8 remarkable NYC public space transformations captured by Google Street View

Over the past century, New York City's streets have evolved dramatically.

These changes are especially apparent in archive photos recently uncovered by the New York Public Library. The collection contains prints from 1935 to 1936 by Berenice Abbott, a photographer who documented NYC's transformation over the previous century in her series "Changing New York."

Comparing her photos to Google Street View images reveals how the city's public spaces have changed up to today.

The city has "taken older infrastructure that no longer serves its original purpose, and we re-use it for new purposes," Jon Ritter, an urban design and architecture professor at New York University, tells Tech Insider. "The bones of the city are still there, but we're good at adapting it for what we want."

Take a look at these striking transformations.