At the dawn of the 1990s, New York City was in an unremittingly bleak state. Following two decades of continuous decay, 1990 brought yet another all-time record high in violent crime and to this day, 1990 and the three years that followed remain the most homicide-plagued stretch in the city’s last five decades. The 1990s had quickly positioned itself to become the city’s worst decade yet.

New York City in the 1990sYet something unprecedented occurred in the latter half of the decade: The crime rate fell by half and the murder rate by a third, with each year better than the last. By the time the decade was over, New York was a safer place than it had been at any point since the 1960s.And it showed. By the time the 1990s ended, the city was pulling in 7 million more tourists a year while the city’s population began to grow for the first time in decades.The 1990s in New York City was an improbable success story on a level seldom seen before. What at first looked like a new nadir for America’s biggest city instead became one of the greatest urban revitalizations in American history.These amazing photos were taken by Steven Siegel that show what New York City looked like from the 1990s.View from Liberty State Park, 1991

 

WTC, 1991

 

WTC, 1992

 

Marlboro billboard, circa 1993

 

Upper West Side, Manhattan, 1993

 

View from Jersey City, 1993

 

Cigarette billboard, Long Island City, 1994

 

New York skyline, 1994

 

New York street portrait, 1994

 

New York street portrait, 1994

 

Statue of Liberty, 1994

 

Times Square, 1994

 

WTC, circa 1995

 

42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, 1996

 

42nd Street, 1996

 

42nd Street, 1996

 

42nd Street, 1996

 

42nd Street, 1996

 

42nd Street, 1996

 

42nd Street, 1996

 

42nd Street, 1996

 

42nd Street, 1996

 

Brooklyn Bridge, 1996

 

FDR Drive at South Street, Southport, 1996

 

Fifth Avenue and 21st Street, 1996

 

New York skyline, 1996

 

New York skyline, 1996

 

New York Subway, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, circa 1996

 

New York Subway, Williamsburg, Queens, circa 1996

 

Ninth Avenue and 40th Street, 1996

 

Sixth Avenue and 21st Street, 1996

 

Times Square, 1996

 

Times Square, 1996

 

Times Square, 1996

 

Times Square, 1996

 

Wall Street area, 1996

 

Steam train excursion, 1997

 

Billboard, 1998

 

Red Hook, Brooklyn, 1998

 

Sunset view from Eagle Rock Park, Essex County, New Jersey, 1998

 

Street/Lincoln Avenue in Woodside, circa late 1990s

 

New York City from Jersey City, circa 1990s

 

Subway on Williamsburg Bridge, circa 1990s

 

View from Liberty State Park, circa 1990s

 

WTC and commuter train, circa 1990s

 

WTC, circa 1990s

 

WTC, circa 1990s

 

34th Street, 1999

 

New York Subway, 1999

 

New York Subway, South Bronx, 1999