ComicBook Experience

From the exhibition

Brooklyn Bridge from South Street

John Taylor Arms, American, 1887–1953 · circa 1920

Brooklyn Bridge from South Street
John Taylor Arms's etching captures an urban vista from street level, where monumental architecture frames daily life. The Brooklyn Bridge's cable structure dominates the composition, while lower Manhattan's tenements and warehouses anchor the foreground. A solitary figure appears in the lower left; pedestrians and workers populate the street. Arms employs fine cross-hatching and linear perspective to render architectural detail and atmospheric depth. The print demonstrates the printmaker's fascination with urban geometry—how bridges, buildings, and infrastructure create geometric frameworks that organize both space and human activity. This composition exemplifies early twentieth-century artists' engagement with industrial modernity and the visual drama of the American city.

Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com CC0