By . Rick Dewsbury . It's barely 150 years since New York was a bustling city of immigrants from across the world. But it seems that the skyline that once greeted visitors is virtually unrecognisable from the same scene in 1876. All that remains is the iconic Brooklyn Bridge which was just being built to connect two districts of the Big Apple. The changes are shown in a startling composite picture of the skyline over the decades, starting with 1876, going into 1932 and 1988 and finishing in 2013. The New York skyline before Brooklyn Bridge was completed and the other side of Manhattan Island can be seen in the distance (picture from UrbanPeek.com) In 56 years high-rise buildings have already made a significant change on the skyline and the opposite side of Manhattan Island can no longer be seen (picture from UrbanPeek.com) The first grainy black and white image, published online by Urban Peek, shows the bustling city with ships lining the dock yards in Downtown Manhattan. Construction of Brooklyn Bridge - then the world's biggest suspension bridge - had only just begun and only the towers on the Manhattan side of New York were in place. The tallest building in the city appears to be a church spire close to Tribeca. But with the industrial revolution bringing great wealth to the city it was soon to be transformed. Over the next 60 years dozens of imposing building shot up across New York - including the Empire State Building which was the tallest in the world when it was built on Fifth Avenue in 1931. Just behind the Empire State Building is The Chrysler Building, which was built on the East Side of Manhattan in 1930. By now the Brooklyn Bridge had been completed and a second crossing, the Manhattan Bridge, had been finished a short distance away. Despite the Great Depression ravaging many of the city's residents throughout the 1930s, New York soon recovered. The scene in the next image taken in 1988 shows how the city had been transformed from a hub of industry to the financial capital of the U.S. The boom of the 80s shows a New York skyline that is much more recognisable to today's residents and visitors (picture from UrbanPeek.com) The future: From next year this is how we can expect to see the New York skyline with the Freedom Tower in place of the Twin Towers (picture from UrbanPeek.com) Gone are the ship yards once full of dockers and trawlers and in their place are are clean-cut avenues lined with restaurants and cafes. More skyscrapers have been built, and the buildings in the financial district and down to Battery Park now tower along the bay like fortresses. Most noticeable though are the twin towers of the World Trade Centre now dwarfing the other buildings in the city. A brief look at the latest picture from 2013 shows a gap where they once stood. In its place is Freedom Tower, commemorating the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Despite a quarter of a century passing between 1988 and 2013, the structural changes to the city's skylines are not as dramatic as in earlier years. A handful of new towers have been built and more buildings have appeared to in the right hand corner of the latest image, stretching further north in Manhattan.
Dockyards from the early 1900s are gone as financial district gives rise to skyscrapers .
Word Trade Centre visible in 1988 replaced by Freedom Tower in 2013 for 9/11 victims .
By . Rick Dewsbury . It's barely 150 years since New York was a bustling city of immigrants from across the world. But it seems that the skyline that once greeted visitors is virtually unrecognisable from the same scene in 1876. All that remains is the iconic Brooklyn Bridge which was just being built to connect two districts of the Big Apple. The changes are shown in a startling composite picture of the skyline over the decades, starting with 1876, going into 1932 and 1988 and finishing in 2013. The New York skyline before Brooklyn Bridge was completed and the other side of Manhattan Island can be seen in the distance (picture from UrbanPeek.com) In 56 years high-rise buildings have already made a significant change on the skyline and the opposite side of Manhattan Island can no longer be seen (picture from UrbanPeek.com) The first grainy black and white image, published online by Urban Peek, shows the bustling city with ships lining the dock yards in Downtown Manhattan. Construction of Brooklyn Bridge - then the world's biggest suspension bridge - had only just begun and only the towers on the Manhattan side of New York were in place. The tallest building in the city appears to be a church spire close to Tribeca. But with the industrial revolution bringing great wealth to the city it was soon to be transformed. Over the next 60 years dozens of imposing building shot up across New York - including the Empire State Building which was the tallest in the world when it was built on Fifth Avenue in 1931. Just behind the Empire State Building is The Chrysler Building, which was built on the East Side of Manhattan in 1930. By now the Brooklyn Bridge had been completed and a second crossing, the Manhattan Bridge, had been finished a short distance away. Despite the Great Depression ravaging many of the city's residents throughout the 1930s, New York soon recovered. The scene in the next image taken in 1988 shows how the city had been transformed from a hub of industry to the financial capital of the U.S. The boom of the 80s shows a New York skyline that is much more recognisable to today's residents and visitors (picture from UrbanPeek.com) The future: From next year this is how we can expect to see the New York skyline with the Freedom Tower in place of the Twin Towers (picture from UrbanPeek.com) Gone are the ship yards once full of dockers and trawlers and in their place are are clean-cut avenues lined with restaurants and cafes. More skyscrapers have been built, and the buildings in the financial district and down to Battery Park now tower along the bay like fortresses. Most noticeable though are the twin towers of the World Trade Centre now dwarfing the other buildings in the city. A brief look at the latest picture from 2013 shows a gap where they once stood. In its place is Freedom Tower, commemorating the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Despite a quarter of a century passing between 1988 and 2013, the structural changes to the city's skylines are not as dramatic as in earlier years. A handful of new towers have been built and more buildings have appeared to in the right hand corner of the latest image, stretching further north in Manhattan.
and 1988 and finishing in 2013. The New York the New York skyline with the Freedom Tower in buildings in the financial district and down to towers of the World Trade Centre now dwarfing the