Taking a Google Street View Time Warp Trip Through the Past

by Todd R. Weiss

In this image from September 2007, the planned Freedom Tower—the 104-story, 1,776-foot-tall structure being built near the footprints of the original World Trade Center towers—begins construction with site work (foreground) in lower Manhattan.

By June 2011, the construction of the Freedom Tower is now showing more visible progress as the work is escalating above ground on West Street in Manhattan. The building’s steel framework now towers over the site as work continues on upper floors.

Some six years after that first image from September 2007, the Freedom Tower is covered by its glass and metal exterior panels in this image from August 2013. The tower is being leased and is expected to open to the public by later in 2014.

The downtown intersection of Market, Fell and Polk streets in San Francisco is a bustling place, where in April 2007 the construction of a new apartment building, the Argenta, had already begun at One Polk Street.

Construction on the Argenta luxury apartments continues as the building rises higher in this image taken in April 2008.

By July 2009, work on the Argenta is being finished as leasing banners advertise the new property to potential residents. Newly planted trees on the street are small. On the left, a Broaster Café restaurant is still present.

Residents are living in the Argenta by March 2011 when this latest image is captured. Notably, the Broaster Café on the left street corner is now shuttered, showing the changes that neighborhoods experience over time.

Outside, the former Broaster Café has become Little Griddle Traditional American Eatery in this image taken in May 2012. The trees outside are also beginning to bulk up since they were planted. Note the unaltered cream-colored AAA building just behind the Argenta.

A block behind the Argenta, a reconstruction project on Fell Street shows the major changes being made on the old AAA building as its former façade is removed in preparation for replacement materials in this image from November 2013.

The old South Street Bridge over the Schuylkill River in downtown Philadelphia is captured in this Street View image from July 2007. Soon, a new bridge and an innovative recreational project will follow.

By June 2011, the decrepit old South Street Bridge is now replaced with a modern new structure that will soon usher in more improvements in the urban Philadelphia neighborhood over the water.

Federal, state and city funding is paying for an urban “boardwalk” project that is being built over Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River to connect South Street to Locust Street. A special ramp that connects the South Street Bridge to the boardwalk is shown in an early construction phase in this image captured in July 2013. The boardwalk will be open to pedestrians, bicyclists, runners, fishing enthusiasts and street entertainers for recreation along the waterfront.