An airship floats through the cloudless skies above 1930s Manhattan

I’m not sure I’d feel safe traveling in an airship. I’ve heard that recording of the 1937 Hindenburg disaster too many times.

But I can’t stop gazing at these photos of airships floating through the skies of early 1930s Manhattan, with the modern machine-age cityscape spread out and on display, building by building.

Both of these photos show the US Navy’s USS Akron. In the first photo, we see downtown Manhattan: the Woolworth Building, the Singer Tower (RIP), a smaller Battery Park—or at least it seems smaller. What’s the green space in the center, what look like treetops?

Manhattan is more slender in this photo. Without the landfill from the digging of the World Trade Center, there’s no Battery Park City on the Hudson side. Ship traffic ruled.

In the second photo, the USS Akron is hovering closer to Central Park. The contours of the East River can be seen; the sun seems to shine on the elegant high-rises and towers of Central Park South and Fifth Avenue.

Manhattan is a giant rectangle here, neatly divided by wide avenues. The Gothic roofline of the Plaza Hotel comes into view. The Central Park Reservoir dominates the park. I never realized it stretched from the East Side almost all the way to the West.

[Images: Wikipedia]