Using a newly developed camera that swung in an arc from horizon to horizon, technicians of the Boston University Research Laboratory and the U.S. Air Force made this photo of Manhattan and the Bronx at a height of 10,000 feet on July 29, 1949.
The picture takes in a 260-mile sweep from the northern horizon, top, to southern horizon, bottom. An ordinary camera at this height would only have photographed about half of Central Park. The Hudson River is at left with the George Washington Bridge at top left. The Bronx lies beyond the Harlem River at upper right, with Long Island Sound at top right. The East River runs along the right. Staten Island is at lower left and Brooklyn is at lower right.