Building New York: NYC Archives Offer a Look Into the Past

Have you ever looked at one of New York's majestic bridges and wondered what it looked like during construction? When I think of the 59th Street/Queensboro Bridge, I immediately see it plunging between the towering apartment buildings that embrace it as it eases into Manhattan, the Roosevelt Island Tram lines waiting for the next car of passengers to arrive. What my mind couldn't see was what the city looked like at the edges before these elevated connectors were complete.

With the release of over 870,000 photos, the New York City Municipal Archives provides an exquisite view into the last century of the city's growth: incomplete bridges, streets that were clogged with trollies rather than cabs, pastoral stretches in the sparsely populated outer boroughs, and men at ease on wires high in the sky.

They are mesmerizing (and, at the moment, the Archive site cannot keep up with the user demand!) For now, savor this outstanding preview, courtesy of The Atlantic:

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/04/historic-photos-from-the-nyc-municipal-archives/100286/