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Arteries of New York City

19419 min 28 sec64 shots

This 1941 film examines how New York City’s transportation system moves people among homes, workplaces, and recreation, with Manhattan serving as the center of daily commuter flows. Crowded sidewalks, ships, beaches, sports, subway riders, and suburban trains accompany an explanation of how travel rises during morning and evening rush hours and falls at night. Subways handle much of the travel within the city, while commuter trains, ferries, buses, taxis, and walking connect residents of suburbs and outlying communities to Manhattan.

Automobile traffic creates special difficulties because Manhattan is an island, and views of bridges, congested streets, express highways, and parkways show infrastructure designed to keep cars moving. Maps and traffic scenes emphasize that these routes operate as linked “arteries” whose schedules and capacity follow the city’s daily rhythms. Researchers study population shifts to decide where new routes are needed, and closing scenes of surveying and roadwork connect this planning to the message that New York must prepare for future transportation needs and technologies.

Provenance and rights

Original producer: Encyclopaedia Britannica Films
Collection: Prelinger Archives
Original title: Arteries of New York City
Date: 1941
Original link: Open on Internet Archive
Rights: public_domain