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The Big Apple

Then and Now Photos


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Between 1876 and 1882, the Statue of Liberty arm was in Madison Square Park for fund-raising to complete the Statue. Anyone could pay 50 cents to climb to the torch balcony.


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Thousands gather at the Subtreasury Building on Wall Street during Armistice Day, 1918.


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West side of Broadway at 46th Street, on Times Square in Manhattan, looking south.


Snow-covered train tracks, rooftops and arches of the Brooklyn Bridge seen from the rear of a train during the Blizzard of 1888.


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Workers on the suspension cables of the Brooklyn Bridge during construction.


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The Casino Theatre, Broadway and 39th Street, Manhattan. TheKnickerbocker Theatre is to its right.


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Charlie Chaplin stands on Douglas Fairbanks' shoulders during a Liberty bonds rally. They are at the foot of George Washington’s statue in front of the Sub-Treasury (now Federal Hall National Memorial).


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FDNY fireboat Abram S. Hewitt passes under the Brooklyn Bridge in 1903.


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Nespaper illustration depicting the crowds on Wall Street on the morning of May 14 during the Panic of 1884.


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The Franconi Hippodrome once occupied the entire west blockfront of Fifth Avenue from 23rd Street to 24th Street.


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The Fifth Avenue Coach at Madison Square Park in front of the statue of William H. Seward, New York 1900.


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The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Ellis (DD-154) passing under the Brooklyn Bridge, New York City. Ellis was in commission for three periods: 7 June 1919 to 17 June 1922, 1 May 1930 to 16 December 1936, and 16 October 1939 to 31 October 1945.


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Located on site of NYPL now English: Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue near the Croton Reservoir, New York 1897 "


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Another shot of the Easter Parade with the famous Vanderbilt House in the background.


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Hammerstein's Olympia entertainment complex, east side of Longacre (Times) Square, 44th Street to 45th Street


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A series of images chronicling the construction of the Flatiron Building, from the New York Times photo archive, credited to the Library of Congress - cropped


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Hotel Astor (largest building); to its right, Astor Theatre on the northwest corner of Broadway and 45th Street; to its right, the Gaiety Building.


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Manhattan Bridge Tower in Brooklyn, framed by nearby buildings.


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Color bearers of the famous 369th [African American] regiment at beginning of parade.


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The statue of Nathan hale, City Hall Square. A patriot of 1917 becoming imbued with the patriotism of the Revolutionary hero who, upon being led forth to die, voiced the inspiring regret that he had but one life to lose for his country.


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George Bellows famous painting of the hustle and bustle of New York City done in Madison Square Park.


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Times Square illuminated at night in 1921, subway station visible in foreground.


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Joseph Petrocelli (American, died 1928). The Curb Market - New York, 1920.


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"United Nations" exhibition of photographs presented by the United States Office of War Information (OWI) on Rockefeller Plaza. Flags of all the United Nations flying at one end. Spectators are watching ice skating


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"United Nations" exhibition of photographs presented by the United States Office of War Information (OWI) on Rockefeller Plaza. Listening to broadcasts of President Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, and Chiang Kai-Chek, heard every half-hour from a loudspeaker at one end of the frame containing the Atlantic charter


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Looking south down Broadway in Times Square; view is foreshortened. At left, the site of the future Loew's State Theatre and Loew's Corporation headquarters building. Center, the former Hammerstein's Olympia entertainment complex; the glass-enclosed Jardin de Paris rooftop theatre is visible. A sign announces Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies of 1908, which played there June 15–September 6, 1908. "


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At right is Oscar Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre, under construction on the northwest corner of 42nd Street and 7th Avenue; it opened on March 2, 1899.


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Looking northwest down 42nd Street (left) from Broadway. Right half of the picture is the triangular island between Broadway and 7th Avenue, where One Times Square now stands, which replaced the Pabst Building, a nine-story hotel and restaurant begun in October 1898 and completed a year later.


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On the left, the former Hammerstein's Olympia entertainment complex, part of which became the New York Theatre (name visible). In the distance is the back of the Pabst Hotel, partly blocked by four-story buildings which share its block. The Hotel Cadillac on the northeast corner of 43rd Street is in the middle distance.


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"Evacuation day" and Washington's triumphal entry in New York City, Nov. 25th, 1783, building on left appears to be Saint Paul's.


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"New York City celebrating the surrender of Japan. They threw anything and kissed anybody in Times Square."