%0 Journal Article
%T ¡°A Curious Epitome of the Life of the City¡±: New York, Broadway, and the Evolution of the Longitudinal View
%A Nick Yablon
%J Journal of Urban History
%@ 1552-6771
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0096144216654882
%X Discussions of urban representation have been hampered by a persistent contrast between the view from above and the view from street level, or between the urban planner¡¯s panoptic gaze and the flaneur¡¯s fleeting glance. This article challenges such contrasts by identifying a third way of representing a city, that of moving block-by-block along the length of its main thoroughfare. It traces the emergence of what it calls the ¡°longitudinal view¡± back to antebellum New York, when tour guides and urban sketches promoted the ¡°walk up Broadway¡± as a means to encompass the social and functional diversity of the expanding metropolis, and when visual genres such as the moving panorama and the pictorial directory offered a virtual simulation of that journey¡ªone that echoed the perpendicular perspective of an omnibus passenger. It concludes by exploring the subsequent appropriation of the longitudinal view by artists, photographers, and filmmakers
%K pictorial directories
%K panoramas
%K urban tourism
%K Broadway
%K New York City
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0096144216654882