When you think of New York City, you likely think of its gleaming skyline that features some of the most iconic skyscrapers on earth.
Many of them - the Empire State Building included - were built during the Great Depression, projects to help employ workers desperate to support their families.
A pioneering photographer, Berenice Abbott, wanted to document the rapid changes that were occurring in the city as streets and homes were destroyed to make way for new construction.
She pitched a project, called Changing New York, to the Federal Art Project - a government program for unemployed artists and related workers during the Depression - in 1935.
The project was picked up, and Abbott set out to photograph the city's "unseen" sides - not the iconic locations but instead the side streets, people commuting to work, and otherwise documenting old New York before it was razed in the name of progress.
Between 1935 and 1939, Abbott shot 305 images that showed the beauty in the mundane of the daily lives of the people of New York.
The project was completed in 1939, just in time for the World's Fair in Flushing Meadow, New York.
The Federal Art Project also compiled Abbott's images into complete sets, which it distributed to area schools, libraries, and other public entities around the city.
Below is a sampling of some of Abbott's incredible images of Old New York.
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Via Daily Mail