Skyscraper City: See How New York Was Built Through 12 Amazing Vintage Photographs

The Big Apple’s early 20th-century building boom transformed the city with skyscrapers, subways and an awful lot of cement – as documented in these photographs from the New York Public Library’s archives, via The Guardian.

Construction workers position a piece of marble on the roof of the central building of the New York Public Library, 1906.

The Woolworth Building nears completion in 1912.

The cornerstone ceremony for the central building of the New York Public Library, 1902.

Interior work on the library, looking southwest, 1904.

The structural framework of the central building of the New York Public Library, 1905.

Construction of the Woolworth Building at 233 Broadway in 1911.

Construction of the cable road on Broadway in 1891.

Workers building the Broadway subway line under Central Park, 1901.

The New York City subway construction between Broadway and 151 Street, 1901-1905.

Steel construction in a subway tunnel, 1904.

Workers place steel beams for the Metropolitan Tower.

The Singer Building under construction, 1908.