Fascinating Never-before-Seen 100 Year Old Photographs of Gritty NYC

Almost a million images of New York and its municipal operations have been made public for the first time on the internet.

The city's Department of Records officially announced the debut of the photo database.
Culled from the Municipal Archives collection of more than 2.2 million images going back to the mid-1800s, the 870,000 photographs feature all manner of city oversight -- from stately ports and bridges to grisly gangland killings. [via Daily Mail UK]


Genesis of a icon: In this June 5, 1908 photo, the Manhattan Bridge is less than a shell, seen from Washington Street. It wouldn't be opened for another 18 months and wouldn't be completed for another four years

Always moving: Workers dig in Delancy Street on New York's Lower East Side in this photo dated July 29, 1908. The historical pictures released online for the first time show New York in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Painters hang from suspended wires on the Brooklyn Bridge October 7, 1914 -- 31 years after it first opened

The main concourse of Grand Central Terminal, in New York, is seen from the Campbell apartment in this 1937 photo. The posh apartment, in one of America's grandest train stations, was the playground of financier John Campbell in the roaring 1920.

Dead men can tell tales: When the New York Times wrote about elevator operator Robert Green, left, and Jacob Jagendorf, a building engineer, right, it reported that their bodies found lying at the bottom of an elevator shaft November 24, 1915, told the story of the pair's failed robbery attempt

Notorious: This is the original April 18, 1936 booking photo for Charles 'Lucky' Luciano. Luciano is considered the father of organized crime in New York and was the first to divide the city sections controlled by five mob families.

Murder most foul: A detective took this crime scene photo in 1918 after children found the body of Gaspare Candella stuffed in a drum and dumped in a field in Brooklyn, New York

New Yorkers cool off in the Astoria public pool with the Hell Gate railroad bridge looming in the background in the summer of 1940.

The Great Bambino: In this September 30, 1936, Works Progress Administration, Federal Writerís Project, photo provided by the New York City Municipal Archives, a man hands a program to baseball legend Babe Ruth, center, as he is joined by his second wife Clare, center left, and singer Kate Smith, front left, in the grandstand during Game One of the 1936 World Series at the Polo Grounds in New York.

Moment in history: The headline of the newspaper the man in this May 18, 1940 photo reads: 'Nazi Army Now 75 Miles From Paris.' This picture shows the corner of Sixth Avenue and 40th Street in Manhattan.

The view from New Jersey: A man peers across the Hudson River into Manhattan from his perch on the George Washington Bridge on December 22, 1936

The Third Avenue elevated train rumbles across lower Manhattan in this undated photo. City Hall can be seen in the background

Hard times: An unemployed man in an old coat lays on a pier in the New York City docks during the Great Depression, 1935

In 1936, the Triborough Bridge, which links Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx, was not yet complete. The Hells Gate Railroad Bridge looms in the distance

Men and women stroll a row of jewelry shops on the Lower East Side 

People stand in line for bread during the Great Depression

See how it's changed: In this circa 1890 photo, a pair of girls walk east along 42nd Street. Acker, Merrall and Condit wine shop delivery wagons are on the right and the C.C. Shayne Furrier sign can be seen on the roof overhead.

Building roads: Workers lay bricks to pave 28th Street in Manhattan on October 2, 1930

This circa 1983-1988 photo provided by the New York City Municipal Archives shows 172 Norfolk Street, which is now the Angel Orensanz Foundation, in New York. Over 800,000 color photographs were taken with 35-mm cameras for tax purposes. Every New York City building in the mid-1980s can be viewed in this collection.