A unique view of NYC in the 1970s

Throughout the 1970s, the city teetered on bankruptcy, which was avoided primarily by deep reductions in police, firemen, and teachers. In the above photograph, then Mayor Abe Beame holds a newspaper with the headline 'Ford To City: Drop Dead,' following President Ford's refusal to use federal funds to bail out the city.

The grand feat of the decade was the completion of the World Trade Center complex. At the time of its 1973 completion, the Twin Towers were the tallest buildings in the world.

While the towers grew, much of the city burned. Landlords who could no longer afford to maintain their buildings would occasionally burn them down to collect insurance money.

Here, children in East Harlem returning from school traverse rubble to reach their homes.

Arson became a major problem in the 1970s in New York, rising from just 1 percent of fires in the 1960s to over 7 percent of fires in the 1970s.

To prevent the city government from going into default, significant city-wide cuts were put into place -- one-fifth of all public workers were laid off in 1975 alone. With substantially fewer firefighters and police, many crimes and fires were simply not responded to.

In the summer of 1975, tourists were greeted with this ominous brochure at the airport. It featured nine survival tips for navigating the city, including not taking the subway and not walking in any part of the city after 6 PM.

Prostitution became a city-wide problem in the 1970s, with over 2,400 arrests for the offense in 1976 alone. In the above photograph, negotiations take place on the Bowery.

Before becoming famous for its bars and clubs, the Bowery was known for abandoned buildings and a substantial homeless population.

New York City became the capital of adult stores with Times Square as its epicenter. As the Guardian wrote, "Times Square’s venerable old theaters and spectacular movie palaces were torn down for office buildings or allowed to slowly rot away, showing scratchy prints of cheesy second-run films or pornography, which any casual visitor might have thought was the city’s leading industry."

An oil slick surrounds the Statue of Liberty in May 1973.

Now home to luxury loft apartments and media agencies, the Brooklyn neighborhood of DUMBO was largely uninhabited for most of the 1970s.

In 1977, New York experienced a 25-hour citywide blackout that led to looting and arson. When all available police were ordered to duty, 40% of the off-duty force refused to show as a result of the escalating animosity between the police union and the city.

Once the borough of choice for the middle class, the Bronx bore the full brunt of 1970s white flight. Over the course of the decade, the Bronx lost over 30 percent of its population.

A group plays cards in a burnt out cafe in the Bronx.

Passersby look on at a gentleman passed out on the corner of 172nd Street in the Bronx.

The Bronx River became an open sewer for industry and humans alike. In fact, it wasn't until 2007 that towns in Westchester and the Bronx both agreed to stop dumping raw sewage into the waterway.

Transportation didn't fare much better than waterways. In the 1970s, the New York subway became jokingly referred to as "the muggers express." By 1979, over 250 felonies were committed every week on the transportation system, making it the most dangerous in the world.

An elderly woman plays the accordion for change on the subway.

The exteriors of the subway system were covered in as much grime as the interiors.

Above, boys enjoy the city's water from a fire hydrant on Avenue C in the Lower East Side.

Two young women pose in Harlem.

A group of boys play on the hood of the car in the Bronx in the early 1970s.

A child passes a blazing can in Harlem.

A group participates in a Central Park quilting bee during the summer of 1973.

A group of girls share their Barbie collections on the stoop of a brownstone townhouse in Harlem.

People celebrate July 4th in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, 1974.

A Puerto Rican wedding

Lower East Side residents interact near their stoops.

A Bed Stuy resident simply known as "Big Joe" poses for photographer Camilo José Vergara.

A woman takes a breather in East Harlem.