Virginia, circa 1935

About this postcard

The card shows the great wire-cable span of the Wheeling Suspension Bridge crossing the Ohio River, its deck receding toward the low, house-dotted rise of Wheeling Island, with a red truck in the near foreground and wooded hills beyond. Completed in 1849 to designs by Charles Ellet, Jr., the bridge was then the longest suspension bridge in the world and remains the oldest major suspension bridge still carrying traffic. The linen-era coloring and the Teich-style number suggest a 1930s printing, when the structure was already a celebrated local landmark.