Billy Joel
America: A Tribute To Heroes
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]I woke up thinking about this song for some reason. Maybe it was because I was looking at Michele’s photos last night, or because I was looking at my own, or maybe because I’m simply impatient to hop on a plane and get far away from here. In any case, I’m in a New York State of Mind.
I’m on my way to Manhattan, but before I leave I want to show you this magnificent group of people. Thanks for making me feel welcome, guys.
Look at what my lovely friend Lila sent me! Now I won’t look so touristy trying to figure out New York City’s subway. (The I♥NY t-shirt and the Statue of Liberty foam hat might still be a dead giveaway, though.)
River House, 52nd Street and East River. Cloud study, noon, looking south from 27th floor. By Samuel H. Gottscho, December 15th, 1931. (Via but does it float.)
View from Empire State Building to Chrysler Building and Queensboro Bridge, low viewpoint, by Samuel H. Gottscho, January 19th, 1932. This is what it looks like today.
New York City views, looking north from the Empire State Building, by Brady O’Halloran, September 10th, 2006. Check out the embiggened version, and the same view 73 years earlier.
New York City views, looking north from the Empire State Building, by Samuel H. Gottscho, September 11th, 1933. Check out the embiggened version, and the same view 73 years later.
Flatiron Building, by Irving Underhill, 1910.
New York. December 5, 1933. “Rockefeller Center and RCA Building from 515 Madison Avenue.” Digital image recovered from released emulsion layer of the original 5x7 acetate negative. Photo by Samuel H. Gottscho. View full size.
Penn Station, from the New York Public Library.
From Berenice Abbott’s Changing New York:
Photographer Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) proposed Changing New York, her grand project to document New York City, to the Federal Art Project (FAP) in 1935. The FAP was a Depression-era government program for unemployed artists and workers in related fields such as advertising, graphic design, illustration, photofinishing, and publishing.
Abbott’s efforts resulted in a book in 1939, in advance of the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadow NY. At the project’s conclusion, the FAP distributed complete sets of Abbott’s images to high schools, libraries and other public institutions in the metropolitan area.
Fulton Street Dock, Manhattan, by Berenice Abbott, from the New York Public Library.
Manhattan Skyline, South Street and Jones Lane, by Berenice Abbott, from the New York Public Library, 1936.
New York skyline, from The Library of Congress, 1913.
If I manage to go to New York next month, I need to visit the New York High Line:
The project consisted in renovating a 1.45 mile-long elevated steel structure built in the 30’s for freight trains, and turning it into a public park with uninterrupted views of the Hudson River and the city skyline.
