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December 1941. "Elevated train structure and buildings -- Lower Manhattan." Medium format negative by Arthur Rothstein. View full size.
On http://dinosnycpics.com/?page_id=48 is a color photo from more or less the same spot taken just about 6 months earlier by a photographer called Charles W. Cushman.
The http://dinosnycpics.com/ site gives a comprehensive then-and-now (where "now" is about 2008-2010) of Cushman's photos of NYC taken in the 1940s and 1960s.
And a sad comparison it is.
The photographer has caught the various forms of locomotion in Manhattan at that time--autos, trucks of many descriptions, a bus, a train and people walking--in a wonderfully composed photo where they all seem to be converging. Today he'd have to include bicycles and skateboards I suppose.
The hustle and bustle with a great skyline, I expect to hear someone yell "Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird ... It's a plane ... It's -- "
Looks more like an artist's drawing or a stage backdrop than reality. Wonderful.
It still amazes me that New York City had these elevated railroads dominating a number of the main streets like that, even though they had the subways as well.
Below is the same perspective (from the Staten Island Ferry landing up Whitehall Street) in September of 2014.
Ah, looking north on Whitehall Street, East Side El turning right into Water Street. The distinctive 26 Broadway in the distance still stands.
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