Tuesday, January 08, 2013

EVEN OLDER DASH-CAM FOOTAGE: This one from 1907

The 1926 dash-cam footage I posted on Sunday appears to be predated by a mere 19 years:

In 1907, Seattle filmmaker William Harbeck took his hand-cranked camera aboard one of the city's streetcars and began capturing life as viewed from the streets. The 106-year-old film shows bustling neighborhoods filled with pedestrians, stray dogs and men on bicycles all darting around town. The clip is an interesting glimpse at a life gone by, and predates the claimed oldest dashcam video we showed you before by an impressive 19 years (although obviously it's using a streetcar and not a conventional automobile).


Sadly, chronicler Harbeck met an untimely end. When he was 44 years old, he was commissioned to document the launch of a world-famous ocean liner, a ship that wound up on the bottom of the Atlantic. The name of the vessel? The Titanic.

The 1926 footage is considerably more exciting, however: it chronicles a fire captain's ride through a New York City without traffic signals, lanes, or even restrictions against driving on sidewalks.


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.

No comments: