Community Chat

[haddon9]

Fascinating!  It's fun to see how everyone dressed back then.  All wore hats and suits.  Women wore long dresses and gloves even in the summer.  Interesting to see the early automobiles and most used carriages with horses....I can imagine the mess on the streets!

I love how they gave it a bit of color and natural street sounds to give it life and make it feel real.

[Deree]

@fthunt   Of course, I recognized a lot of those buildings in the clip, but was also curious about the answer to your question.  Apparently there was a wave of tall building construction in the first decade of the 20th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_skyscrapers

[songbird]

I saw something similar but the year was 1898 in Russia.  Fascinating noon traffic with horses/wagons etc.  Men dressed in black frock coats with boots.  Women in long ankle length skirts with head scarves.  All the men seemed to be together.  Only one couple in a horse drawn buggy.  Some of the men were clean shaved.  Most had beards.

All the people looked in to the camera too!  They must not have seen it before.  

[Snoopp]

That was great.  Thanks for sharing.

[bmorechick]

That's amazing...loved it. My grandma came to Ellis Island from Bremin Germany in 1910 aboard the Prinzess Alice. She was 11. It's amazing to see that's what she saw. Didn't speak a word of English!  Spoke with a heavy accent until her death at 100. She said "english too hard to learn."   Thanks for that link!

[spiderw]

I have seen this video before and enjoyed seeing it again! It was a lovely fascinating trip through a place I have spent so much time at in my teens up to my sixties, Manhattan and boroughs.  I lived across the river in a city so traveling to Manhattan was such a quick trip by bus or car and always exciting.  In my teens I dreamed of living in the village!!!!

This video showed NY to be just as active and filled with much to see as it still is. I loved the fashions and seeing the motor cars in their early stages, the people strolling along.  

What a great piece of NY history!!!!!  I am still close by and in time I will be making a day trip there, it has been and is a part of me!  Thanks for the video !!!!!

[PreKteacher]

The hats!!!! I wish we still wore hats. 

[shoesnbags]

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing @Oznell .

[roeroe1005]

Thank you for sharing this video with us, Oznell!  I loved it.  

[vsm]

I think what makes these long-gone folks so "present" to us is the fact that all their movements (walking, gesturing, etc.) occur at a normal and natural pace, and their faces and facial expressions are so visible.  In other films from the era, movement is herky-jerky and therefore not true-to-life.  I was enthralled by this -- thanks so much, @Oznell !