Forgotten New York

Living the 21^st century, we only know the city of New York how it appears to us today. However, New York is a historical state that most New Yorkers know nothing about. There are remains of its history everywhere we look but the casual observer, too busy with all the new technology and talking on their cell phones, seem to overlook its significance. The website, www.forgotten-ny.com tells us about the history of lamps, cobblestones, cemeteries and many other landmarks which have, over the years, become “forgotten.”

It’s easy to forget that once there was a different material used for streets before there was cement and black tar. However, in the early 1900’s, there were cobblestones for streets. Looking at the pictures of cobblestones reminds me of old movies where people come to New York for the first time and see horses pulling carriages as a means of transportation. We have gotten so used to our modern day streets that we don’t even look twice if we see an old cobblestone street. Even if we do take notice of it, it’s followed by a complaint of the difficulty of walking on the uneven stones.

One of the pages on this website shows the different cobblestones in Flushing, Queens. We go to college in Flushing many times a week and most of us probably have no idea what history lies in these streets. One of the pictures is of a cobblestone sidewalk lying alongside a regular concrete sidewalk that we are used to. It’s interesting to see what a long way we’ve come over the past 100 years. While most of the pictures show the bricks in straight, uniform lines, some streets are lined with bricks in a circular pattern. Some bricks are red while others are blue and a few even have patterns. The old cobblestones definitely have a lot more character and are more beautiful than the cement we have today. You can see that there was much more time and effort put into the designing of old streets and sidewalks. It’s a shame that all that time was forgotten by paving over many of these old streets.

Looking at this website has really opened my eyes to look at my surroundings and see things for more than just face value. There are historical items all around us and hopefully now when I see these landmarks, I will think about what has become forgotten in our generation.