Vintage Original 35mm Kodachrome Slide: United Nations, Con Edison Waterside Station & Long Island City
Location: East Midtown Manhattan and Long Island City, Queens, New York City, viewed east-northeast from the Empire State Building across the East River.
Date: April 1966, based on mechanical date imprint on the slide mount.

Item Description
This expansive aerial panorama looks east-northeast from the Empire State Building across Midtown Manhattan, the East River, and the industrial landscape of Long Island City, Queens. The dark slab of the United Nations Secretariat Building rises near the center-left foreground, while the three tall striped smokestacks of Con Edison’s Waterside Generating Station dominate the lower-right waterfront. Barges and other working river traffic move through the East River, with piers, warehouses, factories, railroad facilities, and densely developed neighborhoods extending across Queens. Sunnyside Yard spreads through the right background, a portion of the Queensboro Bridge appears at far left, and a clearly readable “PAN AM” rooftop sign remains visible on the former Pan American Airways building near Queens Plaza.

Key Photographic Elements
The United Nations Secretariat Building was occupied beginning in 1950, and the larger headquarters complex was completed in 1952, making it one of the defining postwar landmarks of East Midtown. Con Edison’s Waterside Generating Station began operating along the East River in 1901 and supplied electricity and steam to Manhattan for more than a century before closing in 2005 and being demolished, giving this slide particular value as a record of a vanished industrial complex. Across the river, Long Island City is shown before its modern residential-tower redevelopment, with warehouses, factories, rail lines, and waterfront installations still defining the area. Sunnyside Yard, connected with Pennsylvania Station through the East River tunnels opened in 1910, served as a major storage, servicing, cleaning, and turnaround facility for passenger trains. The PAN AM sign marks the former Pan American Airways office building at Queens Plaza, which the airline had used for reservations, communications, training, and administrative operations beginning in the 1940s. Although Pan Am had begun transferring operations to its new Manhattan headquarters by the early 1960s, its rooftop identity remained visible in 1966. The combination of the United Nations, Waterside power station, East River traffic, Long Island City industry, Pan Am signage, Sunnyside Yard, and Queensboro Bridge creates an unusually detailed record of transportation, aviation, railroad, utility, and industrial New York history.

Condition Report
The slide retains clear and readable detail throughout the United Nations complex, striped smokestacks, river traffic, rail yards, industrial buildings, Queensboro Bridge, and PAN AM lettering. A pronounced cool blue-violet cast and atmospheric haze soften the distant Queens landscape, while deep shadows affect the closest Manhattan buildings. Scattered small dust specks and minor surface marks are visible, but there is no severe fading, heavy scratching, or significant blur obscuring the principal historical features. The original Kodachrome cardboard mount shows light age-related wear but remains intact and presentable.

 

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