NEW YORK SKYLINE NOW AND FIFTY YEARS AGO
Nearly half a century lies between the two views of New York City’s skyline shown in the pictures above. The two photographs were taken from the same point — a tower of the famous Brooklyn Bridge. The upper one was made only the other day and the lower one is over forty-seven years old.
Architects, engineers, and modern machinery seem literally to have raised Manhattan Island out of the waters surrounding it. In the lower view, Brooklyn Bridge, opened in 1883, was just being built. Note how the buildings at that time seemed to crouch low on the island, only here and there an occasional church, spire throwing itself defiantly skyward.
In the upper view the buildings have fairly freed themselves from the land and apparently have become decidedly air-minded. In the immediate foreground is the office building at 120 Wall Street. Looming gigantic behind it is the Bank of Manhattan Company building, and far to the right of it appears the famous Woolworth Tower.
Still farther to the right, and beyond the Manhattan end of Brooklyn Bridge, is the Municipal Building. Note how the present height of the buildings almost completely obscures the distant west shore of the Hudson River, which in the lower picture is plainly visible across Manhattan.
December 1930, Popular Science