Today marks the start of Documerica Week on In Focus -- a new photo essay each day, featuring regions of the U.S. covered by the photographers of the Documerica Project in the early 1970s. The Documerica Project was put together by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1971, with a primary goal of documenting adverse effects of modern life on the environment, but photographers were also encouraged to record the daily life of ordinary people, capturing a broad snapshot of America. Today's subject is New York City, an area covered by many photographers, showing some of the urban decay and congestion that helped prompt environmental legislation, as well as glimpses of New Yorkers at work and play. Be sure to see the whole series: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
America in the 1970s: New York City
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Manhattan Bridge tower in Brooklyn, New York City, framed through nearby buildings, in June of 1974. See this same spot today on Google Street View. #
Danny Lyon/National Archives and Records Administration -
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Crowd gathered at the Schaefer Bandstand in Central Park to hear singer Judy Collins with a dramatic view of the towers of midtown Manhattan in June of 1973. See this same spot today on Google Street View. #
Suzanne Szasz/NARA -
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Despite warning signs, illegal dumping continues in this area just off the New Jersey Turnpike facing Manhattan in March of 1973. See this same spot, now a park, on Google Street View. #
Gary Miller/NARA -
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One of several highrise apartments whose construction was stopped by city ordinance to preserve the Breezy Point peninsula for public recreational use, in may of 1973. #
Arthur Tress/NARA -
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Holland Tunnel traffic, backed up on Canal Street, in May of 1973. See this same spot today on Google Street View. #
Wil Blanche/NARA -
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Public pay phone stalls in use at Broadway and 34th Street, in May of 1973. The first handheld mobile phone call in history was made one month prior to this photo, in midtown Manhattan, in April 1973, when Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher made a call to his chief competitor Dr. Joel S. Engel, head of Bell Labs. #
Erik Calonius/NARA -
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