History never looked so good. The New York City Department of Records recently unveiled a massive online archive of over 800,000 scanned pictures. Here are but a few.
In this Oct. 7, 1914 photo provided by the New York City Municipal Archives, painters are suspended from wires on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Over 870,000 photos from an archive that exceeds 2.2 million images have been scanned and made available online, for the first time giving a global audience a view of a rich collection that documents life in New York City.
(AP / New York City Municipal Archives, Department of Bridges/Plant & Structures, Eugene de Salignac)
In this September 30, 1936 photo, baseball legend Babe Ruth, center, is joined by his second wife Clare, center left, and singer Kate Smith, front left, in the grandstand during Game 1 of the 1936 World Series at the Polo Grounds in New York.
(AP / New York City Municipal Archives, WPA Federal Writers' Project)
In this circa 1890 photo, a pair of girls walk east along 42nd Street in New York. Acker, Merrall and Condit wine shop delivery wagons are on the right and the C.C. Shayne Furrier sign can be seen on the roof overhead.
(AP / New York City Municipal Archives, DeGregario Collection (New York Camera Club))
In this May 18, 1940 photo, a man reads a newspaper on New York's 6th Ave. and 40th St, with the headline: “Nazi Army Now 75 Miles From Paris."
(AP / New York City Municipal Archives, Borough President Manhattan)