1333, 3437 CANADA (Ontario) / UNITED STATES (New York) - Niagara Falls

1333

Located on the Niagara River, which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, on the border between Canada and the United States, between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York, Niagara Falls is in fact an assembly of three waterfalls: the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls. The Horseshoe Falls (furthest on the postcard 1333) lie mostly on the Canadian side and the American Falls (closest on the postcard 1333) entirely on the American side, separated by Goat Island.

3437

The smaller Bridal Veil Falls are also located on the American side, separated from the other waterfalls by Luna Island. The boundary line was drawn through Horseshoe Falls in 1819, but it has long been in dispute due to natural erosion and construction. The combined falls form the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world, with a vertical drop of more than 50m. Niagara Falls were formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age), and water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean.

2079, 3343 UNITED STATES (New York) - Central Park

3343 Horsedrawn carriage by the park

Posted on 29.11.2015, 09.01.2020
Located in middle-upper Manhattan, Central Park is the most visited urban park in the United States as well as one of the most filmed locations in the world. Opened in 1857, it was expanded and improved after the plans of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux until 1873, when it reached its current size. While planting and land form in much of the park appear natural, it was almost entirely landscaped during the 1850s and 1860s. It contains seven lakes and ponds that have been created artificially by damming natural seeps and flows, several wooded sections, in addition to lawns, the "meadows", and many minor grassy areas.

2079 The Bethesda Fountain in Central Park

Main attractions of the park include landscapes such as the Ramble and Lake, Hallett Nature Sanctuary, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, and Sheep Meadow; amusement attractions such as Wollman Rink, Central Park Carousel, and the Central Park Zoo; formal spaces such as the Central Park Mall and Bethesda Terrace; and the Delacorte Theater, which hosts Shakespeare in the Park programs in the summertime. The park also has sports facilities, including the North Meadow Recreation Center, basketball courts, baseball fields, and soccer fields.

3296 UNITED STATES (New York) - MV John F. Kennedy in New York Harbor

In 1805, an 11 year-old boy from Staten Island named Cornelius Vanderbilt quit school to work full-time on his father's ferry. At 16, he started his own ferry business and in 1838 he took sole control of the main ferry service between Staten Island and Manhattan. By the end of the Civil War, he was known as the Commodore, the wealthiest American who had ever lived, controlling 10% of the entire nation's wealth. The Staten Island Ferry was then sold to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1884, and the City of New York assumed control of the ferry in 1905.

2702-2704, 3232 UNITED STATES (New York) - Manhattan

2702 Manhattan (1)

Posted on 21.08.2016, 02.01.2018
Manhattan is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, and the city's historical birthplace. It consists mostly of Manhattan Island, bounded by the East, Hudson, and Harlem Rivers, and also includes several small adjacent islands and Marble Hill, a small neighborhood on the U.S. mainland. It is often described as the cultural and financial capital of the world and hosts the United Nations Headquarters.

2703 Manhattan (2)

Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world. Historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626, for 60 guilders (1050 USD today). Manhattan real estate has since become among the most expensive in the world, with the value of Manhattan Island, including real estate, estimated to exceed 3 trillion USD in 2013.

2704 Manhattan (3)

Many districts and landmarks in Manhattan have become well known, as New York City received a record of nearly 60 million tourists in 2015, and Manhattan hosts three of the world's 10 most-visited tourist attractions in 2013: Times Square, Central Park, and Grand Central Terminal. The borough hosts many world-renowned bridges and skyscrapers such as the Empire State Building. The City of New York was founded at the southern tip of Manhattan, and the borough houses New York City Hall, the seat of the City's Government. 

3232 Bird's-Eye View of Manhattan / 1891 

The skyscraper, which has shaped Manhattan's distinctive skyline, has been closely associated with New York City's identity since the end of the 19th century. From 1890 to 1973, the world's tallest building was in Manhattan, with nine different buildings holding the title. The former Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were located in Lower Manhattan. At 417 and 415m, the 110-story buildings were the world's tallest from 1972, until they were surpassed by the construction of the Willis Tower in 1974. One World Trade Center is currently the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

3230 UNITED STATES (New York) - Ellis Island Portraits by Augustus Frederick Sherman

3230 Ellis Island Portraits
by Augustus Frederick Sherman
- Dutch Siblings from the Island of Marken

The first big wave of immigrants arrived in America between 1847 and 1860. A larger wave of immigrants from a larger range of countries sailed to America between the late 1800s and 1920. Most of them passed through the immigration station at Ellis Island in New York Harbor, which processed more than 12 million immigrants between 1892 and 1954. In other words, more than 100 million of today's Americans - a third of the population - can trace their ancestry back to an individual who immigrated through Ellis Island.

3221 UNITED STATES (New York) - Wall Street

3221 New York City - Wall Street - New York Stock Exchange
and the statue of George Washington

Anchored by Wall Street, New York City has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world, being home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Wall Street, originally named by the Dutch founders de Waalstraat, is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan.

1067-1070, 1541, 2735, 3162 UNITED STATES (New York) - Statue of Liberty (UNESCO WHS)

1067 - Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty

Posted on 28.04.2014, 25.04.2015, 04.08.2016, 08.10.2017
The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in the middle of New York Harbor, in Manhattan. The statue, designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi built by Gustave Eiffel and dedicated on October 28, 1886, was a gift to the United States from the people of France. The statue is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law) upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet.

1068 - The Statue of Liberty with Manhattan in the background (1)

The statue is an icon of freedom and of the United States: a welcoming signal to immigrants arriving from abroad. Bartholdi was inspired by French law professor and politician Édouard René de Laboulaye, who is said to have commented in 1865 that any monument raised to American independence would properly be a joint project of the French and American peoples. He may have been minded to honor the Union victory in the American Civil War and the end of slavery.

1069 - Aerial view of the Statue of Liberty

 

This masterpiece of the human spirit, which brings together art and engineering in a new and powerful way, is composed of thinly pounded copper sheets over a steel framework, designed by the French engineer Gustave Eiffel. Its symbolic value lies in two basic factors. Presented by France with the intention of affirming the historical alliance between the two nations, it was financed by international subscription in recognition of the establishment of the principles of freedom and democracy.

3162 - The Statue of Liberty with Manhattan in the background (2)
Postcard made exclusively for Statue of Liberty Museum

The Statue also soon became and has endured as a symbol of the migration of people from many countries into the United States in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. The torch-bearing arm was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, in 1876, and in New York's Madison Square Park from 1876 to 1882. Fundraising proved difficult, especially for the Americans, and by 1885 work on the pedestal was threatened due to lack of funds.

1070 - New York Harbor at dusk

 Publisher Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World started a drive for donations to complete the project that attracted more than 120,000 contributors. The statue was constructed in France, shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe's Island. In 1956, Bedloe's Island was renamed Liberty Island, and nearby Ellis Island was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument by proclamation of President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.

1541 - Statue of Liberty

In 1972, the American Museum of Immigration, in the statue's base, was opened in a ceremony led by President Richard Nixon. The museum's backers never provided it with an endowment to secure its future and it closed in 1991 after the opening of an immigration museum on Ellis Island. In 1984, the statue was closed to the public for the duration of the renovation. The torch, found to have been leaking water since the 1916 alterations, was replaced with an exact replica of Bartholdi's unaltered torch. It reflects the sun's rays in daytime and lighted by floodlights at night.

2735 The 130th Anniversary of
the Statue of Liberty

The entire puddled iron armature designed by Gustave Eiffel was replaced. Low-carbon corrosion-resistant stainless steel bars that now hold the staples next to the skin are made of Ferralium, an alloy that bends slightly and returns to its original shape as the statue moves. In 1984, the Statue of Liberty was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because is a "masterpiece of the human spirit" that "endures as a highly potent symbol - inspiring contemplation, debate and protest - of ideals such as liberty, peace, human rights, abolition of slavery, democracy and opportunity."

1019, 1135, 2944 UNITED STATES (New York) - New York map and flag

1019 New York map (1)

Posted on 02.03.2014, 09.07.2014, 10.02.2017
Bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and by Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east, New York State has a maritime border with Rhode Island, as well as an international border with Canada. It is a center for finance and culture, and also the largest gateway for immigration to the United States. Over 100 million Americans can trace their ancestry to the immigrants who first arrived in America through Castle Clinton and Ellis Island. New York City, with a population of over 8.3 million in 2012, is the most populous city in the U.S.A., making up over 40% of the population of the state.

1135 New York map (2)

Both the state and city were named for the 17th century Duke of York, future King James II of England. Its capital city is Albany, officially chartered as a city in 1686 and located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about 16km south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. New York was inhabited by various tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian at the time when Dutch settlers moved into the region in the early 17th century. In 1609, the region was first claimed by Henry Hudson for the Dutch, and Fort Nassau was built near the site of the present-day capital of Albany in 1614.

2944 New York flag

 

The Dutch soon also settled New Amsterdam and parts of the Hudson River Valley, establishing the colony of New Netherland. The English captured the colony during the Second Anglo-Dutch War and governed it as the Province of New York, of which borders were similar to those of the present-day state. About one third of all the battles of the Revolutionary War took place in New York, which became the 11th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. In contrast with New York City's urban atmosphere, the vast majority of the state's geographic area is dominated by farms, forests, rivers, mountains, and lakes.

2809 UNITED STATES (New York) - "Original Lederle Labs" by Albert H. Schroder

 

Albert Henry Schroder (1929-2004) was an American painter known for his paintings that recorded a vanishing America. He felt that it was his calling to record the remembrances of lost hopes and dreams. His realist style of oil painting captured for our children the bygone era of old lighthouses, churches, railroad depots, town halls and beautiful old mansions. It is also the case of this painting, which depicts the original Lederle Labs. The quotes "He who loves an old house, Never loves in vain," is the beginning of the poem House by Isabel Fiske Conant.

2802 UNITED STATES (New York) - Line 7 of New York City Subway

2802 New York City Subway - A train made up of R62As cars in 7
service entering Queensboro Plaza, bound for Flushing-Main Street

New York City -Empire State Building

Within the nomenclature of the subway, the "line" describes the physical railroad track or series of tracks that a train "route" uses on its way from one terminal to another. In the subway system of New York City, "routes" (also called "services") are distinguished by a letter or a number and "lines" have names. In this system, there are 24 train services. Each route has a color and a local or express designation representing the Manhattan trunk line of the particular service.

2745 UNITED STATES (New York) - Strand Bookstore

2745 New York City - Strand Bookstore - The store's Central Park kiosk

The Strand Bookstore is an independent bookstore located at 828 Broadway, at the corner of East 12th Street in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. In addition to the main location, the store's Central Park kiosk is open on fair weather days at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 60th Street. The company's slogan is "18 Miles Of Books". In 2016, The New York Times called The Strand "the undisputed king of the city’s independent bookstores."

0990-0995, 1009, 1422-1423, 1540, 2575, 2701 UNITED STATES (New York) - The bridges in New York City

0990 Brooklyn Bridge & Downtown Manhattan

Posted on 26.01.2014, 21.02.2014, 28.01.2015, 25.04.2015, 25.05.2016, 21.08.2016
New York City is home to over 2,000 bridges and tunnels, some of which were premieres or set records. For example the Holland Tunnel was the world's first vehicular tunnel when it opened in 1927, and the Brooklyn, Williamsburg, George Washington, and Verrazano-Narrows bridges were the world's longest suspension bridges when were opened in 1883, 1903, 1931, and 1964 respectively. The first bridge in New York, King's Bridge, was constructed in 1693, over Spuyten Duyvil Creek between Manhattan and the Bronx.

0991 Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Now the oldest crossing still standing is High Bridge, which connects Manhattan to the Bronx over the Harlem River. On the other hand, the George Washington, High Bridge, Hell Gate, Queensboro, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Macombs Dam, Carroll Street, University Heights and Washington bridges have all received landmark status. New York features bridges of all lengths and types, carrying everything from cars, trucks and subway trains to pedestrians and bicycles.

1009 Brooklyn Bridge - View from the pedestrian walkway

 

The George Washington Bridge, spanning the Hudson River between New York City and Fort Lee (New Jersey), is the world's busiest bridge in terms of vehicular traffic, but also, togheter with Verrazano Narrows Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge, is considered among the most beautiful in the world. Others are more well known for their functional importance such as the Williamsburg Bridge, which has two heavy rail transit tracks, eight traffic lanes and a pedestrian sidewalk.

0992 Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

The Brooklyn Bridge stretches 1.825m over the East River, connecting  Lower Manhattan at Canal Street with Downtown Brooklyn at the Flatbush Avenue Extension, is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States, and also the first steel-wire suspension bridge constructed. Designed by German immigrant John Augustus Roebling, it was completed in 1883, and has become in a short time an icon of New York City. The architectural style is Neo-Gothic, with characteristic pointed arches above the passageways through the towers, built of limestone, granite blocks (quarried and shaped on Vinalhaven Island, Maine), and Rosendale cement.

1422 Brooklyn Bridge silhouetted
by a glittering downtown New York skyline at dusk

Roebling designed a bridge and truss system that was six times as strong as he thought it needed to be. Because of this, the Brooklyn Bridge is still standing when many of the bridges built around the same time have vanished into history and been replaced. At the time it opened, and for several years, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. Its paint scheme is "Brooklyn Bridge Tan" and "Silver", although it has been argued that the original paint was "Rawlins Red". Since the 1980s, it has been floodlit at night to highlight its architectural features. The bridge originally carried horse-drawn and rail traffic, with a separate elevated walkway along the centerline for pedestrians and bicycles. Since 1950, the main roadway has carried six lanes of automobile traffic.

2701 Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan in 2013

 

A bronze plaque is attached to one of the bridge's anchorages, which was constructed on a piece of property occupied by a mansion, the Osgood House, at 1 Cherry Street in Manhattan. It served as the first Presidential Mansion, housing George Washington, his family, and household staff from April 23, 1789 to February 23, 1790, during the two-year period when New York City was the national capital. The centennial celebrations on May 24, 1983, saw a cavalcade of cars crossing the bridge, led by President Ronald Reagan. In 2006, a Cold War-era bunker was found by city workers in the Manhattan tower. The bunker, hidden within the masonry anchorage, still contained the emergency supplies that were being stored for a potential nuclear attack by the Soviet Union.

1540 Manhattan Bridge in black and white

The Manhattan Bridge is the last of the three suspension bridges built across the lower East River (following the Brooklyn and the Williamsburg bridges), connecting Lower Manhattan (at Canal Street) with with Downtown Brooklyn (at the Flatbush Avenue Extension). The main span is 448 m long, with the suspension cables being 983 m long (its total length is 2,089 m). Nearly 80,000 vehicles and more than 320,000 people use it (via public transportation) each day. 

0993 Manhattan Bridge at twilight

First bridge to be built based on deflection theory, a radical engineering theory at the time, and also the first suspension bridge to utilize a Warren truss in its design, it is considered to be the forerunner of modern suspension bridges and this design served as the model for many of the long-span suspension bridges built in the first half of the 20th century. It has four vehicle lanes on the upper level, split between two roadways. Four subway tracks are located on the lower deck of the bridge. The original pedestrian walkway on the south side of the bridge was reopened after forty years in June 2001.

1423 Manhattan Bridge, looking up
 Berenice Abbott / gelatine silver print
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Designed by Leon Moisseiff (1872-1943), who later designed the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (that collapsed in 1940), it was opened on December 31, 1909, and is noted for its innovative design. A year later, Carrère and Hastings drew up preliminary plans for an elaborate grand entry to the bridge on the Manhattan side (in Chinatown), as part of the "City Beautiful" movement. The arch and colonnade were completed in 1915, and the decoration includes pylons sculpted by Carl A. Heber and a frieze called "Buffalo Hunt" by Charles Rumsey. On the Brooklyn side, the bridge ends in the popular neighborhood DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). After many years of neglect and several attempts by traffic engineers to remove the structure, the arch and colonnade were repaired and restored in 2000.

0994 Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

 

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge that connects the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn, marking the gateway to New York Harbor. It is named for both the Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano (the first European to enter New York Harbor and the Hudson River), and for the body of water it spans: the Narrows. It has a central span of 1,298m, and was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time of its completion in 1964. Its massive towers can be seen throughout a good part of the New York metropolitan area, and all cruise ships and most container ships arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey must pass underneath it.

0995 Queensboro Bridge & Midtown Manhattan
(aerial view from the south)

The Queensboro Bridge (also known as the 59th Street Bridge) is a double cantilever bridge over the East River, which connects the neighborhood of Long Island City in the borough of Queens with the Upper East Side of Manhattan, passing over Roosevelt Island. The plans were finished in 1903 and construction soon began, but lasted until 1909 to be completed, due to delays from the collapse of an incomplete span during a windstorm and from labor unrest (including an attempt to dynamite one span).

2575 Queensboro Bridge & Midtown Manhattan
(aerial view from the north)

 

The bridge doesn't have suspended spans, so the cantilever arm from each side reaches to the midpoint of the span. Until it was surpassed by the Quebec Bridge in 1917, the span between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island was the longest cantilever span in North America. In December 2010, the bridge was renamed Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge in honor of the former mayor Ed Koch, a decision unpopular among Queens residents and business leaders.