That was the Great Falls in Paterson, NJ. Looks far different today but still recognizable. Some of the old mills are still standing though some have burnt down. They followed McBride Ave then crossed Van Houten to Ellison St. Worked the ambulance out of the Union Ave firehouse.
I just looked at it on google maps. You may disagree but I get the impression that it may have changed for the worse with a big ugly parking space where the row houses once were.
Thank you, sitting here guessing that was Paterson by the hills. Grew up 4 miles from GWB in Teaneck and made the trip over the Bridge thousands of times.
Good eye! I visited there this past summer with the family. The video reminded me of the area but I didn't make the exact connection. I used Google street view to get my bearings in the video. The Great Falls is a great place to visit.
Light traffic, clean streets, no graffiti, what is there not to like. I wish I could step into a time portal for a day, just to experience that time period.
Then you had asbestos, leaded petrol, uranium watchfaces, heavy metals used everywhere, and generally higher accident-rates and sudden death everywhere. Plus the streets werent clean at all, it’s just the noise reduction and smoothing in the video giving the impression. Great stuff.
My father worked in the Empire State Building in the very late 40's and early 50's. He almost certainly drove these streets and bridges in his commute from NJ.
Well it looks like my grandfather rubbed elbows with your father - he worked in the Empire State Building from just after it opened in the 30's through the 60's. He started in the mail room while studying at NYU, then a page, then an accountant. I wonder if he ever brought him his mail? Ask your father if he knew an Irish guy named Patrick - LOL
@@BradThePitts I wish I could - Papa passed away on november 5th. But going back and forth across the GWB from the Empire State bldg to West Paterson is exactly what Papa did back then.
The NJ city is Paterson, very near the Great Falls. Alexander Hamilton planned it as the first industrial city in America, to compete with Britain. The Falls produced great hydro power used as runways for machines and later electricity. Locomotives and guns were produced here and later textiles, so much so it was nicknamed The Silk City. Nylon was a nail in its coffin, among many.
If this was filmed between 1942 & 1945, WW2 had something to do with it. Everything was rationed, including gas, &, people were encouraged to limit their car trips to help the War Effort.
@@owencarey7214 There absolutely was already hunger. According to Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) the world is _always_ overpopulated, with populations always growing more quickly than the production of food.
Went over this bridge probably thousands of times. We had a cottage upstate and took this bridge often on weekends and during the summer from the Bronx. This was before the lower deck was opened in the 60's. At the time of its opening, the GW was the longest single span bridge in the US soon to be eclipsed by the golden Gate and then the Verrazano's Narrows. I believe the GW is the busiest bridge in the world today. NYC and cities in New Jersey were livable then. Then the neighborhoods changed as we used to say.
You think the neighborhood as it was shot here was livable? Before "the neighborhoods changed" as you would say? Some guy hanging on to his respectable home despite a smog-belching factory as his neighbor? The ramshackle homes crammed together, not built to any kind of municipal code? The old lady sauntering down a street that could be mistaken for an alley? My family came from there, 2 generations worked at a fan factory in Ampere. And they didn't move because they were racist, they moved because living amongst factories just plain sucks for things like children and lungs and community. Nobody ever wanted to live there, you only lived there because you had to.
@@danstermeister I'm sure not all places were livable as there were no environmental standards at the time and much poverty, but many were. I was born in the Bronx in 1948 and we lived a block away from Tremont Park near Tremont Avenue. There were problems yes, but not so bad. We moved out in 1958. My memories of the time were that of a child. We also visited relatives in other areas of "the city", my Grandparents in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn, Aunts in Manhattan, and cousins in Bayside, Queens. So, as a child I got to see other areas of NYC but only New Jersey from route 17 on our way Upstate. The problem is we are going backwards as a country. The economy peaked the year I graduated high school in 1966 when hours of work required to buy goods is calculated. Jobs have vanished such as the Ford assembly plant in Mahwah, N.J, where I worked several times and employed thousands of workers at a living wage.
Great video. My mother's uncle worked on this bridge as it was being built. It looks funny to see very few cars on the bridge. Now it takes a half hour or more just to get up to the toll booths from 80-95!
There was not a mass influx of people from other race/cultures fighting to take everything we had accomplished at that point. But you see now the results. A tragedy.
Interesting how many pre-war models wee still on the road in 1950. My grandmother was still driving a 1931 Ford Model A at that time. She kept it until 1962.
As has been noted by others, the end shots are of Paterson, NJ. It's fun to do a side-by-side trip comparison with Google Street View and the video. If you start at 98 McBride Ave. (Libby's Lunch @5:31 on the left in the video -- sadly now closed), you can follow the camera as it travels along McBride Ave. At the end where it reaches the T-intersection, that's Mill St. All those houses at the intersection are gone and McBride now actually continues through to what is Ellison St. Such fun to see what buildings have been torn down (most of the factories on the left along McBride) and those that still survive. The roads have also been seemingly greatly straightened.
I love this video, and I watch it over and over. At 3:39, on the right side (which is north of the GWB, heading west) you can see the famed Riviera Nightclub of Fort Lee, where Frank Sinatra and other big stars performed.
Thank you! I wondered what it was. I have walked the paths along those cliffs many times and encountered remnants of building foundations further north but I had no idea there used to be a club so close to the bridge itself.
I was watching for a glimpse at Palisades Amusement Park, too, but I'm thankful for the views we got. I keep wishing I could click and drag around these videos like Google's Street View... 😁
On the return trip to New Jersey, notice Bill Miller's Rivera on Englewood Cliffs. Long gone, it hosted Sinatra and others. Plus, it was our hangout after the prom. Good times
7:26 - McBride St near the Paterson Falls in Paterson, NJ... Factory on left is rehabbed and appears the same. The houses at the end of the block is a parking lot.
@@MrSloika It's true, after not walking the bridge and surrounding areas I was surprised how depressing and non pedestrian friendly everywhere in North Jersey is becoming and all local community gone.
@@MrSloika I wouldn't doubt it. So much money has been allotted to 'green acres' projects that was not used for the overall populations enjoyment but instead local pet projects and peeves. No peaceful shady benches and quiet nooks away from traffic, sports groups, exercise and crowding. It's like being in a fishbowl where people unescorted or unaffiliated with the dominating groups are suspect.
Seeing all those wonderful factories churning out so many products made right here. What a incredible industrial base we had then. Now just a hollowed out shell of our former self.
The GWB, the bridge that was never finished (although the second deck was added after the span opened.) That "industrial city" may be Paterson, New Jersey, which at one time manufactured a great variety of things including steam locomotives. The bridge over the deep ravine at 6:04 brings to mind the Great Falls--indicative of the water power available to the area's early manufacturers.
No 'may be' about it, that's Paterson, New Jersey mostly along McBride Ave. A number of those buildings are still standing. Paterson was founded by the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures (S.U.M.) which was headed by Alexander Hamilton (the guy on the ten dollar bill). The site was chosen because of the waterfall on the Passaic River which provided the power for those early factories. Paterson was once a major center of manufacturing in the US....cotton mills, steel products, silk mills, locomotive works. Samuel Colt set up his first revolver factory in Paterson in 1836. Those first models are today known as the Paterson Colts. All that manufacturing is long gone now, what's left is a sad slum.
@@1940limited How can you Possibly think that bridge was made in China when Clinton was president? Here we go with Another Political TROLL that Can't Enjoy the Scenic Drive without telling everybody about his Political hatreds. MAN What A GOOF.
@@davemckolanis4683 You deny that most of our industry, starting in the 80s, was shipped to China? Looked at all our ravaged and abandoned cities lately? I think you're the goof.
2:17 - Coming out of the W178St Tunnel (still there unused under the street) to be twinned by a W179St Tunnel and then replaced in the 1960s with the present Trans-Manhattan Expwy (aka 'Under The Apartments').
The primary reason beside this video being slowed down, is that more happened in the vehicle back then, it was like a luxury room they were in. Although one thing to note, they aren't going as slow as you think, there's an illusion to a side view that makes everything look really slow since your only looking ahead, yet if you look around the vehicle it all looks a lot faster in movement. When you see a train coming towards you, most people freeze because they don't realize or know how close or far away it is. The sickening sight of a large wall of ornamented blaring horn that slowly or very closely gets to you.
@@WitchKing-Of-Angmar They're going slow my guy. The average speed limit was 35mph back then. Cars in the 40's only have like 100hp and topped out around 70mph 😂
@@Eagle7433 I like how you end with a laughing crying lemon like you actually know. I bet you've never had a lesson on speed limits before your drivers Ed class school boy. In 1900, automobiles went 30-60, by 1930, Ford was lacking in power yet making up in compensation, therefore that Joke about the Ford V8 being the first vehicle over 60 miles per hour is a very false lie. Maybe you should just plant yourself in the ground, and sprout up into a decent person. You don't know anything about that time, don't make me begin to possibly laugh.
@@WitchKing-Of-Angmar Are you ok? You sound mad lol. Again... Cars averaged 70-100hp and were heavy and slow. Even those with the Ford Flathead V8 were still under 100hp. SPEED LIMITS were around 30mph So yea, those cars aren't goin 60mph 😂 You obviously never been in a pre 1950's vehicle. And you also don't know anything about engines. Trying to sustain a speed of 50mph or more in a 1940's car on a daily basis with only 70-100 hp is not what ppl were doing back then. The argument isn't IF cars can go 60mph. The argument is if the cars in THIS VIDEO are going 60mph which they aren't. Why would all these cars be topping out at top speed for no reason lol. Nice try 😂
5:39 - The billboard on the right side with Enjoy Life - 12 Hours Fresher and a graphic of a loaf of bread. Such modesty in identifying fresh bread as a luxury. A more humble era.
5:38 When I was a small child growing up in New Jersey, my dad would buy a 5-foot spruce tree for Christmas that was still in a pot of dirt. After Christmas, he would have the spruce tree planted in the soil around our house. It would grow 10-20-feet tall. The trees at this time stamp reminded me of this. I wonder how long Ruppert Beer and Ale survived? Even back in the 40s, the thought of fleeing New York sounds very tempting.
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Awesome video , I can appreciate, seeing Fort Lee in its 60s wow ! Everything seem so less congested, amazing time to live in this area it seemed ! Thank You ! 🙏🏼
The first view is eastbound from Fort Lee to Washington Heights. My mom grew up in one of those apartment buildings in Washington Heights in the 30s and 40s. The 2nd view is westbound into Fort Lee, NJ.
Are you sure that’s eastbound? That’s what’s throwing my off. I see the apartment buildings and that cannot be fort Lee. But the drive does not seem eastbound.
@@piercevaughan7566 I'm certain for 2 reasons - the palisades are clearly on the near side of the bridge and then on the other side of the Hudson there are mid to high rise apartment buildings off to the left in Washington Heights. Those would not have existed in Fort Lee that many years ago.
My parents grew up in the Vinegar Hills area (west 135th) near the City College. A hard working people living in the area. My parents fondly remember that area where everyone checked on others and offered a help.
I grew up in the late 70s and 80s, in Fairview, NJ, just 3 miles south of Fort Lee. It's fascinating to see how wooded and less developed the Fort Lee area was at the time this was filmed. Another thing that I find interesting is that there were no pedestrians on the bridge. I didn't see any in this film (maybe I did see one person, can't be sure, though).
Very happy to be watching this video - thank you!!! Opener: eastbound into NYC. Love the old lamp posts on the GWB. Car toll: 50 cents, a lot for the time. -- Westbound in the middle - I would have loved to see more of the original traffic pattern on the Manhattan approaches before the lower level was added.-- And there was hardly anything in the Fort Lee area back then, was there? The boom with the high-rises started much later. The toll plaza is where the original silent movie studios in the early 1900s were located, according to the Ft. Lee Film Commission; I believe that section was called Coytesville. -- For the people commenting on the smoothness of the roads, I've been told that some of the roughness is removed in the colorizing process and in the film speed. Still, they were definitely not as beat up - cars were lighter, and more traffic moved by train than by truck. But development was coming, necessitating the lower level of the GWB in 1962. Since then, there has been no expansion of capacity to cross the Hudson even though construction and population have skyrocketed. Thus the current conditions of "too much traffic, not enough road" and the beat-up condition of the roads.
That was amazing and sad. The beauty and peace of the GW bridge (sounds added, we know) are breath taking compared to the stench of the Port Authority charging commuters and truckers $16 to $20 a ride. Port Authority cops stopping traffic on the bridge at no ones notice nor do the cops give two sh-ts about your life (at times for almost an hour for no reasons given nor warnings for commuters and people with appointments and truckers with delivery times etc.) while at any moment a group a mini bikers with no plates can shoot you five times; see October 2021 news. Sad.
I knew a world war two veteran who told me stories about how he and his friends would speed around town in his buddy’s 1936 Ford in the early 40s before they went off to war. Plenty of people were crazy drivers back then, lol. Might want to take those rose colored glasses off.
@@mccuenoirfilms yeah for the speed at the time, but in general people weren't in the biggest damn hurry like they are now. The world went and got itself into a big damn hurry. It wasn't like that back then which is clearly evident by the video. The speed limit on the pike was 55 15, 20 years ago. Now its 65 with most people doing 8p, than it would have been 70.
It was even better in new york state. This was a time when every new yorker had the highest standard of living. Even then they had at least 2 bathrooms, central heating and at least 1 car per family. This level of sheer comfort shocked people from the South and non Americans even more so!!!!!
@@iseegoodandbad6758 what are you on? tenements were still going strong in NYC in the 40s. if you were rich and white, things were great. otherwise ... not so much.
@@ChristopherWawak The worst of the tenements were gone by 1950. In 1901 New York stated passed the 'Tenement House Act' which banned construction of new tenements and gradually phased out existing tenements.
I believe that most of us watching this are wishing for a "time machine" or portal to escape the craziness of 2021. I believe this was made in 1950 ~ 1951. I don't 'remember', as I was born in 1949, but the models of some cars appear to be from '50 ~ '51.
Time when people cared for their surroundings and each other , never to be seen again. Buckle up, it's all downhill from here. Thanx NASS for another wonderful piece. 👌
My grandmother grew up in Queens in the 40s (my grandfather as well but he died before I was born). This makes me think of her it would be cool to show it to her today.
From 6.30 when the camera switches to forward facing, driving down the street, you can almost feel the warmth of the sun, see people going about their business, all the people that you can't see in all the appartments & flats, then you get to the bottom of the hill & there's the wee woman in the black coat with her carrier bag, with a wee glance at the camera car approaching, and then she's gone. Alive again for about seven seconds. The quality of the restoration lets us feel like we're there & and can really see these people & feel that they are alive because as we watch it feels like the present. Does anybody else feel a little sad at the end of these beautiful restorations, when you've watched whole neighbourhoods & clearly seen individuals & families & kids on that day, living their lives & then then the realisation that most of them have passed away. But it is a good sad, because it comes from a good place from inside us, and also we are being filmed all the time now & perhaps 80 - 100 yrs from now someone will be watching a recording & there you are coming out of a shop on a main street, 30 - 35 yrs of age, looking great, not even knowing you were being filmed, long gone. So it continues, and it's beautiful that it does.
Fantastic video - really made me feel like I was there riding along. Said to myself that I wish I could stop for a cheese burger, coffee, and chunk of apple pie as they must have tasted real good back in the day. Oh to have a TARDIS !!!
From 0:06 to 0:15 seconds in the video there is I believe a 1949 Nash, in the far left toll lane. Growing up in the 50s, our family had a 1951 Nash Ambassador sedan, with a very similar appearance! Always loved that streamline "bathtub" styling!!
Exactly the same, minus the toll booths lol wow unbelievable I travel this country of ours for work an being from NJ born and raised this is great footage my grandmother is somewhere in the city right now working somewhere. thanks for the time capsule
24/7 the bridge nowadays is jammed with tractor trailers. I drove semis across it around the clock, either creeping along bumper to bumper or 70 mph with other semis on my tail wanting me to go faster. The industrial buildings are now all gone but NYC and the tristate region was a huge manufacturing center in its day.
This is very cool. The amount of smoke stacks reminded me of a Pink Floyd album cover... Animals. Interesting the look back in time (a momentary time travel if you will) and reading the comments below. I was surprised by the Toll bridge, the amount of standing police officers and the very 'light' traffic. Maybe this was filmed on a 'Sunday drive'.
So dreamlike, to watch these videos. People who are now long gone, living their lives, going where they happened to be going at the time they were filmed. I noticed that people drove at rather sedate speeds. Maybe one day you could add the sound of a period radio broadcast being tuned in on the car radio to one of your future videos?
In looking at all these videos from 1940-1950’s California and New York, everything is so much cleaner and less crowded and much more beautiful. What happened?
It's a long and complicated story, but it pretty much started in about 1963 with the Federal government changing from a service organization to support the citizen's way of life to become the owner of the residents of the US. A lot of very bad things happened after that in many areas, but much of it is based on the government's disrespect for law and for the people, and the resulting disrespect the people have for both the government and law in general.
Amazing, very nice. The video is a little slow, though. I mean, I remember reading Oscar Wilde's description of Americans from the early 1890s and he said they were always running! His unemployed and prodigal brother even joked to a journalist when asked what he was doing in America that he was trying to "introduce a leisure class" as the American seemed to lack one. You can definitely tell by the pace that old lady is walking at at 07:35 in the video that the video is too slow, but it doesn't take away from its beauty. Thank you!
What a beautiful video. I wonder what the camera was mounted to. Considering it was a massive camera back then, and we don't see the windshield or the trunk of the car at all in the video, which is so still LOL
The sad thing is this is probably what the height of rush hour looked like back then. Once again, a great video to make us feel what it was like to live in other decades.
My granduncle was a cop on the GW; we're all from the Washington Heights section right over the bridge into Manhattan. Jeez the bridge now is packed & the whole area around it is overbuilt. I spent most of my life on both sides of the bridge.
Lived in Fort Lee as a kid in the late sixties used to hike along the Palisades all the time. hiked across the bridge a handful of times don't recognize much only that it's much less developed
@ 5:31, Libby's Lunch in Paterson New Jersey. It is reported to be the birthplace of the Texas Weiner (Hot dog with chili.) They lasted until July 2020. They were located at 98 McBride Ave., Paterson
wow what a different time ! absolutely amazing first time seeeing a commute on the gwb and where there wasnt any cutofffs ,no finger salute or rap music at a heart stopping decibel. god i miss those days
Some of those cars look like early 1950s models. But either way, one mistake Hollywood movies make when recreating videos from this era is to include all or most of the cars from the year the movie is supposed to take place in. In reality, not everyone drove a brand new car. Some people drove new cars, some people drove older cars. Nice to see some trucks and buses, as those are often left out of movies recreating the era. And many movies tend to make the roads in NYC jam packed with traffic and honking taxis, when in reality, we can see the traffic was actually very light in the middle of the day.
Maybe that depended on where you were. By the time they were octagonal they were red in the west of the country. Remember that the colors here are fake, this was B&W film that was colorized. I'm virtually positive that these signs would have been red with white border and lettering.
@@lwilton Here's what I found online: "While the stop sign's shape has remained the same since the 1920s, it wasn't always red like the one we see today. Multiple revisions were made, but it wasn't until 1954 that the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices mandated all stop signs be red and octagonal." So in this video, the stop sign may not have been red.
Stop signs were yellow with black letters then changed to red with white letters in the early 1950's . Yield signs were yellow with black letters until the late 1960's . Traffic cones were yellow with a red band around the top and were 18'' - 28'' tall . The slow rubber cones were white with a red band around the top with black letters saying SLOW a flag adapter could be inserted into the hole on top of the cone to display 1-3 orange or red flags , these cones were banned in the late 1960s to early 1970s and all traffic cones became Orange.
![New jersey 1930s, early 50s in color [60fps, Remastered] w/sound design added](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/sz7K6nn9rkI/mqdefault.jpg)
![New jersey 1930s, early 50s in color [60fps, Remastered] w/sound design added](/img/tr.png)
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Wondering how this was filmed.Would it be a camera attached to the front of a car?
Please : then and now 2022
Watching this is relaxing, no road rage, no cursing or obnoxious drivers, just a nice quiet ride
That was the Great Falls in Paterson, NJ. Looks far different today but still recognizable. Some of the old mills are still standing though some have burnt down. They followed McBride Ave then crossed Van Houten to Ellison St. Worked the ambulance out of the Union Ave firehouse.
I just looked at it on google maps.
You may disagree but I get the impression that it may have changed for the worse with a big ugly parking space where the row houses once were.
It looks very similar to the old towns in Upstate New York like Troy and Watervliet.
Thank you, sitting here guessing that was Paterson by the hills. Grew up 4 miles from GWB in Teaneck and made the trip over the Bridge thousands of times.
Thank you! Kind of sad to see the building at 6:15 is gone, but its relatives remained and it's a gorgeous location.
Good eye! I visited there this past summer with the family. The video reminded me of the area but I didn't make the exact connection. I used Google street view to get my bearings in the video. The Great Falls is a great place to visit.
1950 - a lot of 1949-1950 model cars. Very interesting to see some cars from the late 1920's. Great video !!
For certain 1949, but not certain if any cars here are actually 1950 since many 1950 models were styling carry overs of 49's.
just saw a 50 Ford, as i own a 49 i know the slight differences!
@@ernesthofmeister3054 good eyes so now 1950s is it
It is interesting to see those older models. It makes sense; I still see plenty of cars from the 90's and even 80's where I live.
Yup! I spotted a 49 & 50 Cadillac’s within the first 50 seconds in!
Light traffic, clean streets, no graffiti, what is there not to like. I wish I could step into a time portal for a day, just to experience that time period.
Absolutely
Air pollution
institutional racism. polio. measles. world war 2.
@@ChristopherWawak For a white adult person living in the US the world was fine. Polio and Measles for kids, WW2 far away.
Then you had asbestos, leaded petrol, uranium watchfaces, heavy metals used everywhere, and generally higher accident-rates and sudden death everywhere.
Plus the streets werent clean at all, it’s just the noise reduction and smoothing in the video giving the impression.
Great stuff.
My father worked in the Empire State Building in the very late 40's and early 50's. He almost certainly drove these streets and bridges in his commute from NJ.
Well it looks like my grandfather rubbed elbows with your father - he worked in the Empire State Building from just after it opened in the 30's through the 60's. He started in the mail room while studying at NYU, then a page, then an accountant. I wonder if he ever brought him his mail? Ask your father if he knew an Irish guy named Patrick - LOL
@@BradThePitts I wish I could - Papa passed away on november 5th. But going back and forth across the GWB from the Empire State bldg to West Paterson is exactly what Papa did back then.
@@StudSupreme sorry for your loss i lost mine too
My name is Studnicky. Stud was the nickname used. Are we related?
I don’t know so much of the color quality, BUT the film restoration and subtle sound instill is second to none. I’m a subscriber now.
The infrastructure was at an unbelievable level of development
Yes, and remarkably everything is earlier versions of today. This has always astounded me.
@@patrickomahoney3630 its almost as if this is a video of the past. incredible!
@@patrickomahoney3630 It seems unreal that time existed before today’s buildings doesn’t it?
I remember asking my dad if he worked on it. He was an Ironworker. No he said, I wasn’t even born! 😂
@@sirrom5155 it is film, not video and you don't understand subtleties of english language, how sad.
The NJ city is Paterson, very near the Great Falls. Alexander Hamilton planned it as the first industrial city in America, to compete with Britain. The Falls produced great hydro power used as runways for machines and later electricity. Locomotives and guns were produced here and later textiles, so much so it was nicknamed The Silk City. Nylon was a nail in its coffin, among many.
Thank you.
It's amazing how little traffic there was back then.
Most people used mass transit for work. Saved the car for weekends.
@@samanthab1923 World wasn't overpopulated either.
If this was filmed between 1942 & 1945, WW2 had something to do with it. Everything was rationed, including gas, &, people were encouraged to limit their car trips to help the War Effort.
@@owencarey7214 There absolutely was already hunger. According to Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) the world is _always_ overpopulated, with populations always growing more quickly than the production of food.
Went over this bridge probably thousands of times. We had a cottage upstate and took this bridge often on weekends and during the summer from the Bronx. This was before the lower deck was opened in the 60's. At the time of its opening, the GW was the longest single span bridge in the US soon to be eclipsed by the golden Gate and then the Verrazano's Narrows. I believe the GW is the busiest bridge in the world today. NYC and cities in New Jersey were livable then. Then the neighborhoods changed as we used to say.
You think the neighborhood as it was shot here was livable? Before "the neighborhoods changed" as you would say? Some guy hanging on to his respectable home despite a smog-belching factory as his neighbor? The ramshackle homes crammed together, not built to any kind of municipal code? The old lady sauntering down a street that could be mistaken for an alley? My family came from there, 2 generations worked at a fan factory in Ampere. And they didn't move because they were racist, they moved because living amongst factories just plain sucks for things like children and lungs and community. Nobody ever wanted to live there, you only lived there because you had to.
@@danstermeister I'm sure not all places were livable as there were no environmental standards at the time and much poverty, but many were. I was born in the Bronx in 1948 and we lived a block away from Tremont Park near Tremont Avenue. There were problems yes, but not so bad. We moved out in 1958. My memories of the time were that of a child. We also visited relatives in other areas of "the city", my Grandparents in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn, Aunts in Manhattan, and cousins in Bayside, Queens. So, as a child I got to see other areas of NYC but only New Jersey from route 17 on our way Upstate. The problem is we are going backwards as a country. The economy peaked the year I graduated high school in 1966 when hours of work required to buy goods is calculated. Jobs have vanished such as the Ford assembly plant in Mahwah, N.J, where I worked several times and employed thousands of workers at a living wage.
My family took the same route to White Lake, Town of Bethel. GW to Palisades Pkwy to 17, to 17B. Ahh the 70’s.
Great video. My mother's uncle worked on this bridge as it was being built. It looks funny to see very few cars on the bridge. Now it takes a half hour or more just to get up to the toll booths from 80-95!
All of these vintage color locations in different cities all have one thing in common, they more closely resemble European cities than they do today.
Europe is crap!
Yes, from 7:20 it looks very European.
Jllrue funny, Europe thinks the same thing about us.
European architects?
@@jllrue The entire continent?
i love watching old footage like this. it was a simpler time back then. life seemed to be a lot better than it is today.
people were more focused thanks to the lack of distractions.
Not seemed to be better…..it was !!!!!!
There was not a mass influx of people from other race/cultures fighting to take everything we had accomplished at that point.
But you see now the results. A tragedy.
It wasn't simpler. And it wasn't better.
Yes it was, you could beat your wife and nobody would know or care.
Excellent video! I wish it could have gone on for ever!
Yes, it's absolutely thrilling. What a pity that we have to confine ourselves to the videos which then were made.
Back when cars looked beautiful, were scarce and had moderate speed. What a time to travel on road.
@@octavius8562 Not true.A car with a faulty CAT pollutes far more and the driver doesn't know it. Turbo diesel too carcinogenic fumes.
Interesting how many pre-war models wee still on the road in 1950. My grandmother was still driving a 1931 Ford Model A at that time. She kept it until 1962.
so you're the guy who drive 45 in the left lane, ha?
@@nickjervis8123 Engines and fuel were terrible polluters up until the 1970s when Unleaded Gas became the standard.
Paint from that era didn't hold up very well though. Most looked dull and faded from the UV rays.
As has been noted by others, the end shots are of Paterson, NJ. It's fun to do a side-by-side trip comparison with Google Street View and the video. If you start at 98 McBride Ave. (Libby's Lunch @5:31 on the left in the video -- sadly now closed), you can follow the camera as it travels along McBride Ave. At the end where it reaches the T-intersection, that's Mill St. All those houses at the intersection are gone and McBride now actually continues through to what is Ellison St. Such fun to see what buildings have been torn down (most of the factories on the left along McBride) and those that still survive. The roads have also been seemingly greatly straightened.
I love this video, and I watch it over and over. At 3:39, on the right side (which is north of the GWB, heading west) you can see the famed Riviera Nightclub of Fort Lee, where Frank Sinatra and other big stars performed.
I do get that kind of mafia feeling when I watch too.
Thank you! I wondered what it was. I have walked the paths along those cliffs many times and encountered remnants of building foundations further north but I had no idea there used to be a club so close to the bridge itself.
Ben Marden, a pal of gangsters, ran the Riviera. Lepke Buchalter met his wife there.
nice time
Amazing. I never would have dreamt Northern NJ ever had asphalt this nice...
Amazing! I would have liked to see Palisades Amusement Park when crossing the GW on the outbound (westbound, or New Jersey bound) segment.
I was watching for a glimpse at Palisades Amusement Park, too, but I'm thankful for the views we got. I keep wishing I could click and drag around these videos like Google's Street View... 😁
I love that song 🎶
@@samanthab1923 Do you mean, the Palisades Amusement Park jingle, "...come on over..." or the Freddie Cannon song?
@@joelfrombethlehem Freddie Cannon. Forgot about the jingle 😊
Absolutely mesmerizing! Especially if you put on some 40's music while watching! Thank you Nass!
Make that 50's music to be more appropriate. Lots of 50s cars in the video so this wasn't filmed in the 40s.
On the return trip to New Jersey, notice Bill Miller's Rivera on Englewood Cliffs. Long gone, it hosted Sinatra and others. Plus, it was our hangout after the prom. Good times
7:26 - McBride St near the Paterson Falls in Paterson, NJ... Factory on left is rehabbed and appears the same. The houses at the end of the block is a parking lot.
Yup. I was in Paterson two weeks ago on business.
I love these videos, they are kind of surreal and dream like, excellent stuff.
Wow GW bridge here is its prime condition I've ever seen! Nothing like the madness it is today!
Yes, it's bumper-to-bumper traffic 24/7/365 now. Also a center divider has been added and that horrible anti-suicide netting.
@@MrSloika It's true, after not walking the bridge and surrounding areas I was surprised how depressing and non pedestrian friendly everywhere in North Jersey is becoming and all local community gone.
@@petemavus2948 That was by design. Discouraging pedestrians was seen as a way of controlling crime and keeping 'those people' out of the 'hood.
@@MrSloika I wouldn't doubt it. So much money has been allotted to 'green acres' projects that was not used for the overall populations enjoyment but instead local pet projects and peeves. No peaceful shady benches and quiet nooks away from traffic, sports groups, exercise and crowding. It's like being in a fishbowl where people unescorted or unaffiliated with the dominating groups are suspect.
Love your video's makes the world look peaceful
Seeing all those wonderful factories churning out so many products made right here. What a incredible industrial base we had then. Now just a hollowed out shell of our former self.
Same here in UK till we sold out to far east...
Consequently, NJ smells a lot better these days. Trade offs.
@@soundshaper I wouldn't exactly call that a fair trade off.
If they're lucky, residential lofts.
Dang, I travel this bridge a lot and to see it in the 1940s is impressive
Thank you for saving these old films, it brings back memories of my childhood!
This is from the Early 1950,s but still very nice
The GWB, the bridge that was never finished (although the second deck was added after the span opened.)
That "industrial city" may be Paterson, New Jersey, which at one time manufactured a great variety of things including steam locomotives. The bridge over the deep ravine at 6:04 brings to mind the Great Falls--indicative of the water power available to the area's early manufacturers.
All in China now thanks to the geniuses in the White House starting with Clinton.
It is indeed Paterson, right by the falls. McBride Avenue.
No 'may be' about it, that's Paterson, New Jersey mostly along McBride Ave. A number of those buildings are still standing. Paterson was founded by the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures (S.U.M.) which was headed by Alexander Hamilton (the guy on the ten dollar bill). The site was chosen because of the waterfall on the Passaic River which provided the power for those early factories. Paterson was once a major center of manufacturing in the US....cotton mills, steel products, silk mills, locomotive works. Samuel Colt set up his first revolver factory in Paterson in 1836. Those first models are today known as the Paterson Colts. All that manufacturing is long gone now, what's left is a sad slum.
@@1940limited How can you Possibly think that bridge was made in China when Clinton was president? Here we go with Another Political TROLL that Can't Enjoy the Scenic Drive without telling everybody about his Political hatreds. MAN What A GOOF.
@@davemckolanis4683 You deny that most of our industry, starting in the 80s, was shipped to China? Looked at all our ravaged and abandoned cities lately? I think you're the goof.
So Cool! Makes me feel young again. (I grew up in the 1960's & loads of these cars were still around).
2:17 - Coming out of the W178St Tunnel (still there unused under the street) to be twinned by a W179St Tunnel and then replaced in the 1960s with the present Trans-Manhattan Expwy (aka 'Under The Apartments').
They're going so slow, but since there's no traffic they probably end up where they're going quicker than today
The primary reason beside this video being slowed down, is that more happened in the vehicle back then, it was like a luxury room they were in. Although one thing to note, they aren't going as slow as you think, there's an illusion to a side view that makes everything look really slow since your only looking ahead, yet if you look around the vehicle it all looks a lot faster in movement. When you see a train coming towards you, most people freeze because they don't realize or know how close or far away it is. The sickening sight of a large wall of ornamented blaring horn that slowly or very closely gets to you.
@@WitchKing-Of-Angmar They're going slow my guy. The average speed limit was 35mph back then. Cars in the 40's only have like 100hp and topped out around 70mph 😂
Just speed up the video, it's very exciting.
@@Eagle7433 I like how you end with a laughing crying lemon like you actually know. I bet you've never had a lesson on speed limits before your drivers Ed class school boy. In 1900, automobiles went 30-60, by 1930, Ford was lacking in power yet making up in compensation, therefore that Joke about the Ford V8 being the first vehicle over 60 miles per hour is a very false lie. Maybe you should just plant yourself in the ground, and sprout up into a decent person. You don't know anything about that time, don't make me begin to possibly laugh.
@@WitchKing-Of-Angmar Are you ok? You sound mad lol. Again...
Cars averaged 70-100hp and were heavy and slow. Even those with the Ford Flathead V8 were still under 100hp.
SPEED LIMITS were around 30mph
So yea, those cars aren't goin 60mph 😂
You obviously never been in a pre 1950's vehicle. And you also don't know anything about engines. Trying to sustain a speed of 50mph or more in a 1940's car on a daily basis with only 70-100 hp is not what ppl were doing back then.
The argument isn't IF cars can go 60mph. The argument is if the cars in THIS VIDEO are going 60mph which they aren't. Why would all these cars be topping out at top speed for no reason lol.
Nice try 😂
I believe that's Paterson New Jersey at the end.
It is. The driver is on McBride Avenue near the falls. He passed Libby's Lunch at the start of that clip.
5:39 - The billboard on the right side with Enjoy Life - 12 Hours Fresher and a graphic of a loaf of bread. Such modesty in identifying fresh bread as a luxury. A more humble era.
huge thanks for this trip so stunning.........perfect historical document.....and colors are alive.......perfect.
5:38 When I was a small child growing up in New Jersey, my dad would buy a 5-foot spruce tree for Christmas that was still in a pot of dirt. After Christmas, he would have the spruce tree planted in the soil around our house. It would grow 10-20-feet tall. The trees at this time stamp reminded me of this. I wonder how long Ruppert Beer and Ale survived? Even back in the 40s, the thought of fleeing New York sounds very tempting.
Excellent video I love stepping back in time. Great Job !
Just discovered this exquisite video in my stream after recently watching one of Rick88888888’s videos.I’m amazed at the level of quality when watching these videos.I’ll be sure to subscribe thank you!!
Man, I just saw your Avatar on a Live Stream the other night.
Awesome video , I can appreciate, seeing Fort Lee in its 60s wow ! Everything seem so less congested, amazing time to live in this area it seemed ! Thank You ! 🙏🏼
Like And Share Please!!
question: why do so many of the autos have a purple, purple-violet color? I don't recall ever seeing a vehicle of those vintages painted that way.
It was the oxidation of the paint mostly. 👍❤🇺🇸
@@kennysherrill6542 new paint oxidized?
I cherish every single one of these videos.
The first view is eastbound from Fort Lee to Washington Heights. My mom grew up in one of those apartment buildings in Washington Heights in the 30s and 40s. The 2nd view is westbound into Fort Lee, NJ.
Are you sure that’s eastbound? That’s what’s throwing my off. I see the apartment buildings and that cannot be fort Lee. But the drive does not seem eastbound.
@@piercevaughan7566 I'm certain for 2 reasons - the palisades are clearly on the near side of the bridge and then on the other side of the Hudson there are mid to high rise apartment buildings off to the left in Washington Heights. Those would not have existed in Fort Lee that many years ago.
@@piercevaughan7566 I'm certain - it can only be eastbound or westbound and it starts on the west bank of the Hudson atop the Palisades facing east.
My parents grew up in the Vinegar Hills area (west 135th) near the City College. A hard working people living in the area. My parents fondly remember that area where everyone checked on others and offered a help.
Grew up there and I've driven across this bridge hundreds of times. And this was way before the lower deck was built.
I grew up in the late 70s and 80s, in Fairview, NJ, just 3 miles south of Fort Lee. It's fascinating to see how wooded and less developed the Fort Lee area was at the time this was filmed. Another thing that I find interesting is that there were no pedestrians on the bridge. I didn't see any in this film (maybe I did see one person, can't be sure, though).
@@thehighllama8101 True. I'm fixing the date by the vehicles crossing the GWB about 1949. I was born ten years later in Newark, NJ.
Very happy to be watching this video - thank you!!! Opener: eastbound into NYC. Love the old lamp posts on the GWB. Car toll: 50 cents, a lot for the time. -- Westbound in the middle - I would have loved to see more of the original traffic pattern on the Manhattan approaches before the lower level was added.-- And there was hardly anything in the Fort Lee area back then, was there? The boom with the high-rises started much later. The toll plaza is where the original silent movie studios in the early 1900s were located, according to the Ft. Lee Film Commission; I believe that section was called Coytesville. -- For the people commenting on the smoothness of the roads, I've been told that some of the roughness is removed in the colorizing process and in the film speed. Still, they were definitely not as beat up - cars were lighter, and more traffic moved by train than by truck. But development was coming, necessitating the lower level of the GWB in 1962. Since then, there has been no expansion of capacity to cross the Hudson even though construction and population have skyrocketed. Thus the current conditions of "too much traffic, not enough road" and the beat-up condition of the roads.
Nice observations also it should be noted that the too much traffic not enough road too high a price for the tolls today.
That was amazing and sad. The beauty and peace of the GW bridge (sounds added, we know) are breath taking compared to the stench of the Port Authority charging commuters and truckers $16 to $20 a ride. Port Authority cops stopping traffic on the bridge at no ones notice nor do the cops give two sh-ts about your life (at times for almost an hour for no reasons given nor warnings for commuters and people with appointments and truckers with delivery times etc.) while at any moment a group a mini bikers with no plates can shoot you five times; see October 2021 news. Sad.
Incredible. No bus terminal, no Palisades Parkway, no Columbia Presbyterian Hospital towers, and no lower level of the bridge. Best of all no traffic.
An amazing structure, one of my favorite bridges along with the VN
@ 5:30 pretty sure that's Paterson, New Jersey. It was at one time the model industrial city for the world.
I am so glad someone filmed this and thank you for sharing
No crazy ass speeding, no tailgating peaceful driving..
I would have fit right in back than.
I knew a world war two veteran who told me stories about how he and his friends would speed around town in his buddy’s 1936 Ford in the early 40s before they went off to war. Plenty of people were crazy drivers back then, lol. Might want to take those rose colored glasses off.
@@mccuenoirfilms yeah for the speed at the time, but in general people weren't in the biggest damn hurry like they are now. The world went and got itself into a big damn hurry. It wasn't like that back then which is clearly evident by the video. The speed limit on the pike was 55 15, 20 years ago. Now its 65 with most people doing 8p, than it would have been 70.
You must have a time machine and you have an HD camera to shoot these videos. Very nice. Please take me with you next time you time travel.
I can't get over how light the traffic is.
Look how slow and relaxed everyone is on the road!
Very good Video. Thank you ❤
Thank you
Just adding a slight amount of subdued color brings out so much detail . . . Well done !
It is so amazing to see that these roads were so ahead of their time.
It was even better in new york state. This was a time when every new yorker had the highest standard of living. Even then they had at least 2 bathrooms, central heating and at least 1 car per family. This level of sheer comfort shocked people from the South and non Americans even more so!!!!!
@@iseegoodandbad6758 you must be having a great time living in that era
@@shantanu925 Irony?
@@iseegoodandbad6758 what are you on? tenements were still going strong in NYC in the 40s. if you were rich and white, things were great. otherwise ... not so much.
@@ChristopherWawak The worst of the tenements were gone by 1950. In 1901 New York stated passed the 'Tenement House Act' which banned construction of new tenements and gradually phased out existing tenements.
Wow amazing to see the older time periods in color I just came across them a month age can't stop watching
I believe that most of us watching this are wishing for a "time machine" or portal to escape the craziness of 2021.
I believe this was made in 1950 ~ 1951. I don't 'remember', as I was born in 1949, but the models of some cars appear to be from '50 ~ '51.
Time when people cared for their surroundings and each other , never to be seen again. Buckle up, it's all downhill from here. Thanx NASS for another wonderful piece. 👌
My grandmother grew up in Queens in the 40s (my grandfather as well but he died before I was born). This makes me think of her it would be cool to show it to her today.
From 6.30 when the camera switches to forward facing, driving down the street, you can almost feel the warmth of the sun, see people going about their business, all the people that you can't see in all the appartments & flats, then you get to the bottom of the hill & there's the wee woman in the black coat with her carrier bag, with a wee glance at the camera car approaching, and then she's gone. Alive again for about seven seconds. The quality of the restoration lets us feel like we're there & and can really see these people & feel that they are alive because as we watch it feels like the present. Does anybody else feel a little sad at the end of these beautiful restorations, when you've watched whole neighbourhoods & clearly seen individuals & families & kids on that day, living their lives & then then the realisation that most of them have passed away. But it is a good sad, because it comes from a good place from inside us, and also we are being filmed all the time now & perhaps 80 - 100 yrs from now someone will be watching a recording & there you are coming out of a shop on a main street, 30 - 35 yrs of age, looking great, not even knowing you were being filmed, long gone. So it continues, and it's beautiful that it does.
This is awesome. Surroundings look totally different. I cross this bridge twice a day. @ 5:22 sign says passenger cars $.50. Now it's $16.00.
In 1975, the toll was still 60 cents. By 1980 it was 1.00 1983, it was 1.50. Times have changed
Cross the GWB everyday. This is wicked awesome!
Haven’t been over it in at least ten years. What’s the toll these days?
Depending on time of day 11.75-16.00
They posted a sign on the bridge, "No Turns".
Good advice.
Beautiful!
Fantastic video - really made me feel like I was there riding along. Said to myself that I wish I could stop for a cheese burger, coffee, and chunk of apple pie as they must have tasted real good back in the day. Oh to have a TARDIS !!!
From 0:06 to 0:15 seconds in the video there is I believe a 1949 Nash, in the far left toll lane. Growing up in the 50s, our family had a 1951 Nash Ambassador sedan, with a very similar appearance! Always loved that streamline "bathtub" styling!!
Yes, definitely a Nash “bathtub” waiting to go through toll.
Watching this video at 60 FPS is definitely time traveling.
I had a grandfather who lived at that time over there as if I can see with his eyes what I would see if I lived then. Thank you for the opportunity...
Exactly the same, minus the toll booths lol wow unbelievable I travel this country of ours for work an being from NJ born and raised this is great footage my grandmother is somewhere in the city right now working somewhere. thanks for the time capsule
My parents also..
Wow that was Paterson nj by the great falls wish they would've finished the video!!
24/7 the bridge nowadays is jammed with tractor trailers. I drove semis across it around the clock, either creeping along bumper to bumper or 70 mph with other semis on my tail wanting me to go faster. The industrial buildings are now all gone but NYC and the tristate region was a huge manufacturing center in its day.
This is so clear and beautiful I feel like I'm actually there
The lack of traffic in the middle of the day caught my eye.
This is very cool. The amount of smoke stacks reminded me of a Pink Floyd album cover... Animals. Interesting the look back in time (a momentary time travel if you will) and reading the comments below. I was surprised by the Toll bridge, the amount of standing police officers and the very 'light' traffic. Maybe this was filmed on a 'Sunday drive'.
I also thought it was filmed on a Sunday because near the end there were some women dressed for church.
So dreamlike, to watch these videos. People who are now long gone, living their lives, going where they happened to be going at the time they were filmed. I noticed that people drove at rather sedate speeds. Maybe one day you could add the sound of a period radio broadcast being tuned in on the car radio to one of your future videos?
In looking at all these videos from 1940-1950’s California and New York, everything is so much cleaner and less crowded and much more beautiful. What happened?
It's a long and complicated story, but it pretty much started in about 1963 with the Federal government changing from a service organization to support the citizen's way of life to become the owner of the residents of the US. A lot of very bad things happened after that in many areas, but much of it is based on the government's disrespect for law and for the people, and the resulting disrespect the people have for both the government and law in general.
Amazing, very nice. The video is a little slow, though. I mean, I remember reading Oscar Wilde's description of Americans from the early 1890s and he said they were always running! His unemployed and prodigal brother even joked to a journalist when asked what he was doing in America that he was trying to "introduce a leisure class" as the American seemed to lack one. You can definitely tell by the pace that old lady is walking at at 07:35 in the video that the video is too slow, but it doesn't take away from its beauty. Thank you!
Gosh what a look at the past and how good it looked in motion. Wow great video
Crazy how color and post processing can make a old video and time feel more like a real time and not a fictional place
At 7:20 it looks like an English mill town. So much so, it reminded me of that 1980s song, Life in a Northern Town
I wish I could travel time and be there. I’d go to a coffee shop and get a sandwich. Hike around. Say hello to people.
Thank you for this great documentary.
Wow..
Nobody in a hurry, imagine that. Excellent film quality, thanks for sharing.
Yeah but we’ve got iPhones , facebook and bitcoin!
Watching NASS is becoming my new addiction This one is mesmerizing
What a beautiful video. I wonder what the camera was mounted to. Considering it was a massive camera back then, and we don't see the windshield or the trunk of the car at all in the video, which is so still LOL
The sad thing is this is probably what the height of rush hour looked like back then. Once again, a great video to make us feel what it was like to live in other decades.
My granduncle was a cop on the GW; we're all from the Washington Heights section right over the bridge into Manhattan. Jeez the bridge now is packed & the whole area around it is overbuilt. I spent most of my life on both sides of the bridge.
Lived in Fort Lee as a kid in the late sixties used to hike along the Palisades all the time. hiked across the bridge a handful of times don't recognize much only that it's much less developed
Hard to believe Google has been mapping roads for Google Maps since the 1940's! Where has the time gone?
LMAO
@ 5:31, Libby's Lunch in Paterson New Jersey. It is reported to be the birthplace of the Texas Weiner (Hot dog with chili.) They lasted until July 2020. They were located at 98 McBride Ave., Paterson
Great videos! Slow ride, take it easy...
wow what a different time ! absolutely amazing first time seeeing a commute on the gwb and where there wasnt any cutofffs ,no finger salute or rap music at a heart stopping decibel. god i miss those days
Some of those cars look like early 1950s models. But either way, one mistake Hollywood movies make when recreating videos from this era is to include all or most of the cars from the year the movie is supposed to take place in. In reality, not everyone drove a brand new car. Some people drove new cars, some people drove older cars. Nice to see some trucks and buses, as those are often left out of movies recreating the era. And many movies tend to make the roads in NYC jam packed with traffic and honking taxis, when in reality, we can see the traffic was actually very light in the middle of the day.
The old Stop signs weren't red. I forgot about that. Then suddenly around the 60s they became red.
Maybe that depended on where you were. By the time they were octagonal they were red in the west of the country. Remember that the colors here are fake, this was B&W film that was colorized. I'm virtually positive that these signs would have been red with white border and lettering.
@@lwilton Here's what I found online: "While the stop sign's shape has remained the same since the 1920s, it wasn't always red like the one we see today. Multiple revisions were made, but it wasn't until 1954 that the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices mandated all stop signs be red and octagonal." So in this video, the stop sign may not have been red.
Stop signs were yellow with black letters then changed to red with white letters in the early 1950's . Yield signs were yellow with black letters until the late 1960's . Traffic cones were yellow with a red band around the top and were 18'' - 28'' tall . The slow rubber cones were white with a red band around the top with black letters saying SLOW a flag adapter could be inserted into the hole on top of the cone to display 1-3 orange or red flags , these cones were banned in the late 1960s to early 1970s and all traffic cones became Orange.
What a beauty,so fresh and so clean when driving 30ph was highway speed. Every one travel in unison when cops stopped cars while walking
@3:13 "Ruppert Beer & Ale" truck. Colonel Ruppert, of course, was the owner of the NY Yankees during their heyday in the 20s and 30s.
I don't know what's more fascinating. The image? Or the traffic?
Blame the 1960s civil rights act and 1965 Hart-Cellar act for the _culturally enriched_ version of this we have today