Century-old photos of NYC captivate Web

Century-old photos of NYC captivate Web, 100-Year-Old Images of NYC Available Online for the First Time, The city digitizes more than 800,000 images ranging from construction to crime scenes. It's hard to imagine what New York City looked like a century ago. Now you don't have to. Nearly a million vintage images of NYC available online, NYC releases nearly a million images of vintage Big Apple online, A man walks across a canyon on a rope without a safety net

Thanks to the work of NYC's Department of Records, relying on movies and history books to see what 'the city so nice they named it twice' was like in the early 1900s is a thing of the past. More than 800,000 images released by the Municipal Archives have been made available for the public to view on the Internet for the first time.

It took four years to digitize all 870,000 of the pictures, which were taken mostly by municipal workers. They depict many aspects of the city -- from cobblestone streets being constructed to baseball legend Babe Ruth in the Polo Grounds stands, notorious mobster Charles "Lucky" Luciano's booking photo, and even crime scenes.

On social media, people are calling the images gritty and real. One person tweeted his plans to view every single photo, joking, "bye bye workweek." History buffs are excited about the rare images being showcased and can't wait to set their eyes on the public database. More images will be added over time.

via: yahoo