New York City, 1979

The United Nations, Rockerfeller Plaza, and the view from Top of The Rock, summer 1979

 

Statue of Liberty, 1974 & 2006

Living in New Jersey in the 1970s, we got to travel a lot in the Northeast, and from time to time we'd take in the sights of New York City. In summer 1974 we took the boat trip out to the Statue of Liberty, and of course my dad took a number of slides. He and I went up to the crown's observation deck (you can see the spike from the crown in the 6th row of pictures), while my sister and mother hung back. We took the typical family tourist pictures.

Flash forward to Sept. 2006, I took a trip to New York after my sister's wedding, and not having seen the Statue of Liberty since that 1974 trip, I went back and took my own pictures. What I didn't realize at the time was that views of the Statue are so iconic, I ended up taking many similar or nearly identical photos that my dad had taken. There had been some changes in the meantime, including remaking the field at Liberty's back into a paved walkway with a security tent, and of course the loss of the World Trade Center buildings on the Manhattan skyline. In 2006, the statue itself had not been reopened, and we were only allowed up to the top of the base, whereas in 1974 we could go up to the crown.

Here are side-by-side images of the Statue of Liberty 32 years apart (1974 on the left, 2006 on the right).

World Trade Center, 1981

We took a day trip from New Jersey into New York City to see the World Trade Center in June 1981. Except for the first one, taken from ground level, the rest were taken from the Top of the World observation deck above the 107th floor of the South Tower. On the second image, you can just make out the signature of George Willig, who climbed the tower in 1977 (click to embiggen, signature is just to the left of the corner). The panorama at the end is of the North Tower (click to embiggen). The final picture is Lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center from the Empire State Building, taken a couple of weeks later.