New York City in the 1940s — Rush Hour, Subways & Ferries | Rare Footage Restored in Color

How did seven million New Yorkers get to work every morning? This classroom film follows the city's "arteries": packed subway platforms at 34th Street, commuter trains diving under Park Avenue into Grand Central, ferries from New Jersey with the skyline ahead, double-decker buses, the George Washington Bridge, the Lincoln Tunnel, and the brand-new parkways along the Hudson. A puzzle about the date: the title card says Copyright MCMXLI (1941), and the archive lists the film as 1941. But near the end, as the narrator talks about "new sources of power," a V-2 rocket lifts off (9:03). The V-2 first flew in 1942 and wasn't test-fired in the U.S. until 1946. The tailless jet just before it (9:00) appears to be a Vought F7U Cutlass, which first flew in 1948. Many cars in the traffic scenes also look postwar, including what appears to be a 1949–51 Ford (7:05). So what you're watching is most likely a revised postwar edition that kept the 1941 title card, with footage from about 1941 to 1950. What we did: removed the TV telecine, cleaned up the exposure, colorized every frame, upscaled to 1080p and interpolated to 60fps. The original narration is kept and the English subtitles have been checked by hand. The notes in the top-left corner are ours. Note: the colors are an AI estimate made from black-and-white film. They show what the scene could have looked like, not a historical record. CHAPTERS 0:00 Manhattan from the air 0:54 Millions pour in every day 1:45 Wall Street: a ghost city after hours 2:20 After work: beaches, Broadway, the ball game 3:02 The subway 3:51 Commuter trains and Grand Central 4:54 The ferry from New Jersey 5:20 Buses 6:06 Cars, bridges and tunnels 7:05 Rush-hour traffic (and a clue to the date) 7:24 Express highways and parkways 8:21 The planners 9:00 "New sources of power" Source: "Arteries of New York City," Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, in collaboration with Robert S. Lynd (Columbia University). Prelinger Archives, Internet Archive (public domain).