Monday, January 21, 2013

Crowded Street



It appears that traffic congestion did not start with the advent of cars. This is a picture of a crowded New York City street in about 1900. You can see the carriages and horse drawn wagons are filling the street.
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12 comments:

  1. I really like the old-fashioned women’s dresses.

    I also like the carriage with the driver up high in the back.

    I like the old buildings too.

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  2. As a collector of antique horse-drawn carriages, I spent a long time looking at this one. Thanks so much. It's a wonderful photograph. Your blog brings me great pleasure!

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  3. Another great photo. I too love the ladies' dresses and how all the men are wearing hats. No baggy jeans here! Keep them coming, PMJ. :)
    -Anne K.

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  4. Actually, with the horse and carrage it would be more crowded.
    Think of the room a horse and carrage takes up compared to a little car of that age. Probable twice as much room or even more.

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  5. I also like the carriage with the driver up high in the back.

    Most likely Myrtle, that's a Hansom cab, aka one of the original taxi cabs. Here's a link you can copy and paste in your address bar for more information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansom_cab

    The photo may look busy and confusing, but I think life was a lot saner back then.

    It never fails to amaze me how women wore those long, cumbersome, hot dresses with the whale bone corsets that were under them! No wonder the 'fainting' couch was invented.

    Mr Leck, a horse drawn carriage collector. I have a few myself.

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  6. I wonder what the EPA would say about the pollution seen here. Dirt, oil fumes and other leavings on our road to transpoortation.

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  7. By George! Is that Hetty Green in the foreground?

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  8. I agree with DADD...my thought was how much more crowded it could be, well if everyone owned a horse!

    This pic is great...my students have been learning about the history of transportation!

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  9. I see that the picture was taken around 2:00 by the clock in the window above the awnings.

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  10. I keep coming back to look at this photo again, amazed at how crisp it is despite all the movement. I don't know a thing about turn of the century photography, but maybe because it was taken in the sun the shutter speed was faster. I don't see much of the blurriness common in old photos.
    -Anne K.

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  11. I was wondering if there was traffic jams with horses when you started this theme. Thanks for the answer!

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  12. The background little details are neat! The uniformity of dress is also noticeable!

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