Amazing old photos that capture the everyday life in New York City in the 1940s

These incredible black-and-white photographs document everyday life in New York City in the 1940s and offer glimpses of a long-gone era.

From street vendors selling fish or fresh ears of corn, to cars stalling under mounds of snow, the scenery is both familiar and nostalgic.

New York City that emerged from World War II was a dramatically different place than the city it had entered four years earlier.

This change was due in large part to the war, which eventually pulled the city out of recession and ushered in an era of unparalleled prosperity.

The explosion in commercial activity caused by the war reignited the city's economic engine, raising it to a level of economic power and dominance like nothing had before or since.

By the late 1940s, New York had become the largest manufacturing center in the world, with 40,000 factories and over one million factory workers. It was the largest wholesale center in the country, accounting for a fifth of all wholesale transactions in the US.

It was the largest port in the world, handling 40 percent of the country's waterborne cargo, 150 million tonnes per year. And it was the financial capital of the world, trading hundreds of millions of dollars every day.

More than 900,000 New Yorkers served in the war and shipped approximately 63 million tons of supplies and over 3 million men out of New York Harbor.

During the height of the war, a ship sailed every 15 minutes. Efforts were made to protect New York from attack, during the war famous landmarks such as Times Square and Broadway were dimmed to protect New York from air raids.

English writer Beverly Nichols describes NYC of the 1940s: More than ever, as shop windows entered a spectacular parade, the feeling of New York as a great international city, with all the ends of the world to come .

London used to be like this, but somehow one had forgotten it, with tropical fruits gleaming in the windows of Bond Street for so long since Hispanos and Isotas fell down from Piccadilly.

Coming to America from London like that, in the old days, New York just seemed American; Not continent specific, maybe, but American first and foremost. Now it was the center of the world.