VIDEO: What to Expect if You Were a Tourist Visiting NYC in the 1940s
Welcome to the “city of romance and excitement” in a time “where all roads lead to Gotham.”
This fascinating film produced by the city’s PR arm back in the ’40s is a total time warp that will transport you to the better days when everyone enjoyed travel by train, dapper suits were daily uniforms, and the New York skyline was downright demure with just the Empire State Building and Chrysler piercing the sky. Though all the landmarks featured are ones you’d expect to see (Grand Central, the Top of the Rock, The Statue of Liberty) and don’t appear all that much different than they do now (kids were bathing in Washington Square Park’s fountain back then too), a number of the shots and commentary provided by the film’s narrator really highlight how much our city has changed (imagine a harbor full of Titanic-like ocean liners and no 432 Park). Watch the 22-minute video ahead.
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