Was it safe to swim in the Hudson River in 1948? Probably not, but that didn’t stop this boy from jumping three stories from a pier while his friends watched from the roof.
It’s a wonderful image captured by photographer Ruth Orkin, perfectly titled “Boy Jumping Into Hudson River.”
Orkin was a commercial photographer and filmmaker who moved to New York in 1943. An archive of her images can be browsed here.
[©estate of Ruth Orkin]
Ephemeral New York 