We've revisited the later half of the 1900s, but the below footage shows New York City in the first decade of the century. The videos show residents walking through blustering snowstorms, parading down what is now Harlem River Drive, and even getting into fights on the street—just like today!
This footage from 1902 shows two men getting into a (staged) fight, which is eventually broken up by an officer wielding a nightstick.
This is Broadway at the intersection of Wall Street, in front of Trinity Church
Filmed in 1903, this footage shows "a wharf where a barge is being loaded with trash from two-wheeled, horse-drawn wagons. The trash is dumped off the edge of the pier onto the barge... Probably filmed on the East River, this is one of several New York City Sanitation Department dumping wharves in operation at the time."
"The New York City of the early 1900's, depicted as a waking dream. Views include Park Row, the Flatiron Building, Midtown and a rooftop panning shot focusing upon the massive New York Hippodrome"
"A parade of fine horses and fashionable carriages taken along what is now the Harlem River Drive, in the Highbridge section of northern Manhattan. Prominent in the background is the High Bridge at 175th Street, an important landmark completed in 1842 as part of the Croton aqueduct system."
Madison Square Park in 1902
The scene is an excavation site—"Taken in the immense excavation for the foundation of the new Macy Building at the corner of Broadway and 34th Street"
Star Theatre in 1902
Skyscrapers, 1903
Ice skating in Central Park—February 5th, 1900
