For years now it’s been a familiar experience searching for historic bridge postcards in whatever city or state we alight at. While in San Francisco Bay Area we will be visiting and photographing San Francisco’s most famous bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge. We will also search through local antique stores for postcards of less well-known historic bridges that may still be in service in the area. We found a few postcards at Antiques on Second in Napa and at Yesteryears Marketplace in Vallejo. Our first postcard discovery was of Stone Bridge across Napa River at St. Helena, postmarked Aug. 12, Chiles, Cal. This postcard may have originated from Chiles Valley, California; it was published by Mitchell’s Bazaar, St. Helena, California, and mailed to Oakland, California, circa 1911. While my postcard search is primarily for historic metal truss bridges, I will occasionally purchase other interesting bridge cards, provided they have a legible message on the reverse side and cost less than five dollars. St. Helena’s Stone Bridge we discovered was still in service. We decided to visit and photograph the bridge, located on Pope Street spanning the Napa River in St. Helena just off Silverado Trail.
