I don’t think I’ve ever seen this view before (another one from the Boston Public Library collection), but it’s a fantastic picture of the Western Gateway Bridge. Sure, my unreasonable love for this bridge may be because it was the first bridge I really knew, and because I was pushed across it in a baby buggy until I could walk, and walked across it until it was demolished. But it could also because it was a structure of beauty and grace, the kind we hardly care about anymore. This excellent view from the northern sidewalk demonstrates just how much of a bend there was in the bridge, which was a crazy design. The current roadway still bends, but not so severely, and with the filling of the Binnekill (which is the water you see in this view), that part of the curve is no longer up in the air. Toward the end of its life, cars frequently went sailing off the bend, and the lovely concrete latticework was held in place with steel cables.
Just left of center is the Van Curler Hotel, now Schenectady County Community College. New buildings at the college mean that you can no longer see the Armory from the bridge.