Blazing against a cobalt California night, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge stretches westward in a cascade of vapor-sodium gold — its massive twin towers crowned with red warning beacons reflecting in the dark bay below. Stanley A. Piltz's celebrated linen captures the bridge at its most dramatic, and the back tells a wonderful story: Dorothy dashed off a note to her friend Marjorie in Washington, D.C., reporting on a whirlwind California adventure — a week in L.A., ten days in San Francisco, a visit to the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, and a drive "out to see plenty" — before reluctantly leaving for home the next morning. The machine cancel proudly declares GOLDEN GATE INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION 1939, placing this card squarely within one of the most celebrated World's Fairs of the 20th century. Published by the Piltz Company of San Francisco, photo copyright Stanley A. Piltz — one of the most prolific Bay Area postcard photographers of the era.