Aerial Views Archives - Page 3 of 6

The Oxbow from Mount Holyoke, Hadley Mass

June 22, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The view looking southwest from the Mount Holyoke Summit House around 1900. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The scene in 2015:

This scene from the summit of Mount Holyoke was made famous in 1836 when artist Thomas Cole painted “View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm,” a work also known as “The Oxbow” because of the prominent meander in the river. Cole’s depiction of the scene is below:

The top of Mount Holyoke has long been a sightseeing destination, starting even before Cole’s 1830s visit. In 1821, a small cabin was built at the summit, which was replaced in 1851 by a much larger hotel, which still stands today. The 2015 photo, and presumably the 1900 photo, were both taken from the porch that surrounds the building, and they reveal some of the changes that have occurred in the landscape over the past 115 years. However, probably the most obvious change here occurred long before the first photo was taken, and not long after Thomas Cole painted his famous work. In 1840, a flood broke through the narrow neck, giving the Connecticut River a more direct route downstream and turning the former riverbed into a lake. It also made travel easier; traffic no longer had to follow the meandering river, and the 1900 scene shows the railroad tracks that had been built across what was once the river. Today, Route 5 parallels the railroad tracks, and Interstate 91 crosses the Oxbow just a little further to the west.

When the 1900 photo was taken, the Oxbow played an important role in river commerce as a holding place for logs that were floated downstream. Each spring in the late 1800s and early 1900s, logs from upstream in Vermont and New Hampshire would be floated down the river to the paper mills in Holyoke. Since it is just a short distance upstream of Holyoke, the Oxbow made for a convenient holding place away from the main channel of the river. The last such log drive occurred in 1915, and since then it has been used primarily for pleasure boats, with the Oxbow Marina located on the inside of the curve. There are no dams between Holyoke to the south and Turners Falls to the north, so this section is one of the busiest on the Connecticut River for recreational boating.

Looking North From The Empire State Building

April 9, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The view looking north toward Central Park from the Empire State Building on September 11, 1933. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, Gottscho-Schleisner Collection.

The view in 2011:

When the Empire State Building was completed in 1931, it stood far above any of its Midtown neighbors. However, in the past 80 years the other buildings between the Empire State Building and Central Park have begun creeping upward. The Empire State Building was still the tallest when the 2011 photo was taken, but the skyscrapers are noticeably taller. The Rockefeller Center, which blocks out part of the view of Central Park in the 1933 photo, stands out in the first photo, but now the 70-story building seems to blend in with its surroundings. Today, the Empire State Building is no longer the tallest in the city, or even in Midtown – it has since been displaced by 432 Park Avenue, with two even taller residential skyscrapers on West 57th Street in the works.

Looking South From the Empire State Building

April 9, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The view looking south from the Empire State Building around 1931. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The view in 2011:

For all of the changes that have taken place in New York City over the past 80 years, these two photos really don’t look all that different. The buildings in lower Manhattan have certainly become taller, but even many of the skyscrapers from the 1931 photo are still there. In the center foreground, many of the buildings along Fifth Avenue are still there, including the Flatiron Building, which was old even when the first photo was taken. The Statue of Liberty is still there on the right in the distance, although the far left side has one major change: the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island. Both views give an idea of the massive scale of the Empire State Building; the first was taken around the time the building was completed, and it towered over everything else in Midtown – even the 21-story Flatiron Building looks diminutive when viewed from here. When the second photo was taken in 2011, the Empire State Building was still the tallest in the city, although it had been surpassed by both World Trade Center towers from 1972 to 2001, and in 2013 it would again be surpassed by the new World Trade Center building, which is visible under construction in this 2011 view.

Empire State Building (6)

January 23, 2016January 2, 2014 by Derek Strahan

The view of the upper east side of Manhattan from the top of the Empire State Building in 1932. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Gottscho-Schleisner Collection.

The same view in 2011:

Quite a lot has changed in the Manhattan skyline since 1932 – the two photos show the contrast between the early 20th century skyscrapers, which were mandated to have step-like setbacks, and the sleek, box-like modern skyscrapers of 2011. However, many of the old skyscrapers survive today, especially in the foreground. The most prominent in the 1932 picture, the Chrysler Building, is still easily seen from the Empire State Building today, although today it is more its distinctive spire, rather than its height alone, that sets it apart from the rest.

Empire State Building (5)

January 23, 2016January 2, 2014 by Derek Strahan

The view looking west from the Empire State Building in 1951. Photo courtesy of New York Public Library.

The scene in 2011:

There hasn’t been an incredible amount of change in the past 60 years in this small wedge of Manhattan, but one notable building that no longer exists is Penn Station, seen in the upper left of the 1951 photo. The above-ground part of the historic station was demolished in 1963 and replaced with Madison Square Garden, which is barely visible in the 2011 photo – the round building immediately to the left of the tall black skyscraper.

Empire State Building (4)

January 23, 2016January 2, 2014 by Derek Strahan

A worker atop the Empire State Building in 1931. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

The view in 2011:

Probably the most famous photo of the construction of the Empire State Building (and not to be confused with the staged photo of construction workers eating lunch on a beam atop the Rockefeller Center), one of the most dramatic elements of this photo is the contrast between the old worker and the new progress of the Empire State Building. Also interesting about it is the Chrysler Building, which had previously been the tallest building in the world, now looking small and insignificant in the shadow of the new title holder.