Here's a recent shot:

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=qsjqgh8tzb2m&st...

The wireless mast is found on top of the Western Union Building, also designed by George B. Post, built 1872-1875 (demolished 1913). The top floors of the building, originally under an enormous mansard roof, were rebuilt as seen here after a fire in 1890.

Huh? How about fascinating? There is so much variety and interest in this picture - different eras of building, signs, churches, spires, flags, open windows, residential next to commercial and on and on. I could look at it over and over and discover something new every time I did. What do you get with a modern cityscape - one boring glass box after another - no life to be seen half the time.

Shows a more appealing view of building even if though overwhelming in height for its neighbors.

Left of the Park Row is the 26-story St. Paul Building, built 1895-1898 and demolished in 1958. It was one of the last skyscrapers designed by George B. Post, a pioneer of tall building construction in New York. Alas, it was not well received by the architectural critics of the time, and they were thinking primarily of the front of the building. What we see here are the naked backsides of the St. Paul and Park Row.

More likely, that tower was part of a signal flag system operated by a newspaper, perhaps the Journal of Commerce or the Wall St Journal or, more likely, the World. Merchants on Wall Street needed to know when cargo vessels were approaching the port. There was a series of flag stations which stretched from lower Manhattan to Sandy and out on Long Island. This tower was probably on a newspaper building on Park/Newspaper Row.

a guy on the top floor of the Sheldon Building decides to look out the window, and draw a breath of not-so-fresh air.

Very bottom - middle of the picture. At the time this picture was taken Teddy Roosevelt was Governor of New York and the NY Republican political machine was looking to get him out of the way. Their bright idea - convince him to run as VP with McKinley! At the time the VP position was even more powerless than it is today and the Republicans saw this as a safe parking place for a progressive that was causing them no end of headaches. He was, in effect, kicked upstairs (but he apparently went willingly). Less than a year later (September 1901) McKinley was assasinated and Roosevelt ascended to what he gleefully described as his "bully pulpit"!

I would like to know more about the statues around the Park Row building cupolas. They are gone now. So are the flagpoles. It irks me that so many classic buildings have been stripped of such unique adornments.

That is one homely skyscraper.

Based on the banners in the street, I'd bet that the photo was taken on the day of the great Sound Money Parade (November 3, 1900), in support of the Republican ticket. According to the New York Times the following morning, the 84,000-member parade included trade associations such as the Jewelers McKinley & Roosevelt Club, and the Drug, Chemicals, Paint, Varnish, and Oil Trades' McKinley & Roosevelt Sound Money Club (perhaps called the DCPVOTMRSMC).

The Park Row Building is still there. It was built between 1896 and 1899. It held the distinction of the world's tallest office tower (391 feet, 30 floors) until 1908 when the 47-story Singer Building went up (612 feet). It was landmarked in 1999.

And people complain about "glass box" skyscrapers! This is one brutally ugly cityscape.

Early radio. Gotta love it.

This one is amazing. Manhattan in 1901. I see laundry hanging on lines. Not an automobile or a window air conditioner. Not an airplane or a dirigible. Not a TV antenna or a radio transmitting tower. What we have is the turn of the last century that would create more scientific paraphernalia in a few years than the world saw since its inception.