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On the date

Tuesday, January 9, 1900

From the day

Perspective: The Future Historian · Sight

The morning light glints off the fresh ink of the morning papers, where the staggering three-billion-dollar valuation for New York signals the dawn of a financial titan. Through the rising steam of the city, I watch women in heavy wool coats and S-bend corsets navigate the slush, their high collars framing faces that look fit as a fiddle despite the biting winter air. Beside a frost-nipped shop window, a young boy gazes longingly at a Lionel Train, its miniature iron wheels a foreshadowing of the vast transit veins about to pulse beneath this rising concrete empire. To my professional eye, the sheer lace and silk details of the crowd are merely the skin of a city that has just begun its relentless climb toward the clouds.

Memories from that day

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The Headlines

REALTY VALUES FOR 1900; Tax Rate from 15 to 20 Cents Lower on $100. NATURAL INCREASE, $38,864,179 Valuation Total Nearly Three Billions -- Comparison of Valuations -- On the City's Borrowing Capacity.

Read in The New York Times →

Best-selling Sheet Music

A Bird in a Gilded Cage

Harry Von Tilzer

The must-have

Lionel Trains

Slang

Slang of the decade

General

bullyfit as a fiddleblockhead

Aristocrat

capitalmy wordbally

Working Class

gadzooksblimeychump

Catchphrases of 1900

  • Speak softly and carry a big stick

Tech Check

Kodak Brownie Camera, Zeppelin Airships & Escalators.

Style of 1900

Silhouette: S-bend corset and pouter pigeon chest

Material: Lace, silk, and heavy wool

  • Gibson Girl hair
  • Parasols
  • High collars

Cost of Living (1900)

Loaf of Bread

$0.05

Gallon of Gas

$0.10

Average Home

$3,200

New Car

$1,000

Time Elapsed

46,221 days ago

(126 years, 231 days)