April 11, 1896: "New York: Broadway At Union Square" Is Filmed

April 11, 1896: New York: Broadway At Union Square is filmed. It is the earliest known film footage of any American city.

French film pioneer Louis Lumière produced it, and Jean Alexandre Louis Promio was behind the camera. That camera appears to have been set up on the southwest corner of Union Square West and East 15th Street. Above 17th Street, a.k.a. Union Square North, Broadway, which previously terminated at Union Square South (14th Street), takes up the street that had been Union Square West. In the background, a building is visible that, in the 21st Century, contains a Barnes & Noble Bookstore on its 1st 3 floors.

The film is just 30 seconds long, and shows pedestrian and vehicle traffic, with policemen guiding the pedestrians.

Later in the year, Promio would make a film of trains at one end of the Brooklyn Bridge, titled New York, Brooklyn Bridge. In 1899, a camera would be mounted on the front of a train, and a film titled Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge would be made.

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April 11, 1896 was a Saturday. Baseball season was about to begin. Football was out of season. Basketball barely existed. And hockey was all-amateur. There were soccer games in England, and Woolwich Arsenal (later Arsenal F.C.) and Millwall played to a 2-2 draw, at the Manor Ground in Plumsted, South-East London.