Then vs Now: 55 Photos Showing How Places Have Changed Over Time

Time is an absolutely vexing force. It’s slow during youth and speeds up as we age. It is unstoppable and cannot be reasoned with. It marches in one direction, dragging us with it. We look to the past not only to remember what we’ve lost but for clues as to how not to lose more in the future. It is quietly the most destructive force in nature, and we are completely at its oblivious whims.

One way we cope with this invisible enemy is through photography. We capture these little moments in time as a way to go back and touch them. Photos often capture things we wouldn’t otherwise be able to remember or even articulate.

This collection is focused on contemporary photos of places around the world juxtaposed with photos of the same place taken sometime in the past to show how they’ve changed, or haven’t changed, with time.

1. “Kansas City before and after Urban Renewal.”

“Put it back. Just put it all back. I hate seeing some of these because the afterimage always looks ugly without the trees and beautiful buildings.” – Mcg3010624

“I think I like the before better. Much better.” – StartingToLoveIMSA

2. “Penn Station, New York City. 1910 – 2024”

“As someone who passes through Penn Station every day, I would have preferred the old one. There was such immediate regret in demolishing the old Penn that the plans to knock down Grand Central got scrapped, with efforts led by Jackie Kennedy Onassis.” – BarCasa

3. “Tower of London: 25 years ago VS today”

“I actually like the towers in the background. The mix of the old and new adds something, I feel. It combines the history of London with the modern day.” – bihmg

4. “1959 vs 2023 Elbbrücke Bridge Germany.”

“What a downgrade.” – xopoc177

“Important to note this bridge was renovated in 1959.” – derpbagels

5. “Kedarnath Temple, Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand, India. Photos from 1882 and 2022.”

“Wonderful how the central shrine and the mountains are nearly identical. You can understand why people make pilgrimages here.” – MazigaGoesToMarkarth

“Interesting story! In 2013, there was a huge flood flowing through the area. A rock came down the mountain and stopped just before the shrine, blocking the floods from hitting it. What you see now in the 2022 picture is just half of what was there earlier. Most of the structures around the shrine got wiped out.” – nakkula

6. “Australia’s Wonderland, Sydney. Now lost.”

“Man, I loved this place.” – Zuffa_Shill10er

“I’ve never seen my dad as green as he was when he got off the demon ride.” – Lots_to_love

7.”Caesars Las Vegas, Julius Executive Duplex Suite”

“I enjoy the lady at the bottom in 1968, carrying on a riveting conversation with the statue.” – diygardening

“So much better before. It’s gaudy, but it’s interesting and fun and looks cozier.” –Aruaz821

8. “A 1950s shop building was replaced by a new Beaux Arts building in NYC in 2010.”

“Wow, they actually made it way better. That’s a nice change of pace from the usual.” – TexansFo4

“It’s called “New Traditional” architecture. There’s been a push over the last decade to bring old building philosophies back in style.” – StreetKale

9. “1910 vs. Today in Los Angeles, Ca”

“Wild. That small little house saw SoCal go through several booms in its existence.” – Ok-Resource2214

“They are still pumping oil out of the LA basin. The Tar pits aren’t that far from here either.” – ursixx

10. “Boston before and after ‘Big Dig'”

“They took the elevated freeway and buried it underground. At the time, it was the most expensive civil engineering project in US history and took 20+ years to complete.” – alohadave

11. “Bonn, West Germany 1945 vs Now”

“Those newer buildings are destroying the look of our cities. I wish they would have cared at least a little about aesthetics. In Frankfurt, the people wanted their old city back after the war, but politicians followed their own agenda.” – UltimateShame

12. Ohio State “Past vs Present”

“In college in the 90s, there was a snowstorm. During that snowstorm, I helped my girlfriend move between dorms. Since there was like a foot of snow, we took the shortest direct path, forging a trail through a grassy field between buildings. Other students ended up using that trail. It was a very snowy winter, so the trail remained and, in spring, became a dirt path. That dirt path remained for the rest of my college career. Years later, I returned to campus, and the path turned into a sidewalk. It made me so happy to see and really neat to think it’s all because of one snowy day a long time ago.” – RangoonRunner

13. Lahaina, Hawaii in a span of 6 months

“The number of cars is haunting. All those people hoping to drive out of harm’s way, ending up trapped and/or in the ocean. I wish I could say my personal evacuation plan is in better shape, but I can’t, and I think most places don’t have good enough official ones to rely on either.” – sawyouoverthere

“Absolutely heartbreaking.” – real-ocmsrzr

14. Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, France

“Yeah. It changed from sepia to natural color.” – No-Crew4317

15. “A view of the New York skyline from the same bench in 1957 and 2021”

“Not the same exact bench as evidenced by the slight change in angles between buildings that are in both pictures.” – raosko

16. “1892-2024 Old town center in Chester, Massachusetts”

“That’s cool. Those small towns and villages in New England are great, really quaint.” – Taptrick

“I love small New England towns. So many of them look borderline from the middle ages. Cozy as well. Once you go out west, all the small towns look all the same, sterile, generic, and boring in general.” – NewYorkVolunteer

17. “Mumbai City, India”

“Someone dropped their plate of spaghetti highways onto the beach.” – StoryAndAHalf

“Sick Hot Wheels tracks.” – Original_Danta

18. “1880 to 2018, VandenBoom Chair Factory, Quincy, Illinois”

“It lost a floor.” – Noname_Maddox

“And a ton of character.” – whitelouisboatshoes

19. “Ostend Belgium, 1899 and present day”

“What a shame; I’m assuming these were bombed in the war. It’s a tragedy that they’re gone, but it would be even worse if they were pulled down for no reason.” – ISaidDontUseHelium

“I’m from Belgium, and they did get demolished for no reason; more people wanted a secondary house by the coast, so they put up all those big apartment blocks.” – userdeleted

20. “My grandma in the 1950s in Los Angeles vs her approximate location on Google Maps”

“Probably at a time when there was still a semblance of downtown Los Angeles left before the highway plexus consumed it all, and they hauled off Bunker Hill completely. It’s amazing to think that that city once actually had a pretty nice 19th-century downtown. It still has a wonderful 20th-century core, but the whole Victorian side vaporized.” – Different_Ad7655

21. “Chichen Itza 1892 and 2020”

“I can’t imagine being the first person to find that in 1892” – LastKaaN

“This is why I don’t trust any mountains” – 2wenty2wenty

22. “Woodstock Festival Site 1969 vs 2020”

“I’ve wanted to metal detect that site for years” – server_busy

“There’s a great museum on site, and if you get the tour, it’s usually guided by someone who attended the festival.” – thecashblaster

23. “The Flatiron building, New York 1917 and 2012”

“So nice to see the original buildings around it have survived the reckless urban redevelopment of the late 20th century” – gnelaidir

“An architectural masterpiece.” – ogpalm

24. “Abandoned restaurant in Petropolis, Brazil 1960s and 2013”

“Someone needs to make that into an awesome home.” – LezPlayLater

“Looks like something from the Jetsons.” – jzspess

25. “1955 and 2021 Vilnius, Lithuania”

“Nice to see that the bus company is still using the same colors.” – SuperTulle

26. “Czech out Prague 1910 and 2020”

“So little has changed, but the modern street is so full of parked cars.” – Stotallytob3r

27. “Ancient Greece before and after excavation”

“Nature has a way of kicking any human record off the planet.” – heroic-abscession

28. “10 years in Detroit. 2009 and 2019”

“Even in 2009, there’s a boarded-up house two doors down. I’m from Detroit, and this is the era when banks were handing out mortgages like candy, whether the borrowers had any reasonable chance of repaying them or not, and people were trying to revitalize neighborhoods that were long dead. I would bet dollars to donuts that this is what happened here. People were given mortgages on these houses, couldn’t keep up with them, got evicted, and the houses have been vacant since.” – gofatwya

29. “Twenty-year difference in Dallas, Texas 2001 to 2021.”

“I moved from Dallas in 2022. Whole different world now.” – DLM2019

30. “Arch of Constantine in Rome, 1943 (taken by my grandfather), and what it looks like today.”

“Trees always seem like fixtures, but photo comparisons like this make it seem like they are only slightly less ephemeral than the people.” – WONKO9000

“Wow, it’s crazy to see how the trees lining the street have grown.” – ctadgo

31. “The main entrance to the city of York, England 1865 to 2015”

“Mickelgate Bar is the main entrance to the city through which monarchs would enter. It was also a popular practice to hang the heads of traitors from the gatehouse.” – hasanah78

“This is similar to the city of Canterbury, you can walk along the old walls, along the moat, beautiful city, whenever I visit I love coming in, across the old bridge, through the gatehouse, into the ancient streets. Simply a great experience.” – Mega-Humanoid-Robot

32. “Unfinished Manhattan Bridge in 1908 and 2021”

“Just watching Once ‘Upon a Time In America’. Looks familiar. Most of the movie is set in that spot.” – fireball2294

33. “Street in Kaunas, Lithuania then and now.”

“Crazy I’ve been to Kaunas two years ago and also visited this mall. Somehow, I did not notice this.” – mathild4

34. Singapore 2000 to 2020

“I know Singapore is a fast developing nation but that’s really fast.” – somewhat_toasty_

“The picture cropping cheats a bit. The bridge over the water exists in the 2000 photo, too, but it is mostly cropped out. And even in general, that particular spot south of the Central Business District was heavily developed in the past 20 years. A lot of the rest of the city-state hasn’t changed significantly in the same time.” – ohitsasnaake

35. “Hong Kong’s Kowloon peninsula 1964 to 2016”

“Nice if you’re into apartments.” – v8powerage

“The sky disappeared. This is depressing.” – Spinningalltheplates

36. “Main and Delaware St in Kansas City, MO 1906 vs 2015”

“That’s just depressing.” – FairlyInconsistentRa

“Worst one I’ve seen so far. What a nightmare.” – Silver_Variation2790

37. “Greenpoint, Brooklyn 1916 and 2021”

“It’s insane how many cars exist now. Totally messes up what could be nice, mostly walkable cities” – GetMeThePresident

“Not to mention the existence of streetcars/trams. That’s what you get when automobile companies lobby the government, though.” – gregy521

38. “Hiroshima 1945 to 2020”

“All the radiation from the bomb dissipated within a few days. It’s totally safe to live in Hiroshima and to visit as a tourist. Fukushima, on the other hand, is still highly contaminated nearly 10 years after the disaster and is practically a ghost town.” – LateralPlanet

“Visited Hiroshima back in 2017. It is such a beautiful city, and it is so impressive to see how far the city has come in less than a century. It was easily one of my favorite cities during my travels in Japan.” – WalkingOnSunshine_

39. “The Pines in Fallsburg, NY. 1950s to somewhat recently.”

“There’s a lot of abandoned places in Catskill, NY. Tourism died out, and a bunch of resorts closed down.” – Aviaja_Apache

“It’s crazy how many tourist places died in the USA and Canada. I’ve encountered dozens of abandoned places with cool-looking pools/designs.” – MatsGry

40. “Hollywood sign, Los Angeles”

“The sign was originally an advertisement for a new subdivision called Hollywood Land. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce entered into an agreement with the landowners to maintain the sign and removed the Land portion in 1949. It eventually fell into disrepair but was rebuilt in 1978 after Hugh Hefner hosted a fundraiser for the cost of rebuilding it. It is now a Los Angeles official cultural-historic monument.” – Secretagentmanstumpy

41. “Krakow, Poland 1939 and 2010s”

“Amazing! Wish we had kept our streetcars here in America” – booberryyogurt

42. “Abraham Lincoln’s home in Springfield, Illinois in 1861 and 2021”

“I always thought Lincoln’s home was in Pennsylvania. I always hear about his Gettysburg address.” – Norsegod26

43. “Manhatten 1931 to 2018”

“That East River (on the left of 1931 pic) was evidently a Raging Bull in tidal activity. The undertaking to “Calm it down” was, in fact, one of the greatest feats of engineering ever” – TheOriginalSpartak

44. “A former public bath in Wuppertal, Germany. Now, a brewery and beer hall. 1993 vs. 2019.”

“In Germany, everything eventually becomes a beer hall!” – Arthur_Digby_Sellers

45. “Chernobyl power plant control room in 1986 and 2021”

“I love that their protection gear had flared trousers.” – stompusmaximus

“They’re flared intentionally, not for style. You have to be able to pull them down over the protective boots easily.” – DerekL1963

46. “Lincoln Memorial 1922 to 2016”

“I like how it was just sitting in a field.” – pbmcc88

“Somehow, it looks more majestic to me. I think there is something really intriguing about big man-made structures placed in the middle of nature, hundreds or even thousands of years ago when civilization and massive architecture projects weren’t as common. Just imagine you are a little boy/girl, all you know are dense forests or a vast steppe/desert, then for the first time in your life, you travel to a population center; as someone who had lived a very simple life, suddenly seeing something that huge must have been mind-blowing.” – Xarthys

47. “Stonehenge: 1877 and 2019”

“Is it weird that I’m slightly annoyed they restored it? Seems way cooler in disarray” – cammyboom

“I went to Stonehenge in 1975. You could still walk among and touch the stones then. It was pretty amazing.” – Esaukilledahunter

48. “The Curecanti Needle, Black Canyon, Colorado, 1880s vs 2024”

“I like the change. Let’s keep it that way.” – LongFeesh

“One of the only photos I have ever seen where 2024 looks better than 1880s” – next2021

49. “Robin Hood’s Bay, England”

“I am always impressed by how little some places change in more than 100 years.” – ComputerMinister

50. “Boston 1858 and 1980”

51. “Dresden: From Post-War Ruins in 1957 to a Rebuilt Cultural Hub Today.”

52. “130-year-old Victorian largely unchanged — Holyoke, Massachusetts.”

53. “Wroclaw, Poland, 1920 – 2024”

54. “Mexico City, Mexico.”

55. “Towers & Piazza Maggiore – Bologna, Italy – 1948 and Today”

Looking for more? How about 100 Photos That Totally Sum Up The 1930s?

Check out: 100 Photos That Totally Sum Up The 1930s

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