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Something Wonderful: 1911 – A Trip Through New York City

by Vanderleun on April 21, 2018

Cars and streetcars and horses, oh my.

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Hale Adams April 21, 2018, 5:17 PM

Probably the last good year in the lives of our grandparents, before it all went *SMASH* in August, 1914.

Hale Adams
Pikesville, People’s still-mostly-Democratic Republic of Maryland

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Andy Texan April 21, 2018, 8:29 PM

Eerie. They don’t seem all that different from us.

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Clifford April 22, 2018, 2:50 AM

What America looked like the year we adopted the M1911 .45 pistol. Think about that.

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Teri Pittman April 22, 2018, 9:49 AM

Wouldn’t you like to see those same areas filmed today in those locations? I’d do it in black and white with a sound track. The contrast would be stunning.

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AmazingAZ April 22, 2018, 5:52 PM

Wonderful, thanks for sharing!

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Gringo April 23, 2018, 8:37 AM

Teri Pittman April 22, 2018, 9:49 AM
Wouldn’t you like to see those same areas filmed today in those locations? I’d do it in black and white with a sound track. The contrast would be stunning.

Not necessarily. The transport was different. In addition to horses and streetcars, traffic was lighter due to there being fewer cars. The elevated subways in Manhattan have, for the most part, been put underground.

But there was a lot of continuity in the buildings. The triangular flatiron building @ 23rd and Broadway is still there- though there has been a lot of adjacent construction since then. I have been visiting cousins on the Lower East Side for decades, where there has been little or no new construction for a century. The last time I visited the Lower East Side, I was very surprised to see some construction.

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Daniel K Day April 23, 2018, 8:55 PM

@Andy Texan: They’re not that different, but boy howdy, there weren’t nearly as many overweight people in that video as we would see now, were there?

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