Nowadays, traveling is not only a favored hobby, but a necessity, too, for some people, who can probably no longer remember their life without it. But whether it’s vacation time or a business trip, they have plenty of options to choose from to get themselves from point A to point B. Even if the destination is on the other end of the world, they can get there in roughly a day, which was once a thing difficult to imagine.
Clearly, many things seemed impossible at a certain point in time; but, thanks to the development in technology and engineering, quite a few have become reality. If you’re curious to take a step back in time and see what travel looked like back in the 19-20th centuries, you’re in luck, as today we’re focusing on the period between 1830-1955.
On the list below you will find some fascinating pictures, as shared by the ‘Golden Age Of Travel 1830-1955’ Facebook group that depict everything from the first subway ride in New York, to German monorails, and much more. So wait no longer, scroll down to browse them and make sure to upvote your favorites!
#1 1905 Woods Electric Car
Image credits: See Twise
#2 Baby Strollers Strapped To The Front Of The Bus In Opawa, New Zealand (1950s)
Image credits: Joyce Ward
#3 A Bicycle For The Whole Family, 1949
Image credits: Joyce Ward
#4 200-Year-Old Wooden Bridge In Dagestan, Built Without The Use Of A Single Nail
Image credits: Story Cafe
#5 Bmw Isetta Bubble Car Custom Conversion, 1950s. And, Of Course, A Picnic Basket
Image credits: ??? ??????? ?????????
#6 Jefferson County Mobile Library, Texas’ First Mobile Library
Image credits: Elisa Elena Jiménez Emán
#7 London In The 1920s. A Policeman In A London Street Giving Directions To The Three Children On A Bicycle. The Bicycle Is Specially Made For Three Persons
Image credits: Endri Logos
#8 An Austin 7 Driven By B. Sparrow Loses Control At Donington Park On May 13, 1933
Image credits: Endri Logos
#9 1931 The German Schienenzeppelin Hits Max Speed Of 120 Mph (230 Kmh)
Image credits: Kenny Callei
#10 Alweg Monorail Train In Cologne, Germany, 1952
Image credits: The Historian's Denn
#11 A Victorian Home Being Moved Via Horse Power In San Francisco, 1908
Image credits: Ciarra Tavares-Girsback
#12 An Amazing Capture Of Changing Times In Transportation By Photographer O. Winston Link
Image credits: Troy C. Werner
#13 Titanic Launch Into Belfast Harbour (1911)
Image credits: Ciarra Tavares-Girsback
#14 1950s, “Flying Cars” Amusement Park Ride. The Drum Rotated And You Controlled A Brake In The Car. The Cars Would Go Completely Up And Over The Loop
Image credits: Duck & Cover, Growing Up in the Atomic Age
#15 Berlin, Circa 1905
Image credits: George Derenburger
#16 Maintenance Worker Painting The Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia, 1945
Image credits: Toseef Ur Rehman
#17 A Coca Cola Delivery Van In Oslo In 1938
Norway was, in addition to Australia, Austria and South Africa, one of the countries where Coca Cola was introduced in that year. (Neighboring country Sweden had to wait until 1953.) My partial colorization of Anders B. Wilse´s photo in the Norsk Folkemuseum archive
Image credits: Frank Hellsten
#18 Boat Ride, 1920s
Image credits: Elisa Elena Jiménez Emán
#19 Chief Iron Tail, Cranking An Early Automobile, 1915
Image credits: Royal World
#20 Camp Of Scientists In The Sands Of The Karakum Desert. Turkmen Ssr, 1953
Image credits: Tomi Vaalisto
#21 Traditional Cod Fishing In Lofoten ( Nordland, Norway) In 1928
hese “åttring” boats with four (sometimes five) pairs of oars represent a continuous boat building tradition from the pre-Viking Age.
My restoration and digital hand colorization of Anders Beer Wilse´s
photo in the Norsk Folkemuseum archive.
Image credits: Frank Hellsten
#22 Food Delivery In The Future
Image credits: Rosa Hemming
#23 Car Seats Were Not Equipped With Any Straps To Keep Baby Seat On The Seat. Instead, These Seats Depended On The Mother Extending Her Arm To Prevent The Baby From Toppling Forward. 1958
Image credits: ShutterBulky
#24 New York, USA – 1960: French Cellist Maurice Baquet Trying To Open His Car Covered With Snow During A Snow Storm
#25 Cycle Engineer Riding The World’s Smallest Bicycle Through The City, London, August 1937
Image credits: Royal World
#26 A Sleeping Berth On An Imperial Airways Aircraft In 1937
Image credits: Elisa Elena Jiménez Emán
#27 1920s Passengers Waiting For A Thrill Of A Lifetime!
Image credits: Craig Meador
#28 A Match Day, 90 Years Ago. Tram In The Barça Field Along Carrer Anglesola (1933)
Image credits: Endri Logos
#29 People Waiting For The Bus. Paris 1958
Image credits: Endri Logos
#30 A Train Passes Through Densely Packed Housing Along Kensal Rise, London, England. March 1921
Image credits: Monique Genoud
#31 A Photograph Taken Infront Of Rome’s Colosseum, Circa 1897
Image credits: Monique Genoud
#32 Henry Giulio’s Airship, The Yellow, 1903 Old Photos From The 19th Century Give Us A Glimpse Into The Achievements Of The Industrial Revolution
Image credits: Liwia Zieliński
#33 Passengers On Eastern Airlines In 1935
Planes were so loud back in the day that the cabin crew had to use megaphones so the passengers could hear them. Flights from the UK to Australia took 11 days. The plane could drop 100’s of feet randomly thus motion sickness bowls were placed beneath the seats.
Image credits: Elisa Elena Jiménez Emán
#34 The First Subway Ride In New York City History, 120 Years Ago. Original, 1904
Image credits: Hussein Saleh
#35 Passengers On Board The Staten Island Ferry In 1895
Image credits: Joyce Ward
#36 A Woman Passenger Reads A Magazine On Board A Boeing Airliner, Circa 1955 Advertising
Image credits: Elisa Elena Jiménez Emán
#37 Salvador Héctor Sarida, Little 6-Year-Old Motorcyclist. Buenos Aires, 1936
Image credits: Endri Logos
#38 A Family Getting Ready To Cruise In Their 1903 Cadillac Model A Tonneau
Image credits: ShutterBulky
#39 New York Central “Mercury” 1936
Image credits: Story Cafe
#40 Man Standing On Lap Of Colossal Figure Of Ramses, 1856
Image credits: Machine Lord
#41 1946 Hey Mister, I Can Fix That Tire For A Coke,a Cap Gun,five Army Men And A Hula Hoop
Image credits: Craig Meador
#42 Munich, Germany, May 1949 Of A Man And His Two Boys Riding On Their Daily Commute
#43 Native Americans In 1908
Image credits: Changling Mandrake
#44 Azafatas (Stewardess) De Avión, 1940s
Image credits: Elisa Elena Jiménez Emán
#45 Georges Tairraz II ( 1900 – 1975 ). Two Climbers Traversing The Aiguille Du Midi And Aiguille Du Plan, Chamonix, France 1932
Image credits: Gren Nation
#46 A Train Driver At Euston Station In London Talks To Two Young Girls On The Platform. April 1936
Image credits: ??? ??????? ?????????
#47 New York 1918 Hotel Astor Automobile Salon
Image credits: Endri Logos
#48 1949 Nash Airflyte. First Sleeper Car
Image credits: Walter Hasler
#49 Titanic Compared To A Modern Cruise Ship
Image credits: Elisa Elena Jiménez Emán
#50 The 1938 Brazilian National Team Training On The Ship. Players Were Thin Compared To Today
Image credits: Endri Logos
#51 Firefighters Trying To Stop Fire At The Equitable Life Building During A Snowstorm, Manhattan, 1912
Image credits: Machine Lord
#52 1951 Airline Ad By Harold Anderson
Image credits: Elisa Elena Jiménez Emán
#53 Legless Woman Poses On A Motorcycle At The Wall Of Death Motordrome C1940s
Image credits: Endri Logos
#54 Women Fishing In A Dock, 1908. Toronto
Image credits: Elisa Elena Jiménez Emán
#55 Return By Bus. Buenos Aires 1942
Image credits: Endri Logos
#56 1899 Vintage Bicycle Built For Two
Image credits: Story Cafe
#57 Old Train. 1940s
Image credits: ??? ??????? ?????????
#58 Times Square, New York City 1936
Image credits: Royal World
#59 Interior Of Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation
Image credits: Elisa Elena Jiménez Emán
#60 Daytona Beach In 1904
Image credits: Florida Memories
#61 Subway Car In Manhattan In The 1950s
Image credits: Joyce Ward
#62 Picnic, 1954 750 Renault
Image credits: Elisa Elena Jiménez Emán
#63 1929 – Mulholland Dam Reinforced With Tons Of Dirt Shortly After The St. Francis Dam Disaster
Following the 1928 St. Francis Dam failure, the Mulholland Dam was reinforced with tons of dirt on the downstream side as a precautionary measure. Later studies confirmed that the St. Francis Dam disaster was due to geological instability, not a design flaw
Image credits: Jack Feldman
#64 1910, A Day At The Beach
Image credits: Duck & Cover, Growing Up in the Atomic Age
#65 The Empire State Building’s Top Was Initially Planned To Be A Docking Station For Airships In The Late 1920s
Investors believed airships would soon be used for cross-Atlantic travel, and the building’s top seemed perfect for docking.
The plan was for airships to land at the top, secure quickly, and let passengers walk into the building’s top floor. Then, they could take an elevator down to Manhattan, arriving within seven minutes of landing. A docking mast was even built on the building.
However, engineers couldn’t figure out how to safely dock an airship on a 1,250-foot building with strong winds. Airship companies considered the idea too risky, and interest waned. Still, a private blimp did dock for three minutes in September 1931, causing traffic jams below, but no unloading occurred.
The era of cross-Atlantic airships ended with the 1937 Hindenburg disaster, when the world’s largest airship caught fire while landing in New Jersey.
Image credits: Ciarra Tavares-Girsback
#66 John Cobb Set A New World Land Speed Record Of 353.30 Mph On The 15th September 1938 In The Railton Mobil Special, Becoming The First Driver To Exceed 350mph
The vehicle was powered by two supercharged Napier Lion VIID (WD) W-12 aircraft engines. These engines were the gift of Marion ‘Joe’ Carstairs, who had previously used them in her powerboat Estelle V. Coupled together, these two engines made 2,700 hp (2,013 kW) @ 3,600 rpm, and 3,939 lbft (5,341 Nm) torque.
With the huge powers thus available, the limitation was in finding a transmission and tyres that could cope. Reid Railton found a simple and ingenious solution to this by simply splitting the drive from each engine to a separate axle, giving four wheel drive.
The vehicle weighed over 3 tonnes and was 28 ft 8 in (8.74 m) long, 8 ft (2.4 m) wide and 4 ft 3 in (1.30 m) high. The front wheels were 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) apart and the rear 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m). The National Physical Laboratory’s wind tunnel was used for testing models of the body
On 16 September 1947, the wind had picked up considerably and the course was still less than ideal, but the car was ready. Cobb decided to make a record attempt.
Setting off to the south, Cobb shifted into second gear at around 120 mph (193 km/h) and hit third at around 250 mph (402 km/h). The Railton shot through the measured mile (1.6 km) at 385.645 mph (620.635 km/h).
The tires were changed and fluids refilled. On the run north, Cobb covered the mile (1.6 km) at 403.136 mph (648.785 km/h). The two-way average of the runs was a new LSR at 394.197 mph (634.399 km/h).
And so it was that a 47-year-old man in a 10-year-old car with 20-year-old engines established a new Land Speed Record
Image credits: Leslie Marton
#67 Brooklyn Bridge, New York. Then vs. Now
Image credits: Hussein Saleh
#68 Golden Gate Bridge Painter Walking To Work
Image credits: Craig Meador
#69 Passenger Aboard An American Airliner Enroute From Washington To Los Angeles. Photograph By John Collier In 1941
Image credits: Elisa Elena Jiménez Emán
#70 Queensboro Bridge (Aka 59th Street Bridge) Under Construction In 1905
Image credits: Joyce Ward
#71 A Barge Maneuvering Under The Michigan Ave Bridge, Chicago In 1953
Image credits: ??? ??????? ?????????
#72 1920s – The Mulholland Dam Before The Hollywood Reservoir Was Filled, With The Hollywoodland Sign Visible In The Background
Image credits: Jack Feldman
#73 Frozen Niagara Falls, 1911
Image credits: History Defined
#74 Delta Gamma Girls Singing In A Bus Which Is Taking Them Through The Snow And Mud To The Talent Show. North Dakota, May 1950
Image credits: George Derenburger
#75 Five Female Journalists Smile As They Walk On The Airport Runway To Board A Vacation Flight After Winning The Annual ‘Prettiest Newspaperwoman’ Contest
Image credits: ??? ??????? ?????????
#76 New York City After A Snowstorm In 1888
Image credits: Vellore Eruthukattu
#77 Los Angeles, Bus And Two Women. 1955. By Vivian Maier
Image credits: ??? ??????? ?????????
#78 Palm Beach Airport, 1955
Image credits: Danny Fernandez Jimenez
#79 A Great Look At An Officer With His Indian Motorcycle In 1924, Washington D.c
Image credits: Endri Logos
#80 1939 Packard 8 Door
Image credits: Elisa Elena Jiménez Emán
#81 The Greyhound Bus Company Might Have Been Founded In 1914, But It Didn’t Adopt The Greyhound Name Until 1929
Image credits: ??? ??????? ?????????
#82 Dunkin Donuts In The 1950s
Image credits: Joyce Ward
#83 1949 Brooklyn Ice Cream Truck
Image credits: Jiali Chen
#84 The Triborough Bridge In New York City In 1937
Image credits: Joyce Ward
#85 Wabash Ave. Chicago, 1907
Image credits: George Derenburger
