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New York, 1920. Exchange Court Building at 52 Broadway and Exchange Place. View full size. Photograph by Irving Underhill. Completed in 1898, the structure was rebuilt with additional floors and a modern facade in 1980-82.
I think in most jurisdictions horse traffic just faded out. I was born in 1955 and guys less than ten years older than me remember when my hometown outside New York City still had a blacksmith.
I remember in the mid 60s a junk man in a horse drawn carriage used to drive through our neighborhood on a regular basis.
This photo is one of many on Shorpy showing autos and horses side-by-side on a city street. At the time, there wasn't anything unusual at all for horse-drawn vehicles to travel among skyscrapers; there were provisions for their passage, including water troughs and the sanitation department.
Was a law eventually passed that forbade horses to be used for business? Or did they eventually just fade out on their own?
Perhaps the flag was at half staff to honor Levi P. Morton, who died at the age of 96 on May 16, 1920. Morton had been governor of New York, a congressman, vice president under Benjamin Harrison and minister to France from 1881 to 1885.
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