I came across this lovely photo of Herald Square on July 16, 1936 taken by Berenice Abbott (spelling?) and I couldn’t believe that the area had an elevated track at one point in time. For the most part, the area looks very much like it does today with the exception, of course, of the elevated railway. I get the impression from this photo that New York must have been a fun place to live in during the 1930’s.
Abbott took photos of New York in the 30’s and part of the series was made into a book, I think it was called “Changing New York”. Douglas Levere tried to reshoot the same places with the same equipment and time of year to show what the places look like in the late 90’s in his book “New York Changing”.
I dont remember if there Levere tried to reshoot Herald Square, but I remember he did reshoot chatham square without the el tracks.
http://www.newyorkchanging.com