March 2009

Special Thanks to TigerRocket

Photographed April 18, 1899. American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.

This view of Lower Manhattan was taken from the tower on the Brooklyn side of the bridge. Some visible landmarks include the Fulton Fish Market buildings at Fulton and South Streets (currently the site of the South Street Seaport Museum), north of the bridge tower is the Catherine Slip, where a Catherine Street Ferry is docked.

New York City in 1899: Demolition of the reservoir at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street begun, to make way for the new library / Automobiles were banned from Central Park "because they might frighten horses and otherwise be a disfigurement or annoyance." - Times, June 29 / Newsboys ('newsies') begin a two week strike on July 20 forcing Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst to abandon raising wholesale prices of their newspapers / Brooklyn "Superbas" won the National League pennant / 33-story 391 ft. Park Row Building is the tallest skyscraper in the world / The Bronx Zoo opens on November 8 / Trolleys begin running on Broadway December 16th

Recommended reading:
The Great Bridge / The epic story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge
- David McCullough
A picture History of the Brooklyn Bridge
- Mary J. Shapiro

Special Thanks to TigerRocket

1903 Edison Manufacturing Co.

Filmed from a boat moving down river, the film depicts the Hudson (i.e., North River) shoreline and the piers of lower Manhattan beginning around Fulton Street and extending south to Castle Garden in the Battery, once a fort and then an immigrant station, but at the time of this filming it was the City Aquarium. The film ends with a view of Battery Park. This film is a portrait of the city in transition. Between 1900 and 1930, the skyline would grow steadily into the uniquely familiar silhouette of downtown and midtown New York skyscrapers

NOTE: This film viewed along with "Panorama Water Front and Brooklyn Bridge from East River" constitutes a complete sweep around the southern tip of Manhattan from Fulton Street on the west side to the Brooklyn Bridge on the East River.

Recommended reading:
Rise of the New York Skyscraper 1865-1913
- Sarah Bradford Landau and Carl L. Condit
A Maritime History of New York / New York City WPA Writers' Project - Going Coastal, Inc.

Special Thanks to TigerRocket

Photographed October 22, 1903. Thomas A. Edison, Inc.
Camera: Alfred C. Abadie

Lower East Side food cart street vendors are told to move along by the law. The elevated train nearby places this scene somewhere in or near the Bowery and Second Avenue.

Text from a contemporary Edison film company catalog:
MOVE ON. In certain sections of New York City large numbers of Jewish and Italian push-cart vendors congregate so closely along the sidewalks that they interfere with traffic. Policemen keep them moving. The picture shows how the frightened peddlers hurry away when a bluecoat appears. Some of the carts are piled high with fruits of all kinds, and it is interesting and amusing to see the expressions of combined fear and anxiety on the faces of the men as they hurry away; the fear of being arrested if they stand, and of losing some of their wares if the carts strike an obstruction in the street.

The United States in 1903: January 2nd President Theodore Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola Miss., for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black / Jan. 9th Two New Yorkers buy the Baltimore baseball franchise for $18,000 and moved it to NY / Aug. 1st, first coast-to-coast automobile trip (SF-NY) completed / Aug. 17th, Joseph Pulitzer donates $1 million to Columbia University and begins Pulitzer Prizes / Dec. 1st, "The Great Train Robbery," the first Western film is released / Dec. 13th, New Jersey resident Italo Marcioni patents the ice cream cone

Recommended reading:
New York City Cartmen, 1667-1850
- Graham Russell Hodges
Recollections of An Old Cartman
- Isaac S. Lyon (1872)

Special Thanks to TigerRocket

Photographed July 24, 1903. Thomas A. Edison, Inc.
Camera: Alfred C. Abadie

"No fewer than 12,668 immigrants arrived in this port yesterday, the largest number in one day recorded in the history, of the immigration service." - New York Times, Friday, April 10, 1903.
By 1910, immigrant settlers made up 40% of New York City's permanent population. 40% of the current U.S. population can trace their roots to arrivals at Ellis Island.
The Federal government opened the island in 1892 for immigration services and it remained in operation until its abandonment in 1954.

New York City in 1903: Baltimore Orioles relocate to New York. The club was officially known as the "Greater New York" baseball club. Dubbed the Highlanders by the press they would eventually come to be called the Yankees / The last steam train ran over the Sixth Avenue Elevated on April 3rd, replaced by electric transportation / Frederick Thompson and & Elmer ''Skip'' Dundy buy Sea Lion Park in Coney Island from Captain Paul Boynton and transform it into Luna Park / Nov. 23rd, Enrico Caruso debuts at the Metropolitan Opera in 'Rigoletto' / Dec. 19th, The Williamsburgh Bridge opens (see video)

Special Thanks to TigerRocket

Photographed May 15, 1902.
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
Location: West bank of the Harlem River, New York, N.Y.
Camera: Robert K. Bonine

A parade of fine horses and fashionable carriages ride along what is now the Harlem River Drive, in the High Bridge section of northern Manhattan. The view is from the Manhattan side of the river looking north. On the right is the Harlem River and on the opposite bank, The Bronx. Prominent in the background is High Bridge at 175th Street, an important landmark completed in 1842 as part of the Croton aqueduct system. Beyond the High Bridge is the Washington Bridge at 181st Street. The Speedway was built in 1900 at a cost of over three million dollars.

Special Thanks to TigerRocket

Filmed July 3, 1903.
American Mutoscope and Biograph Co.
Cameraman, G. W. ''Billy'' Bitzer

The ride known as Shoot the Chutes was first introduced in 1895 by inventor Captain Paul Boynton at Sea Lion Park, the first enclosed outdoor amusement park in Coney Island. He billed it as ''the King of All Amusements.'' In 1902 he sold the park to a couple of young sharps, Fred Thompson and Elmer ''Skip'' Dundy. One year later the new gates opened and Luna Park was in operation.
The success of Luna Park would allow Thompson to build and open the 'Hippodrome Theatre' in Manhattan two years later. (see video of ''Panorama from the Times Building, New York'')

According to historian Woody Register, Boynton was inspired by ''watching boys skipping stones across a pond,'' and the idea was born.

(see the film ''Rube and Mandy Visit Coney Island'' [Part 3])

Recommended reading:
The Kid of Coney Island / Fred Thompson and the Rise of American Amusement - Woody Register

Special Thanks to TigerRocket

August 13 1903. Edison Manufacturing Co.
Filmed at Coney Island and Edison's 21st Street studio in New York, New York
Direction & cinematography by Edwin S. Porter

This is the longest of the Coney Island films from the Edison Company. It was directed by Edwin S. Porter, Edison's top director. Compared to most 'actualities' of the period this could be considered an epic. It is entertaining and also serves as a great document of Coney Island in its first modern renaissance. No doubt this film was aimed at promoting 'Baghdad by the Sea.'

South of Brooklyn and nine miles from Manhattan Rube and Mandy arrive with the cart before the horse at George C. Tilyou's 'Steeplechase the Funny Place.' To do it right the fun has to begin with a ride on the famous Steeplechase of course! A minute later they're riding the 'bulls.' Mandy does a graceful dismount while her beau Rube...well, lets just say Rube dismounts too. Together, they try their skills on the rope bridge where once again Mandy displays a grace that Rube just can't seem to match. They take a ride on the 'Down and Out' next where very few can maintain dignity on departure (2:40). And it's off to 'Luna' we go.....

In 1902, songwriter Warren R. Walker wrote about what to expect ''At the Steeplechase.''
I went to Coney Island, the funny sights to see....
I paid a dime admission, and saw the funny stairs /
I walked up to the top and / It almost turned my hairs.../
Chorus:
At the Steeplechase, at the Steeplechase, /
It cost me but a dime, But you'll have a good time.