Archive photos

Another selection of photos from a delicious US archive site (all of which benefit from clicking to enlarge):


Most of the images are at least a hundred years old (that was Scranton Pennsylvania, now famous as the setting for the US version of The Office, while this is a scene from the Michigan Central Railroad in 1904):


Some experimental railways feature -- here, the Cincinnati inclined plane railroad is captured in 1904:


While this view is of the more conventional railway in Chicago, c.1910-15:


By way of contrast, here's a Detroit scene from 1917 -- love all those trams (or, as I think they would have it, "trolleys"):


And this magnificent view shows us Boston's South Terminal Station, again in 1904:


To New York the year before, for the Brooklyn Terminal:


While the next view shows us San Pedro Harbour near Los Angeles in 1899. I know there aren't any trains in it (although there is a delightful tram), but I love the atmosphere:


1928, now, and here's Washington Union station:


And almost up to date, here's a Second World War photo: the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad at Vaughn, in 1943:


Let's finish with a pair from New York -- first up, a street-level entrance to the elevated railway in 1903:


And a truly glorious shot, c.1900, of The Bowery:


Pretty bloody amazing or what?