There’s cobblestoned Dumbo; the mean streets of East New York; the mansions of Brooklyn Heights; the tree-lined avenues (and, miracle of miracles, driveways) of Ditmas Park; the glories of Prospect Park; the soaring container cranes of Red Hook; the unnameable, party-colored, aromatic ooze of the Gowanus Canal. The borough boasts countless ethnicities, creeds and religions. It’s somehow wildly bustling and unselfconsciously low-key at the same time. It has given the world memorable phrases (fuhgeddaboudit) and immortal delicacies (the egg cream—with no egg and no cream).
Decades before Brooklyn became synonymous with hipsters, hip-hop and locavores, photographer Ed Clark caught the spirit of the place just right after World War II.
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| View of the Manhattan Bridge, connecting Brooklyn with that island across the East River, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Trolleys & tracks at corner of Flushing Ave., Graham & Broadway. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Brooklyn, New York, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Corner of Middagh and Hicks, Brooklyn Heights, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Jumping rope on Siegel Street near Humboldt, Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| City veterans housing project, Canarsie, Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Laundry out to dry, Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Brooklyn street scene, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Unidentified Brooklynite, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Taking the sun on a Brooklyn rooftop, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Listening to a Dodgers-Giants ballgame on the radio, Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Ebbets Field, 55 Sullivan Place, Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Dodgers ballgame, Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Dodgers fans, Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Jack Kaufman outside his barber shop on Rogers Avenue in Brooklyn in 1946, holding a signed baseball that once beaned future Hall of Famer Joe Medwick. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Subway entrance, Eastern Parkway at Utica Avenue, Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Grand Army Plaza, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, 1946. |
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| Prospect Park, Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| On the waterfront, Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Moore Street near Graham Avenue, Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Sumner Avenue (now Marcus Garvey Boulevard) near Myrtle Avenue in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Grocery shopping, Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Unidentified boys, Brooklyn, 1946. |
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| Under the elevated tracks, Broadway at Lynch, Brooklyn, 1946. |
27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946
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| Brooklyn Bridge, 1946. |