Richard Russo’s fictional Thomaston, New York, is a quintessential town of the American “Rust Belt,” a region of formerly prosperous industrial centers in the Northeast and Midwest that experienced severe economic decline in the latter half of the 20th century. Following World War II, increased global competition and deindustrialization led to widespread factory closures. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York State, between 1969 and 1999, the New York-New Jersey region lost over half of its manufacturing jobs, devastating communities built around single industries (Bram, Jason and Michael Anderson. “Declining Manufacturing in the New York-New Jersey Region: 1969-1999.” Current Issues in Economics and Finance. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 2001). This decline created a landscape of unemployment, population loss, and decaying infrastructure. In Bridge of Sighs, this reality is embodied by the old tannery, which once sustained the town but now poisons it both literally and economically. The narrator, Lucy Lynch, captures this paradox: “Can it be that what provides for us is the very thing that poisons us?” (11).

This economic precarity entrenches the town’s rigid social stratification, which Lucy describes as being “divided into three parts” (11): the lower-income, industrial West End; the lower-middle-class East End; and the wealthy, insular Borough. This dynamic mirrors the real-world decline of cities like Gloversville, New York, Russo’s hometown, which was once the “Glove Capital of the World” but saw its industry and population collapse. Once producing nearly 90% of all dress gloves sold in the United States, Gloversville experienced a steep economic decline in the mid-20th century, a fate shared by many single-industry towns in the Northeast. This firsthand experience with economic decay and its impact on working-class families provides the foundational material for much of Russo’s fiction. His novels, including Bridge of Sighs, consistently explore the lives of characters who remain in these struggling communities, grappling with diminished opportunities and a powerful, often burdensome, connection to their past. Thomaston’s social hierarchy, shaped by economic desperation, creates the deep-seated class consciousness and resentment that drive the novel’s characters and their choices.