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# How An Artist in 1881 Imagined the New York of the Future
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/new-york-of-the-future-1881/
- Published: 2011-08-19T12:30:29.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:48:41.000Z
- Description: "When cartoonist Thomas Nast drew this illustration of future Manhattan for Harper's Weekly in 1881, Trinity Church was the tallest building in New York, with its spire and cross reaching 281 feet into the heavens." [Paleofuture [http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/2011/8/18/new-yorks-tallest-building-o
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: Opinion, #image-position-hidden, Architecture, New York, Skyscrapers, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011)

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/08/nyfuture.jpg "NYfuture")](http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/2011/8/18/new-yorks-tallest-building-of-the-future-1881.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)

“When cartoonist Thomas Nast drew this illustration of future Manhattan for *Harper’s Weekly* in 1881, Trinity Church was the tallest building in New York, with its spire and cross reaching 281 feet into the heavens.” \[[Paleofuture](http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/2011/8/18/new-yorks-tallest-building-of-the-future-1881.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)\]

The are ornate and remind me of the medieval towers of the Italian town of [San Gimignano](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San%5FGimignano?ref=hyperallergic.com) or even the Yemeni city of [Sana](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sana'a?ref=hyperallergic.com) more than anything that actually came to pass. It probably goes to prove that our visions of the future are often more related to our ideas about the past than we usually care to admit.

*h/t John Powers*