Boats & Bridges

January 25, 1917. "U.S.S. Mississippi launching at Newport News. Miss Camille McBeath, sponsor." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

Nov. 29, 1957. Sun through the clouds, very nice, but the truly stunning sight for most modern New Yorkers would be a nearly-empty Tappan Zee Bridge.

September 1916. "Kron Prinz Wilhelm, German ship, interned in U.S. in tow." The former passenger liner, pressed into service as a commerce raider by the Imperial German Navy at the start of World War I, being towed from the Norfolk yards to Philadelphia. During its eight months on the high seas -- after leaving New York Harbor with 2,000 tons of coal -- the converted 15,000-ton cruiser sank more than a dozen Allied ships and took hundreds of prisoners. Running low on supplies, its crew and prisoners beset by a variety of illnesses, the battered vessel sought refuge in April 1915 at Newport News, where its sailors were interned for over a year. After the United States entered the war, the ship was seized by the government, rechristened the USS Von Steuben and converted into a troop carrier. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

"Brooklyn Bridge and East River. April 1909." At left, the Manhattan Bridge under construction in this view looking east into Brooklyn with Manhattan Terminal at lower left. 8x10 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

1909. "Consul Peter smoking." Peter, "famous monkey of the Parisian music halls," was an act at Oscar Hammerstein's Paradise Roof Garden in New York. As the subject of "Consul Crosses the Atlantic," he was also perhaps the first chimp movie star. George Grantham Bain Collection glass negative. View full size.

Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1906. The sidewheeler Cincinnati passing under the Roebling Suspension Bridge. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size.

September 4, 1897. Commodore H.M. Gillig's racing sloop Vencedor on Lake Erie. Photo by John S. Johnston. Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size.