Friday, June 4, 2010

New York City Skyscrapers, III

While these postcards from the 1915 "New York City Skyscrapers Souvenir Folder" don't focus on any particular skyscraper, they do feature well-known intersections surrounded by skyscrapers.  In the upper left corner, Wall Street, looking pretty much the same today, with the exception of the cars and the clothes.  In the upper right corner, Herald Square,  known primarily by most non-New Yorkers from the line in the song Give My Regards to Broadway where the singer asks "remember me to Herald Square".  The flagship Macy's Store is also located here.  Next up, lower left, the intersection of 5th Avenue & 42nd Street, dead center of one of the most expensive shopping areas in the world and the location of the New York Public Library.  Finally, in the lower right, Times Square, nicknamed the "intersection of the world".  and well-known for the New Year's Eve midnight countdown and ball drop, the theater district, and its seedy past. Around the time of this picture, it became the eastern end of the Lincoln Highway, conceived  in 1913 as the first automobile road across the United States, starting from 5th & Broadway (part of Times Square) and ending in Lincoln Park, San Francisco, 3,389 miles away.  The route has been streamlined over the years, and is now 3,142 miles long.   [Road Trip Bucket List!]

P.S.  It's Flag Day and Postcard Friendship Friday.  Check out the posting (as well as the other postcard people's postings) for an interesting history of Flag Day.   

9 comments:

  1. Mary,
    These are really wonderful. I'm so glad you posted them. They have all the best qualities a postcard can have, and it's like a window in history. I especially like the Herald Square one.

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  2. absolutely wonderful postcards and i just love how you stacked them on the page in two columns - it seems to echo the idea of skyscrapers! happy PFF!

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  3. What a fabulous post! When we visited New York, I was astounded by the gorgeous postcards from years gone by.

    Happy PFF!

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  4. Love these cards...I've always wanted to visit NYC.

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  5. Interesting views, especially Herald Square.

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  6. Ah, these are beauties. Never tire of looking at those old street scenes. Love the old double-decker buses. Happy PFF.

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  7. I like the atmospheric view of Times Square, but they're all interesting to me.

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  8. Nice skyscraped post. :)

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