More than a century before Manhattan’s skyline became defined by supertall towers, a newly shared piece of footage captured one of New York City’s earliest skyscrapers towering above its surroundings.
The black-and-white film, captured on October 8, 1902, and shared by the Library of Congress, shows a panorama of the recently completed Flatiron Building. The footage begins at street level, where pedestrians fill the busy Manhattan streets, before the cameraman gradually tilts upward toward the top of the 24-storey structure.
According to the Library of Congress, the footage shows “a view looking south from Madison Square, across the intersection of Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and Twenty-third Street, to New York’s famous skyscraper, the Fuller (or ‘Flatiron’) Building, with a panorama of the surroundings.”…