[The Weekly Puck] Bridge of Love

[progbear]

The Grand Opening March Over the Brooklyn Bridge

by Frederick Opper (1883)



The LOC says:

Illustration shows a large procession crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, at the front, dressed as policeman with nightsticks, are several newspaper editors, among them are James Gordon Bennett, Oswald Ottendorfer, Whitelaw Reid, Murat Halstead, Joseph Pulitzer, Charles A. Dana, and Carl Schurz. Puck follows at center on a white horse, with a group of dandies on the right, one labeled "Freddie", and a group of "Political Tramps" on the left, including George M. Robeson, Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas C. Platt, James G. Blaine, and Roscoe Conkling. John Kelly is at the lead of the "Tammany Heelers", followed by Hubert O. Thompson with the "New York Street Cleaning Department", behind them comes "Puck's Monopoly Target Company" with Russell Sage, William H. Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, and Cyrus W. Field. On the left is a masonic group labeled "F. & A.M." carrying a goat on a pedestal. Beneath the bridge is a boat labeled "The Dynamiter" filled with angry anachrists [sic].

Lazy Curator™ sez: No real corrections* (apart from the typo at the end) to the LOC’s blurb; it’s pretty comprehensive and I’m fairly impressed (they even identified Oswald Ottendorfer correctly, something I failed to do the first time with this image).

In lieu of the usual Christmas-related image, I instead opted to post an image featuring Weekly Puck Breakout Superstar Hubert O. Thompson, also [belated] birthday boy! So enjoy, and Merry Christmas to all!

*EDIT: I take it back. I am not seeing Murat Halstead here anywhere (so I’m removing his tag. AND I am removing his favorite record from the jukebox: “It’s Raining Men”!), but I do spot an un-identified George Jones (NOT the country singer!) in between Messrs. Pulitzer and Reid.