1940s NYC Street View

[tom mann]

This is lovely:

https://1940s.nyc/map?fbclid=IwAR0qXVzE4_S1qvIkFgqeAm1pfCDOVENg2qXBenHUHrCvpu4fsPxzlGNJw4E#13.69/40.87403/-73.92449

[nkalanaga]

And, clicking on the link gets me a completely blank page.  Even the source code takes less than half a a page, and has no visible photo files in it.

[DKS]

Holy mackerel! How long did it take to assemble that? I don't think any single person could live long enough to look at every photo! I could spend the rest of my days exploring it. Just astounding.

Edit: Ah, I see, a Mr. Julian Boilen wrote software to do the work. There are some places on the map that the software couldn't handle right. It's still astounding.

https://julianboilen.com/

[DKS]

And, clicking on the link gets me a completely blank page.  Even the source code takes less than half a a page, and has no visible photo files in it.

Do you have Javascript turned off? Nothing will happen without it. The page's source code simply runs the scripts--the photos are opened individually by the script.

[PJPickard]

This crashes my older macbook pro every time a photo loads. Moved to pc laptop and its fine, amazing site and could spend hours here.

[Steve Smith]

Very impressive, and just what is wanted for us out-of-country folks to be able to railfan cityscapes   

Steve Smith

[Chris333]

I like how the guy holding up the sign in each photo sometimes ducks out of the way and sometimes just don't care.

[Rasputen]

The title page implies that the images are all from 1939-1941, but I see some late 40s vehicles in some of the street scenes.

Even the out-takes provide hours of enjoyment!

[C855B]

... Even the out-takes provide hours of enjoyment!

I was momentarily puzzled by the black dots on several of these that seemed to imply some manner of censorship, like Google Streets does. Then it dawned on me after several had the identical big black spot in roughly the same place, making no sense in the context of the image: one of the original editors used a paper punch to mark rejected negatives. Fun!

I looked up the building I briefly worked in in the late 1970s - yep, that's how I remember it. Amazing. The façade has been modernized since then.

[thomasjmdavis]

@tom mann  Thanks for posting this!

I was going to ask how to make this work, because all I could see was the map, no matter how much I zoomed in.  Then I put my bifocals on, and could see the little dots.....

This is a great resource.  I know library of Congress also has lots of photos around the rest of the country, but wondering if a similar project was done in other cities, and if so, are they also online?

[MK]

Damn!  Found the building I lived in as a kid in lower Manhattan and the elementary school I attended!   

[nkalanaga]

No, Javascript is on, although my browser objects to it.  Usually, if a page needs it, and it isn't on, the browser asks if I want to activate it.  It then complains about the security risks, but it does activate.

Just to be sure, I went to their apparent home page, https://1940s.nyc/ , which redirects to https://1940s.nyc/map.  It also gives me a blank page.  No error messages, no "unavailable", nothing at all. 

And, I think I found the problem.  Looking at the source code for the home page, it's basically a link to another site, and THAT site is nothing but a bunch of "canvas" scripts.  I believe my browser blocks those, as they were declared a security risk years ago.  Since I can't find WHERE they're blocked, I can't turn the block off, but then, 1940s NYC is out of my era and location anyway.  So I'll live with it.

[Chris333]

Right click and open incognito.

[nkalanaga]

Nope.  "Private Browsing" still gives a blank page. 

[nscalbitz]

This crashes my older macbook pro every time a photo loads. Moved to pc laptop and its fine, amazing site and could spend hours here.

Must be yours, mine (a plain old 2010 model) using Cliq works fine.
And i have a gazillion blocker aids, none of which are automated for this site/ links.

cheers d