America’s cities have changed dramatically over the centuries from their size and architecture to the diversity of their populations and industries. Thanks to this rapid growth, many of these well-known places are now unrecognisable compared to the sleepy backwaters they once were.
Read on to travel back in time and see how these iconic cities have totally transformed…
While the Golden Gate Bridge seems inextricable from San Francisco’s skyline, construction didn’t start on the landmark until 1933. Pictured here is the view from Telegraph Hill across the Golden Gate strait in 1868. Just a few decades before, it was a hilly and sparsely settled town on San Francisco Bay known as Yerba Buena. The USA annexed it from Mexico in 1846 and renamed it after the bay. It was the Great Gold Rush of 1848 that put it on the map, with fortune-seekers and money pouring into the port.
The northern Californian city was largely destroyed by an earthquake and subsequent fire in 1906, which killed 3,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless. It rebuilt rapidly and hosted the Panama Pacific Exposition in 1915. The 1930s was a decade of great growth for San Francisco, with notable landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge and the Coit Tower joining its ever-evolving skyline. Later famed for its creative spirit and bohemian edge, the city was at the epicentre of the 1990s tech boom and later social media start-ups. It’s a huge tourism hotspot too, with its pretty historic districts, steep streets, parks and bayside luring people from around the world.
Love this? Follow our Facebook page for more travel inspiration
From uninhabited sandbar and mangroves in the 1900s to glamorous beach resort and thriving city by the 1910s, the transformation of Miami Beach is staggering. Due to the efforts of several entrepreneurial farmers and real estate developers, a small resort community was established, which was connected to the young city of Miami across Biscayne Bay by a wooden bridge in 1913 (later replaced by the Venetian Causeway). Incorporated in 1915 as Ocean Beach, its name changed to Miami Beach a year later. The burgeoning district of beachside hotels and casinos became the height of glamour after the First World War and into the 1920s.
The onset of the Great Depression and a major hurricane, which hit the barrier island in 1926, had a devastating effect on Miami Beach's tourism industry. But it bounced back in the 1930s with many developments taking place around South Beach. By the 1980s, the city had fallen on bad times as it lost its allure to a younger generation and crime soared. Thanks to a campaign to preserve the pastel-hued buildings of Ocean Drive's Art Deco District, the city gained new kitsch and hip credentials. Now awash with upscale restaurants, design hotels and lavish residences, Miami Beach is a go-to spot once again.
Honolulu became the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1845 with King Kamehameha III as its ruler, after he conquered Oahu in 1804. He built the grand Iolani Palace, which remains today. American colonists, who controlled Hawaii’s sugar-based economy, overthrew the kingdom in 1893, establishing the Republic of Hawaii and the US annexed Hawaii as a territory in 1898. Pictured here in the late 19th century, Honolulu's buildings were humble and its streets dirt tracks, but it was no longer a tiny fishing bay. It was a bustling centre of the sandalwood and sugar trade, drawing growing numbers of merchants and missionaries.
Framed by lush mountains and lapped by the Pacific, Honolulu is still ravishing but is now a high-rise city whose enormous growth was fuelled mostly by tourism. Named the state capital in 1959, the largest city in Hawaii was at the centre of the island's tourism boom in the 1920s and 1930s. Steamships first brought tourists to the island paradise, with the first hotels built on Honolulu’s beautiful Waikiki Beach (pictured here), transforming the former wetlands and farmland into the world-famous beach resort that now entices more than four million visitors every year.
Incorporated as a town in 1833 and a city in 1837 when its population reached 4,000, Chicago traces its first permanent settler back to 1779 when trapper and merchant Jean Baptiste Point du Sable established a trading post here. Built and pictured here in 1869, the Chicago Water Tower was among the few buildings to survive a devastating fire that swept through the city in 1871. On the back of the rebuild and a surging economy, Chicago led the way in the rise of the modern skyscraper. The 10-storey Home Insurance Company was the first one in the world when it was built in 1885 on the corner of Adams and LaSalle Streets. It was demolished in 1931.
Though dwarfed by gleaming skyscrapers, the historic water tower (now home to the City Gallery) remains one of Chicago's architectural icons. Other famous buildings along North Michigan Avenue, the so-called Miracle Mile, are the Tribune Tower and The Wrigley Building. Home to almost 2.7 million people and the third largest city in the States, Chicago is renowned for its striking modern architecture, stunning waterfront and cultural offering – it has some of the country’s top galleries, theatres and museums.
Settled in 1630 by Puritan colonists, Boston soon became a prosperous city. The Old State House (pictured here in 1900) was built in 1713 and was the seat of the colonial (and later state) government throughout the 1700s. It stood witness to the infamous Boston Massacre in 1770 when Bostonians and Redcoats clashed in front of it. It was to be the first bloodshed of the revolution. It was also under the Old State House’s balcony that Bostonians gathered on 18 July 1776 to hear the Declaration of Independence for the first time.
Now home to the Freedom Trail Museum, the State House is the city’s oldest public building and a handsome sight among the tall towers of Boston’s busy Washington Avenue. A cobblestone circle beneath the balcony marks the site of the massacre – a stop on the Freedom Trail walking path that takes in key sights from American history. Home to around 651,000 people, today New England’s vibrant harbour city is a cosmopolitan and cultural hub famed for its fantastic seafood, prestigious universities and historic landmarks.
The Ohio River, along which Cincinnati was built, has been central to the city's fortunes. Steamboats were manufactured here and farmers brought their crops and livestock to be sent downriver. By the early 1800s, Cincinnati was an important meatpacking centre, leading to its nickname, Porkopolis. Iron production was its major industry by the end of the century. Set on the border between the free state of Ohio and the slave state of Kentucky, Cincinnati was seen as a place of escape for many. Pictured here is the Roebling Suspension Bridge around 1867, the year it opened to traffic.
At the time its 1,057-foot (322m) span made it the longest suspension bridge in the world, a record it retained until 1883 when the engineer John A. Roebling’s most famous project, the Brooklyn Bridge, opened. The historic bridge remains one of the city’s major thoroughfares and landmarks today, although it now shares the riverfront with several other bridges. Another 19th-century landmark that remains at the heart of Cincinnati's community is Findlay Market. One of the oldest public markets in the country, it opened in 1852 in the historic Over-the-Rhine neighbourhood, which was also the centre of the city’s brewing industry and is now a hub of hip brew pubs.
William Penn, the 17th-century founder of Pennsylvania, has looked down over the city he designed since 1894, when the City Hall was built – his statue stands atop the building. City Hall was completed in 1901 and is pictured here at the end of North Broad Street in the early 1900s. Grand mansions, Victorian brownstones and turn-of-the-century industrialist headquarters lined the street up to the Grand Hall, which was the tallest building in Philadelphia until 1987. Its 548-foot (167m) tower was quite a feat of engineering and remains the tallest masonry structure in the world without a steel frame.
More than 120 years later, City Hall still stands strong as the seat of the city government and as one of Philadelphia’s historic landmarks. The largest municipal building in the US, it is also used as a courthouse and has a train station beneath it. It’s open to public tours and has an open-air observation deck within its elaborate tower boasting amazing views of the city. As the first US capital after the revolution and the place where the US Constitution was written in 1787, Philadelphia has a wealth of historic landmarks. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage City in 2015, the first and only one in the US.
After the location for the nation’s new capital was chosen in 1790, architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant was tasked with creating a bold and modern new city. His plans for grand boulevards and a grid system placed the Capitol building at its centre on Capitol Hill. The original building, whose cornerstone was laid by Washington himself in 1793, was damaged along with much of the city during the War of 1812 against the British. The old dome was removed in 1856, but construction was suspended during the Civil War. It’s pictured here from Pennsylvania Avenue, one of the capital's earliest streets, in 1860. Construction resumed in 1862 and the new cast-iron dome and other extensions were completed in 1868.
It's thought Pennsylvania Avenue was so named as a move to appease the state when the federal capital moved from Philadelphia to Washington in 1800. Running between the Capitol and the White House, the central artery is now a National Historic Site and has been the area where numerous historic processions, presidential parades and protests have taken place over the years, including the January 6 United States Capitol attack. Subsequent extensions and additions to the Capitol have seen it expand to cover 175,170 square feet (16.2 square metres). As well as being the meeting place of the United States Congress since 1800, the building is home to a museum of American art and history.
Located on a narrow strip of land between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, water has been at the heart of Seattle’s journey from when it was first home to Coast Salish tribes to when the first European settlers arrived in 1792. In its early days, lumber and coal were the main industries, with fishing, shipbuilding and shipping also key to the town’s growth. Incorporated in 1869, the population grew to over 80,000 by 1900, a number that tripled in the following decade. Several piers were built at the turn of the 19th century to serve the railroads and the Alaskan Gold Rush.
Incredible ancient ruins in the USA you probably didn't know existed
The old disused pier sheds that lined the city’s waterfront were redeveloped in the 1970s with shops, restaurants and various tourist attractions, such as the Seattle Aquarium, transforming the area into a popular recreational spot. Seattle's central waterfront is undergoing further transformation now: a new park promenade is being constructed along the water, Pier 58 and Pier 62 are being rebuilt, and an elevated connection from the historic Pike Place Market to the waterfront is being created. The Waterfront Seattle project is due to continue into 2025.
Set on a bend in the Colorado River, the then-town of Waterloo was chosen as the capital of the new Republic of Texas in 1839. It was renamed after the 'Father of Texas', Stephen F Austin. According to the Austin History Centre, a 'hilltop site for a capitol building looking down toward the river from the head of a broad avenue' was at the heart of the first mayor’s city designs. Congress Avenue, pictured here in 1901, was (and still is) the city’s main street. After Texas was annexed by the US in 1845, its grand state Capitol building was built on the spot the first mayor had envisaged.
Most of Congress Avenue’s historic buildings were built after 1871, the year the railroad arrived in Austin and ushered in new prosperity. In the 1940s and 1950s, some of the original buildings were demolished to make way for more modern ones, but the avenue's architectural heritage was preserved in 1978 when it was proclaimed a National Register Historic District. After recent revitalisation, the stretch from Lady Bird Lake leading up to the largest state capitol building in the US is a delightful blend of modern and Victorian-era architecture.
With its first cornerstone laid in 1815, Baltimore’s imposing Washington Monument was the first statue to be dedicated to the inaugural president. It was designed by Robert Mills, who later designed the Washington Monument on the National Mall, and located north of the city on its highest point. Then known as Howard’s Woods, as the land belonged to Colonel John Eager Howard (former Governor of Maryland), the area began attracting wealthy families. Later known as Mount Vernon, it became an affluent suburb in the mid-19th century as grand mansions and townhouses spread out around the monument.
By the mid-20th century, the historic neighbourhood had lost some of its gloss, with parts nearly demolished for a highway in the 1960s. Thankfully it wasn’t, and today the handsome district draws visitors to enjoy its numerous museums, theatres, cafes, boutique hotels and stores, as well as to gaze at the soaring statue. Still dominating the skyline over 200 years later, the statue and its surrounding parks underwent an 18-month restoration programme and reopened on 4 July 2015, the bicentennial of the laying of its cornerstone. A lookout at the top offers incredible views of the city.
Originally a trading stop between Los Angeles and New Mexico, Las Vegas began to take shape as a dusty railroad and rancher town in 1905 before being incorporated in 1911. This image shows the fledgling desert city in 1925. It was the construction of the Boulder Dam (later renamed Hoover Dam) in 1931, which saw workers flood in and led to a population boom. In the same year, gambling was legalised in Nevada once again and casinos and showgirl clubs began popping up on Fremont Street, its only paved road. The first themed hotel-casino resort to open on Highway 91, later to be known as The Strip, was El Rancho Vegas in 1941.
Starting in the mid-1980s, a period of unprecedented growth began in Las Vegas. A seminal moment saw Steve Wynn open the Mirage, the city’s first mega-resort, which cemented its place as the entertainment capital of the world. Its population almost doubled between 1985 and 1995, increasing 97.6% from 186,380 to 368,360. Today, Sin City has a population of just over 656,000, with almost 2.3 million living in the wider Las Vegas metro area. It welcomed just under 41 million visitors in 2023 and has over 150,000 hotel rooms. While The Vegas Strip is home to amusement parks, a golf course, numerous entertainment venues and some of the biggest hotels in the world, the original strip, Fremont Street, is now pedestrianised and a popular tourist attraction. It is covered with an enormous graphic display system, the largest video screen in the world.
Captured here is South Broadway in 1895, when Los Angeles was well on its way from a small farming community to an industrialised city. As part of California, it was under the Mexican flag until 1847 and known as El Pueblo de La Reina de Los Angeles (the Town of the Queen of Angels). Broadway was one of the city’s first commercial and retail districts, lined with elegant 19th-century buildings, including the Bradbury Building, and later numerous theatres. The Mason Opera House opened in 1903, The Pantages Theatre in 1910, the Orpheum in 1911 (now the Palace Theatre and the oldest remaining original Orpheum theatre in the US) and the vast Million Dollar Theatre in 1918.
By the 1930s, South Broadway was lined with huge department stores and glamorous movie theatres (it had the highest concentration anywhere in the world). Its glamour was to fade, however, as shopping malls, the cineplex, and a new high-rise financial district in Downtown led to the street’s decline. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, LA's Historic Theatre District is still home to 12 movie theatres, built between 1910 and 1931, along with other early 20th-century architectural icons. Efforts to revitalise it were cemented in 2014 when the hip Ace Hotel opened on South Broadway.
Atlanta’s identity is deeply rooted in the railroads. Founded in 1837 as the end of the Western & Atlantic line, its name is derived from the feminine of the word Atlantic. Much of the city was razed to the ground after General William T. Sherman and his Union forces captured it in 1864. But Atlanta bounced back. The Capitol (pictured here in 1891) was one of several grand buildings constructed to symbolise Georgia's re-emergence after the Civil War as Atlanta became the state capital. By 1892, the booming city had the South's first "skyscraper", the eight-storey Equitable Building.
The southern city remains a transportation hub but it’s its airport that bustles with passengers: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta is the world's busiest airport in terms of daily passenger flights. The city is also a huge centre for banking, technology, media and film production. It’s recently reclaimed its railroad heritage, transforming disused tracks into the Beltline, a 22-mile (35km) loop of walking and cycling trails in its downtown area. The population of the Atlanta Metro area hit around 5.6 million in 2023, with more than 512,000 of those inhabitants calling the city of Atlanta home.
Arguably the world’s most famous and influential urban park, Central Park was first created in 1858 to provide some respite for the city’s rapidly growing population. Set in what’s now central Manhattan, it was built away from the city’s populous areas in a mostly uninhabited area of farmland, marsh and rocky hills. A public skating rink was key to the plans and the lake was one of the first areas to open to the public for the 1858-59 skating season. Pictured here are New Yorkers skating around 1890 with the Dakota Apartments in front. Completed in 1884, it was one of the first luxury apartment buildings built in New York.
More architectural landmarks sprang up in the leafy Central Park West neighbourhood as real estate developers saw its potential. The San Remo (left) is another of the city’s historic luxury apartment towers. It opened in 1930 and dwarfs The Dakota, which can still be seen today (centre), its three-gabled facade peeking over the trees, overshadowed by surrounding buildings. While ice skating remains a perennial winter activity for New Yorkers, the views have changed dramatically in this ever-evolving city. Most recently, pencil-thin towers have started to protrude up above Manhattan's skyline. Central Park Tower became the tallest residential-only building in the world at 1,550 feet (472m) when it was completed in 2020.
St Augustine has a long and storied history. It's the USA's oldest continuously occupied European settlement, founded by the Spanish in 1565. That's 42 years before the English colonised Jamestown and 55 years before the Pilgrims disembarked the Mayflower! The British invaded the city in 1702 and destroyed much of the early architecture. Luckily, St Augustine prospered during the 19th century, when oil tycoon Henry Flagler turned it into a fashionable winter tourist destination. The city grew and in 1925 a developer dredged up 13,000,000 cubic yards of prime oyster beds off the coast to add more real estate to St Augustine's Anastasia Island (pictured, top).
Today, St Augustine retains its historic charm, with colourful colonial-style buildings and a low skyline. With an estimated population of just over 15,000, its low-key lifestyle makes it a popular tourist destination. Meanwhile, Anastasia Island has become a state park. It's home to some of St Augustine's most popular beaches, as well as hotels, campgrounds, music venues and even an alligator farm. Fort Matanzas, built by the Spanish in 1742, lies at the southern end of the island.
Originally named Charles Towne, after King Charles II, Charleston was founded in 1670. It became a trading centre of rice and indigo, an incredibly valuable blue dye. A prominent southern city, it became a focal point during the American Revolution and again during the Civil War. On 11 December 1861, a fire devastated 540 acres of the town, destroying around 1,000 buildings. With so many homes lost, many residents had deserted the area by the time General Sherman and his troops started shelling the city in 1863. This photo, taken in 1865, shows Charleston in ruins. Fire and fighting destroyed the Circular Church (centre), but St Michael's (centre right), built in 1761, still stands today.
Fast forward to the 21st century and Charleston is unrecognisable. Despite its tumultuous past, many examples of 18th and 19th-century architecture still stand in the city's historic district (including St Michael's, centre). Since then, a variety of modern additions have sprung up around them. Following the defeat of the Confederacy, the city rebuilt and became a powerful port once again. Today, its industry includes paper mills, metalworking, manufacturing and tourism. The charming city is home to just 154,000 inhabitants, but it pulls in over 7 million out-of-town visitors each year.