Olden NYC

Genesis of a icon: In this 5 June 1908 photo, the Manhattan Bridge is less than a shell, seen from Washington Street. It wouldn't be opened for another 18 months and wouldn't be completed for another 4 years.

exactly same place in the 1970s... only 70 years later. 

New York City in 1895.

Subway car on 6th Avenue Elevated railroad train southbound at 34th St.-Herald Square station during the strike at the New York Railway Company in September 1916.

on top of The New York Times building on a Sunday in 1940.

Saint Anthony's faithful attend 1942 Christmas Midnight Mass. 

up in Saint Anthony's balcony on 1942 Chritmas Eve.

St. Anthony of Padua's Church (built in 1866) on Sullivan corner Houston  on Xmas eve 1942.

Moment in history: the newspaper headline in this 18 May 1940 photo reads: 'Nazi Army Now 75 Miles From Paris.' It shows the corner of Sixth Avenue and 40th Street in Manhattan.

The Third Avenue elevated train rumbles across lower Manhattan. City Hall can be seen in the background.

Hester Street in 1898. 

Hester Street in 1903 (5 years later).

Workers dig in Delancy Street on New York's Lower East Side on 29 July 1908.

Mulberry Street circa 1900.

The Great Bambino: on 30 September 1936, a man hands a program to baseball legend Babe Ruth, center, as he is joined by his 2nd wife Clare, center left, and singer Kate Smith, front left, in the grandstand during Game One of the 1936 World Series at the Polo Grounds in New York.

Mercury Streamliner, 1936.

Plaza Hotel on 5th Avenue & 54th Steet in 1905.

Singer Building aka Singer Tower on Broadway corner Liberty Street; with a height of 187 meters it was the tallest building in the world from 1908 to 1909, when it was surpassed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower. Despite being regarded as a city icon, the Singer Building was razed between 1967 and 1969 to make way for One Liberty Plaza

LZ 129 Hinderburg over Manhattan in May 1937. The Hinderburg exploded on May 6, as it attempted to dock at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in southern New Jersey. 36 people died - 13 passengers, 22 crew members and one person working on the ground - in what became known as the Hindenburg Disaster. Here the Hinderburg sails over Brooklyn before heading south to its horrible fate in N.J.

Lüchow's was a restaurant at 110 East 14th Street at Irving Place in East Village (near Union Square). It was established in 1882 – at a time when the surrounding neighborhood was primarily residential – when a German immigrant, August Guido Lüchow, purchased the cafe where he worked as a bartender and waiter. Lüchow's becoming a favorite establishment for people in the entertainment world, helped by its proximity to the Academy of Music, the city's opera house, as well as Steinway Hall and Tammany Hall. This photo was taken some time in the fall of 1938, as MGM's 'Port of Seven Seas' was released on 1st July 1938.