Six miles from us is the Des Moines River and stretched across that river is a former railroad bridge. The bridge was dismantled and the steel sold for a large sum of money. The bridge was a 13 story high bridge. Funds were found to rebuild a bike bridge across the concrete piers that were left standing. An art bridge was created and an artist created a decoration that makes you look like you are riding into a coal mine as you cross the bridge. There were many coal mines along the Des Moines River. At night all of these beams are lighted and it is really is a tourist attraction. The bike trail runs over it so we have a lot of bikers in town during the summer.
The frame is an old one given to me for the purpose of mounting this photo of the bridge. The older gentlemen really didn't know the history of the frame but it was in his attic from his wife's family.
I had to repair one corner of it to clean up a worn down corner. It wasn't too hard to fix and above you can see it in disrepair.
Being very interested in history, I took shots of the various writing on the back. I haven't asked the guy if he knew this as a relative or maybe the frame did come from a farm sale bought by his late wife.
The people who framed the original item probably had glass, a photo and cardboard as a backing. There was nothing in the frame when I received it. As practiced still today, paper is placed on the back to keep the dust and bugs out of the picture. You can see that the frame cam from Denver.
Also you can now see that the date was 1918. The use of a newspaper for paper backing was a good way to date the frame job.
The thing that is now a mystery is that the paper headline looks like the Reds beat someone in baseball. I don't know it it is the Cards but it is a short word. I am sure sports buffs could find on the internet somewhere the actually game that was played on April 15, 1918.
I am mentoring the new art instructor today and doing tech work on the side. She needs to spend a day in there to get an understanding of the who, what, when and where of things.
I thank you for stopping by my blog today.
3 comments:
You did a great framing job, Larry. Very interesting about the bridge and even more so about the frame. I'll put John to work on that particular game...he loves looking up trivia like this!
John has had a good time looking up this info:
CIN defeated STL 4-1 @ Crosley Field
starting pitcher - Slim Sailee vs. King Lear
lee Meadows CF STL made his ML debut.
John remembers Crosley Field from his childhood. He says his family would drive by going from MI to FL and from the expressway, they could look down on to the field and occasionally see a play!
The art bridge is awesome and I love the frame. What a lovely old piece.
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