The New York City Municipal Archives has just released a large gallery of historical photographs to the pubilc. A selection of the images was published by The Atlantic. Many offer a fascinating glimpse at NYC under construction. The quality of these images is very impressive, perhaps timeless. I imagine factors contributing to the image quality include:

• Skill of the photographers
• Use of large format film
• Use of a tripod
• Craftsmanly control of exposure, development, and printing process
• etc …