Brooklyn Bridge, showing painters (wearing jackets and hats) posing on the bridge suspenders.

Archivist Katie Kirwan discovered this extraordinary photograph among thousands of routine images taken to document the completion of municipal contracts. She believes it depicts a genial crew–one that was likely to have worked on the bridge year round for the City Department of Bridges, Plants and Structures–showing off for the photographer, a fellow municipal employee.

See this image in the Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives exhibit.