There's a lot going on in New York City's skyline. Likely, you probably knew that. 

We're facing down an excess of taller and taller skyscrapers, more and more air traffic, and way too many luxury high-rises to count.

Odds are, you knew NYC wasn't always like this. Odds are even better that you think about the good old days the minute you hear of another change. 

But before industrialization got to NYC around the 1800's, it was all fields and marshes and swamps. Can you even imagine?

Luckily for all us nostalgia addicts, we keep getting more access to photo evidence of the NYC from yesteryear. 

There's this scratch-off map that lets you compare present-day NYC to the NYC of the 1920's. The New York Public Library also created this map, which allows you to roll over an area of NYC and check out its antique photos.

What's craziest of all for us is to imagine the evolution of all the springing up of all of NYC's buildings. Now, thanks to Reddit user Africare, we no longer have to imagine what the transformation of NYC's skyline was like.

[anad]

Africare used data about the growth of NYC's architectural topography to create the breathtaking GIF below.

Feast your eyes, and consider the magnitude of NYC's construction. It's pretty mind blowing. We can only imagine what a map like this will look like at the end of 2016, after NYC gets through it's biggest year for construction ever.

[imgur]

Check out Apartments for Less Than $500 a Month? In Greenpoint? Um, Yes Please.

[via Viewing NYC]