The Grand Display of Fireworks and Illuminations at the Opening of the Great Suspension Bridge between New York and Brooklyn on the Evening of May 24, 1883. View from New York Looking towards Brooklyn.

Designed by German-born engineer John Augustus Roebling, the great New York and Brooklyn Bridge was constructed between 1869 and 1883. When opened, it provided the only land connection between Manhattan and Brooklyn. As the print's imprinted text indicates, the central span measures 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m), and is suspended from steel-wire cables slung from stone and concrete towers that stand 276.5 ft (25.9 m) over the water. Opening ceremonies on May 24, 1893 included a crossing by President Chester A. Arthur and New York Mayor Franklin Edson marked by celebratory cannon fire, with the pair greeted at the eastern end by Brooklyn Mayor Seth Low. 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed on the first day and other festivities included a fireworks display that night, commemorated here.

The New York firm of Currier & Ives grew from a printing business established by Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888) in 1835. Expansion led, in 1857, to a partnership with James Merritt Ives (1824–1895), who was skilled in accounting and the brother-in-law of Nathaniel Currier's brother Charles. The firm operated until 1907, lithographing over 4,000 subjects for distribution across America and Europe with popular categories including landscape, marines, natural history, genre, caricatures, portraits, history and foreign views. Until the 1880s, images were printed in monochrome, then hand-colored by women who worked for the company. In the latter decades of the nineteenth century, as here, Currier & Ives began to print in color.