New York City has gone through a lot of changes – and now people are getting a the chance to see what the Big Apple looked like more than 100 years ago.
The Museum of Modern Art released surprisingly clear footage of what life was like in New York in 1911.
The video, a part of the museum’s June 2017 collection, was filmed by a team of cameramen with the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern. The cameramen were sent around the world to take photos and videos of well-known places.
The group traveled to Niagara Fall, Paris, Venice and Monte Carlo in addition to New York City.
The Flatiron Building on Fifth Avenue in 1911 is on the left and the building currently is on the right
The Museum of Modern Art released surprisingly clear footage of what life was like in New York in 1911
The video, a part of the museum’s June 2017 collection, was filmed by a team of cameramen with the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern
What public transportation looked like in New York in 1911 on the left versus what it looks like now on the right
The cameramen were sent around the world to take photos and videos of well-known places. The group traveled to Niagara Fall, Paris, Venice and Monte Carlo in addition to New York City
The above slide shows what the New York Harbor looked in 1911 on the left versus what it looks like now on the right
‘Produced only three years before the outbreak of World War I, the everyday life of the city recorded here – street traffic, people going about their business – has a casual, almost pastoral quality,’ the museum wrote.
YouTuber Guy Jones recently edited the footage to slow it down to a natural rate and add sounds for ambiance.
While in New York, the team with Svenska Biografteatern shot video of the Statue of Liberty, Battery Park, the New York Harbor and the famous Flatiron Building on Fifth Avenue.
Some of the landmarks – like the Statue of Liberty – look very much similar to how it was in 1911. Other areas have changed drastically over the past century.
At one point in the video, a boat is seen arriving at the Harbor with the Statue of Liberty in the background.
The Harbor has become a tourist attraction and is still used today for tourist boats and ferries.
Fifth Avenue in 1911 wasn’t as busy as it is now. People back then weren’t always in a hurry and dressed up in suits. Now, Fifth Avenue is a major tourist attraction and shopping destination.
The Brooklyn Bridge has also gone through a lot of changes in the past 100 years. When the video was filmed in 1911, the bridge had a lot of space for commuters crossing the bridge.
New York Herald Building in 1911 on the left is now gone. On the right shows what the area, called Herald Square, looks like now
YouTuber Guy Jones recently edited the footage to slow it down to a natural rate and add sounds for ambiance
The John Ericsson statue in Battery Park in 1911 on the left versus a current picture of the Battery Park statue on the right
This is what the Brooklyn Bridge looked like in 1911. The bridge now has less space than it did back then
The bridge now has about half the space for those walking across the bridge.
Herald Square in 1911 and Herald Square in 2018 have very few similarities. In the film, the New York Herald Building is seen but the building no longer exists. The area is still known as Herald Square, but it’s now full of restaurants and shopping stores.
The John Ericsson statue in Battery Park also makes an appearance in the video. The statue, in honor of the American-Swedish inventor and engineer, looks almost identical now than it did back then.
The famous Flatiron Building, known for its odd shape, also looks almost exactly like it did in the 1900s.