Real Photo Post Card - "15 - 303; Aerial View from Hawthorne Bridge - Portland, Oregon"

Original black and white photo postcard. No date, circa 1911-1917. 5 1/2" x 3 1/2." Title printed at the bottom of the image. Imprint of "Sawyer Scenic Photos, Portland" in the lower-right corner of the image. Postcard is unused. Postcard is virtually pristine and intact except for tiny marks on the front and a few small smudges on the back. A Fine copy. This postcard shows a view of Portland, Oregon from the Hawthorne Bridge. Buildings and parked cars are visible with the Willamette River in the foreground. The Hawthorne Bridge spans the Willamette River and is a truss bridge featuring a vertical lift. It is the oldest operational vertical-lift bridge in the United States as well the oldest highway bridge in Portland. It was designed by the engineering company, Waddell & Harrington, and opened to the public in 1910. Notably, John Alexander Low Waddell, of Waddell & Harrington, invented the vertical-lift bridge as it is known today. The Hawthorne Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. Sawyer's was founded by Carleton Sawyer and A. R. Specht in 1914 and was based in Portland, Oregon. The history of Sawyer's goes back to 1911 when Sawyer made his signature "Sawyer's Scenic Photos," which were produced until 1917. Sawyer's began as a photo-finishing company but eventually expanded its services and products to include slides and slide projectors, View-Master reels and viewers, postcards, and greeting cards. Sawyer's enjoyed much success and profited greatly from its lineup of the innovative 3D stereoscopic viewer, the View-Master, postcards, and greeting cards. During the 1920s, Sawyer's was the most prominent producer of postcards in the United States. During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Sawyer's most profitable line shifted from postcards to View-Master products after the View-Master viewer debuted in 1939 at the New York World's Fair. Sawyer's remained in business until 1966 when it was acquired by the General Aniline & Film Corporation (GAF).…