Top 15+ Vintage Photos That Capture Old New York

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

Have you ever wondered what New York City looked like before yellow cabs, smartphones, and overpriced coffee? These rare photos from around 1925 offer a stunning peek into a city in the middle of its roaring change. Think horse-drawn carts next to early Fords, flapper fashion, smoky jazz clubs, and skyscrapers just starting to scratch the sky. It's gritty, glamorous, and totally unfiltered. Get ready to time travel back 100 years to see NYC like you've never seen it before.

Summer Cool Down

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

New Yorkers cooling off in the Astoria public pool with the Hell Gate railroad bridge in the back. Summer of 1940.

Last Farewell

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

Here we see mourners lining the street as President Lincoln's funeral procession passes through New York City on 25 April 1865.

Lady Liberty’s Toes

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

The statue was built in sections in a Parisian warehouse and shipped to New York, where it was assembled.

Snowy NYC

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

The Great White Hurricane, a ferocious snowstorm, hit New York. March 11, 1888.

Mechanized Polo

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

The rules were the same, except cars carried the mallet-wielding competitors instead of horses. Coney Island.

First Subway Ride

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

The first riders on New York City's subway setting off. The passengers were a group of financiers and city officials seen here at City Hall Station. October 27, 1904.

Suffragettes

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

These suffragettes in Greenwich Village are holding a banner that reads ‘We were voters out West, Why deny our rights in the East?' in reference to the fact that the women of Wyoming had been granted suffrage in 1869.

Fun Day

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

A view of a busy boardwalk at Coney Island in Brooklyn in the 1920’s.

A Lack Of Skyscrapers

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

Views of Fifth Avenue and the Plaza, North toward Central Park, New York in 1920.

Screen-less Times Square

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

A trolley photographed in Times Square in March 1921 before pedestrians took over the area.

One Last Toast

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

A picture taken in a crowded New York bar just before midnight on 30 June 1919, moments before Prohibition came into effect.

The Flat Iron Building

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

The city’s first ‘artistic’ building still under construction.

New York’s Icon Unveiled

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

This photo of the big day captures the chaos and excitement, with smoke from a cannon salute partially covering Lady Liberty. October 28, 1886.

Manhattan Bridge

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

The Manhattan Bridge, being less than a shell seen from Washington Street. It opened 18 months after this picture, and it wasn't completed for another four years. June 5, 1908.

Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

Summer Cool Down, Last Farewell, Lady Liberty’s Toes, Snowy NYC, Mechanized Polo, First Subway Ride, Suffragettes, A Lack Of Skyscrapers, Screen-less Times Square, One Last Toast, The Flat Iron Building, New York’s Icon Unveiled, Manhattan Bridge, Safety Harness? No, Thank You.

Painters hanging from the wires of the Brooklyn Bridge on October 7th, 1914 (31 years after it first opened)

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