18 April 2010

New York City, 1905

New York City circa 1905. "Bridge of Sighs." Named after a similar span in Venice, this covered passage connected the Tombs prison and Manhattan Criminal Courts building. 8x10 dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co.
I just love looking at photographs of cities in the pre-automobile era and imagining what it must have been like to walk down the middle of broad avenues and smell manure rather than exhaust.

Found at Shorpy, where you can search a jumbo-sized version of the photo in vain looking for a morbidly obese person...

1 comment:

  1. "what it must have been like to walk down the middle of broad avenues and smell manure rather than exhaust"

    Don't forget burning coal, wood, garbage,lamp oil and tobacco.

    and as an added aside my great-grandfather used to light the gas street lamps manually every evening for a few blocks back in the good old days.

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