Old photos · United States

Old photos of New York

Unlike the European cities here, New York's photographs are mostly old: the 1920s and 1930s are its busiest decades, and fewer than one in five dates from 1955 or later.

32,765 photographs within 10 km of the centre · counted 25 September 2026

Time Portal's archive holds about 33,000 photographs of New York, taken between 1849 and 2000, each pinned to the spot where the photographer stood. 17% of them date from 1955 or later and are free to browse at map.timeportal.app with no account; the older ones open with Pro. The oldest, dated 1849 in the archive, shows the W. Zinsser & Co. varnish works on West 58th Street.

Photographs: 33,000
Oldest: 1849
Busiest decade: 1920s
Free, 1955 on: 17%

Horse-drawn delivery wagons on Longacre Square, New York, in 1900, four years before it was renamed Times Square — Longacre Square — now Times Square — at Broadway and 42nd Street, 1900

How many photographs, decade by decade

The busiest decades for New York are the 1920s and the 1930s — 9,296 and 7,627 photographs. 1,414 were taken before 1900. Everything from 1955 onward is free to open on the map; the older photographs are part of Pro.

Photographs of New York in the Time Portal archive, within 10 km of the centre, by the year each was taken. Counted 25 September 2026.
Decade	Relative size	Photographs
before 1860		30
1860s		59
1870s		145
1880s		292
1890s		888
1900s		2,170
1910s		2,932
1920s		9,296
1930s		7,627
1940s		2,336
1950s		1,611
1960s		1,096
1970s		2,627
1980s		749
1990s		676

Where the photographs were taken

Counted in a small square around each place — about 250 metres each way — so a number is every photograph taken there, of the place itself or of the street beside it. Each place opens the map on that spot.

Place	Photos	Oldest
Times Square	584	1878
The Brooklyn Bridge	117	1873–1877
The Empire State Building	402	1930
Wall Street	390	1864
Grand Central Terminal	426	1870
The World Trade Center	618	1967

What changed

New York in this archive is mostly Manhattan, and mostly the first half of the twentieth century: the city of the elevated railways, the first skyscrapers, and the Longacre Square that became Times Square in 1904. The elevated lines over Sixth and Ninth Avenues came down in 1939 and 1940, and the original Pennsylvania Station was demolished from 1963.

At the south-western tip, the blocks of small electronics shops known as Radio Row were cleared from 1966 for the World Trade Center, whose towers stood from the early 1970s until 11 September 2001.

The Manhattan skyline in haze, seen through the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge walkway in 1950 — The Manhattan skyline from the Brooklyn Bridge, 1950

Excavation and foundations of the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan in 1967 — Building the World Trade Center, 1967

Questions about old photos of New York

Where can I see old photos of New York on a map?

On Time Portal: about 33,000 photographs of New York, each pinned where it was taken, most with the direction the camera faced. The map is free in any browser at map.timeportal.app — photographs from 1955 on need no account — and there is an app for iPhone and iPad.

What is the oldest photograph of New York in the archive?

The oldest precisely dated photograph, from 1849, shows the W. Zinsser & Co. varnish works on West 58th Street. 1,414 of the New York photographs were taken before 1900.

Which years of New York are best covered?

The 1920s, with 9,296 photographs, and the 1930s, with 7,627. 17% of the New York photographs date from 1955 or later.

Open New York on the map

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One place in New York, across a century: The Twin Towers: New York Then & Now. Other cities: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kyiv, Berlin, Paris, Prague, Tbilisi, Odesa, Riga, Rome, London. Or search any address on the map, or in the app.

The counts on this page are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 — credit Time Portal and link here. The photographs are not ours to license: they belong to their photographers and the archives that keep them.