Sometimes, predictions of the future aren't that far off from reality. Thomas Nast drew the above illustration of the future of Manhattan for the August 27, 1881 Harper's Weekly when the tallest building in town was the 281-foot-tall Trinity Church. Yet when you compare it to the current reality, well, Nast could have gotten it a lot worse! Though we only wish our current buildings were that ornate.
What will be really interesting to see is how some of our modern magazine predictions for the future of the city hold up. Now we just need to wait another 130 years to compare!
