From the “more proof Walmart is evil” department, comes this bit of serendipity. While looking for a marine deep cycle battery to serve as storage for a solar powered remote weather station and webcam I’m designing, this turned up in the Walmart product search:
Intrigued by the photo, since I had never seen it before, and because it showed a clear view of the sea at Battery Park from the early years of aviation, I set about trying to find the source of it. Usually, photos that are for sale tend to be well protected so that hi-res versions don’t make it onto the net. To my complete surprise, not only did I find the source, but also a high-res version. To my even bigger surprise, it turned out to be in NOAA’s public domain photo collection.
The source:
A flying boat cruising by Battery Park at the south end of Manhattan Island. In: “Flug Und Wolken”, Manfred Curry, Verlag F. Bruckmann, Munchen, 1932.
Image ID: line0987, NOAA’s America’s Coastlines Collection
Location: New York City
Photo Date: 1930 Circa
Credit: Fairchild Aerial Surveys Inc.
Category: Coastline/Mid-Atlantic New York/Historical/
And here is the hi-res version:
Click to enlarge (BTW, since this is public domain, save and print it yourself if you like it. COSTCO offers print services, as Dr. Mike Mann found out) – Anthony_
Available at: http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/line0987.htm
(Update: Michael Ozanne writes in comments:
That’s the Dornier Do-X , the biggest plane in the world of its day and one of the worst aeronautical engineering exploits in history. Famous for its mishap ridden marketing flight from Friedrichshafen to New York which ended up taking 9 months. Longer than it would probably take to swim it….. more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_Do_X )
Note in the background, you can see what looks to be the Empire State Building (or possibly the Chrysler building) nearing completion. Empire state officially opened on May 1st, 1931. The Chrysler building May 20, 1930. That puts the photo above around 1930 to early 1931. (any readers that can help identify for sure, leave a comment please).
Now compare that photo to this one taken 80 years later in 2010 from Wikipedia with a nearly identical vantage point:
While there have been a lot of changes, most notably the mature trees now in Battery Park, one thing is clear – the city has not been inundated by sea level rise even though the NOAA Battery Park tide gauge indicates a rise of about 0.22 meter ( 8 3/4 inches):
Granted, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in sea level from 1930 to 2010 just by looking at the two photos, but that’s the point, especially when we see idiotic stories like this one in National Geographic:
Or this one of La Guardia airport by Climate Central’s Andrew Freedman, which is the all-time dumbest in my opinion, since I’m pretty sure sea level rise can’t catch airplanes:
What La Guardia Airport could look like with 5 feet of sea level rise, an amount that could occur by 2100, according to some estimates. Click on the image to enlarge. Credit: Nickolay Lamm/StorageFront , for Climate Central, using Climate Central data.
As always, I remind our readers:
Freaking out about NYC sea level rise is easy to do when you don’t pay attention to history
Related articles
- From the Scientific Urban Legend Department: ‘AGW Sea Level Rise Made Sandy More Destructive’ (wattsupwiththat.com)
Ya gotta admit the water does kinda look higher 😉
That’s the Dornier Do-X , the biggest plane in the world of its day and one of the worst aeronautical engineering exploits in history. Famous for its mishap ridden marketing flight from Friedrichshafen to New York which ended up taking 9 months. Longer than it would probably take to swim it…..
Book us passage on that magnificent broad-winged Flying Boat…. but we know heresy when we see it. What have actual measurements ever had to do with AGW sea-levels?
Out of interest, are marine batteries cheaper than other commerical deep discharge? I would have though that leisure marine market was as much as rip off as camper or solar markets.
If often get asked for advise of setting up off grid systems, any tips like that would be useful.
I think the Empire State Building is to the left and way out of frame in both photographs.
REPLY: I went back and forth between ES and Chrysler – maybe readers can help clear it up. I’ve added a note to that effect – Anthony
On the other hand, the sea plane ramps (nice sloping inclined planes into the water) at every US, British and Japanese Navy air base worldwide might give a clue for water level increase since the 1920’s …..
For example, http://www.airfields-freeman.com/VA/Airfields_VA_Norfolk.htm
Comparing those two photographs above it looks like a small sea level fall. There has been some reclamation round Battery Park in the mean time which might confuse the issue but nothing alarming with sea levels.
If that was an historic flight maybe it would be possible to find the data and the time it flew over Battery Park, then look up tide charts….
New York City is not sustainable.
As a follow on to the world class surface stations triumph perhaps you could get people all over the world to compare historic coastal photography to current sea levels.
Relax, Battery Park is landfill; just fill some more or use what they call concrete. No problemo.
Note to Eco-Worriers: Part of the Netherlands is reclaimed from the sea and is BELOW sea level! All hope is lost, head for the hills.
And finally, the Maldives has in recent years been building FIVE underwater airports to cater for flying tourists who churn out so much refuse they have an island name dedicated to it. Now where are those building aggregates.
Maldives: paradise trashed (with nauseating images).
Thanks for this. That is a wonderful photo. I wonder how it was taken, and by whom?
In this jaded age of billions of images, it is always a treat to be reminded that great photography is a relatively old art form, which was not reliant on modern technology to make it great.
Jason H says:
September 21, 2013 at 8:10 am
I think the Empire State Building is to the left and way out of frame in both photographs.
>>>>>
I agree, but I haven’t been to NYC in over 30 years!
Good catch, AW, I wonder if the wing number D”1929″ has any significance, as to dates?
One cannot discount the possibility that some of that land was dredged. Either way, we know NY is subsiding, so, BFD.
Don’t forget the effect of tidal height changes, Anthony – NYC has a 5 or 6 ft change of height between high & low water – so it depends on what time of day, and day of month is being compared..
Maldives: what tourist would want to visit a place where it’s proposed to flog a 15 year old girl raped by her step-father within an inch of her life, anyway?
[This girl’s sentence for ‘immorality’ has been put on hold due the international outcry, and top level diplomacy, but others are not so lucky]
“NOAA Battery Park tide gauge indicates a rise of about 0.22 meter”
Sea level isn’t rising, instead tide gauge is sinking do to anthropological expansion / construction. Which resulted in land subsiding under weight of the numerous and massive buildings crammed full of people.
Setting aside the sinking… The air sure looks a whole lot cleaner now than it did back in 1930s. Appears that increasing CO2 ppm, results in less Smog.
As one commenter mentioned on the other Battery Park thread much of Manhattan is reclaimed land. They asked what effect does millions of tonnes of steel, concrete and other human structures have on subsidence? (I paraphrase.)
WOW! Almost as much of a ‘white elephant’ as this Soviet-made cold-war era ground-effects bird:
Lun-class Ekranoplane was used by the Soviet Navy” from 1987 to the late 1990s
http://www.businessinsider.com/take-a-look-inside-the-soviet-unions-gigantic-nuclear-equipped-ekanoplane-2012-1?op=1
.
I assume that the1932 picture was taken during the peak of a spring tide, and the modern one at the lowest point of a spring tide? I also assume that those trees are underwater for several hours twice a day!
After all, National Geographic wouldn’t lie!
While looking for a marine deep cycle battery to serve as storage for a solar powered remote weather station and webcam I’m designing…
Sealed lead acid (SLA), here’s a 12V 12Ah general-type deep cycle AGM, 9 pounds. $33.
http://www.batteryspec.com/cgi-bin/cart.cgi?action=link&product=300G6
Used for wheelchairs and scooters, thus outdoor exposure on a par with a weather station in a ventilated rain-shielded enclosure. Plain male spade terminals.
Go play on Amazon, look for “sla sealed lead acid deep cycle battery 12v 12 volt”, you’ll find them down around 7.5Ah for under $20.
With enough taxation, anything is possible (as long as the ‘host’ -er- tax payer survives). What occurs after that today (we know what happened in the past for various ’empires’, and even for such large cities as Detroit even) when QE (Quantitative Easing; literally, ‘the printing of money’) is finally wound-down is anybody’s guess though. The ~recent development in energy extraction (fracturing) will delay the inevitable as abundantly available and reasonably-priced (cheap in a word) energy is the lifeblood of today’s society.
But, your point is well taken.
.
Or this one: Pearl harbor, Hawaii.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/hhh.hi0654.photos.365761p/?co=hh
Yup, those boats look like they are at the same level as before.
😉
The building with the green roof and spire is the Trump Building (originally the Manhattan Company Building). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40_Wall_Street