New York is pretty ancient and constantly in flux, which means lots of buildings that once existed are long gone or amazingly, still there, but surrounded by ugly new stuff, like badly-designed condo complexes or skyscrapers for the rich. Thanks to a partnership between software engineer Dan Vanderkam and the New York Public Library, anyone can click points on a map of the city and see “OldNYC,” the namesake of the project.
(The caption on this photo reads: “S. Railroad Avenue, north from Fremont Avenue, showing the Grant City Station of the Staten Island Railroad. On the extreme left is North Railroad Avenue. May 26, 1935.”)
The images were sourced from the NYPL’s Milstein Collection, a historical treasure trove that boasts over 80,000 “photographic views of New York City” from the 1870’s to 1970’s that are so good, even Staten Island looks interesting.
