New York circa 1909. "Blackwell's Island Bridge, East River." Blackwell's Island is now Roosevelt Island, and today the span is called the Queensboro (or 59th Street) Bridge. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

Circa 1906. "Cossitt Library, Memphis." This Romanesque red sandstone structure, at Front and Monroe on the banks of the Mississippi, was Memphis's first public library when it opened in 1893. Detroit Publishing. View full size.

Circa 1907. "Aerial bridge. Duluth, Minnesota." Suspended Car Transfer over the Duluth Ship Canal. The gondola could carry 60 tons of cargo across the 300-foot channel with minimal obstruction of the shipping lane. After modification for service as a vertical lift, the span became known as the Aerial Lift Bridge. 8x10 dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

"Chicago & North Western viaduct over Des Moines River near Boone, Iowa" ca. 1902. Photo by William Henry Jackson. Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

1906. "Post Office and Eagle Building. Brooklyn, N.Y." At the Alcazar Theatre: "smoking concerts." Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size.

Luna Park at Coney Island circa 1905. Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. Tonight only: "Infant incubators with living infants." View full size.

"I could stay in Atlantic City forever." A Kodak moment circa 1912 at the New Jersey resort. 5x7 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

A schoolhouse, schoolmarm and students circa 1905, "possibly in South Carolina." View full size. Gelatin silver print by Detroit Publishing.

More delectables at the Edw. Neumann grocery in Detroit's Broadway Market circa 1910. 8x10 glass plate negative, Detroit Publishing. Superjumbo full size. Note the artfully arranged pickle slices in the big apothecary jar to the left.

The Edw. Neumann grocery at Broadway Market in Detroit circa 1910. 8x10 glass plate negative, Detroit Publishing. View superjumbo full size. (Which is still less than half the pixel dimensions of the full-resolution, 6100 x 5000 image -- i.e., less than a quarter of the available detail!) Who'll be the first to count all the cans?

The Washington Bridge and High Bridge over the Harlem River along the northern boundary of Manhattan, looking south. Circa 1890 albumen print from a photograph by William Henry Jackson. Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

The Coney Island Co. side-wheeler Island Queen passing beneath the Roebling Suspension Bridge on the Ohio River between Covington, Kentucky, and Cincinnati in 1907. View full size. Detroit Publishing Co.

The Brooklyn Bridge circa 1910. View full size. Detroit Publishing Co.

Williamsburg Bridge, New York, c 1903-1910. View full size. Detroit Publishing.

From 1907, a bird's-eye view of Wabash Avenue in Chicago, showing the celebrated "El," or elevated railway, as well as a number of piano manufacturers and the National Casket Company. Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.