Two High School boys stand on a New York city street. Tenament buildings are behind them. children play on the sidewalks and in the street including one riding a home-made roller skate box scooter with the number 2 on it. The boys walk past many children. They are making not of buildings with inadequate fire escapes. Scene suddenly shifts to a boy standing on a bridge overlooking railroad tracks. He is annotating a map or buildings along Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. Next, the student is seen presenting information about this matter and engaging in a discussion about it with classmates. Later, a student spokesman is seen presenting findings about housing inadaquacies to an assembly of people. Local people demonstrate in the streets, carrying banners decrying current conditions. Scene shifts to new housing projects with playgrounds and seemingly better conditions for the residents. Children are seen running in Central Park. A woman (teacher) with children on a ferry boat looking at the skyline of lower Manhattan. (World War II period).
A United States Army Air Force B-25 Mitchell aircraft hits a skyscraper in heavy fog in New York, United States. The Empire State Building. Several buildings along street sides. People walk on a street. Policemen on the street. The aircraft crashes into the 79th floor of the building. Firemen douse the fire using hoses. Men carry the wounded. The damaged building. Wreckage in a room. The dead body of a man in the room. Wrecked parts of the airplane. Wrecked equipment on the street. (World War II period).
Scenes of fire fighters battling fire at the Lee Brothers warehouse at 2296 Eighth Avenue at 123rd Street in New York City. The warehouse blazes. Firemen spray water from hoses at the blaze. Two men talk to each other at the site. View of damaged fire fighting equipment, cars, and debris. (FDNY Firemen Elbert Hardman and Nelson Tuite, both of Engine 36 were operating the deckpipe on the 1929 Seagrave hose wagon of Engine 36, when an explosion blew out the top corner of the building front wall. Both fire fighters were killed and the hose wagon was destroyed.) The firemen evacuate casualties and transfer them into ambulance. Thick ice covers the building from freezing temperatures, after the blaze was extinguished. (World War II period).
Life of a Manhattan window cleaner working on skyscrapers in New York City, United States. The New York skyline. Views of landmark buildings and skyscrapers of Manhattan, New York City. Skyscrapers showing dirty windows. A window cleaner walks on Fifth Avenue, Manhattan. He enters the Empire State Building (20 W 34th St., New York, NY 10001). He enters an office in the building. He attaches a safety belt and steps out of a window. The window cleaner cleans the exterior of the window. Another window cleaner cleans a shop window and wipes the glass. Views of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028, United States). A window cleaner places a ladder and climbs it up to reach a window. He cleans the window. A window cleaner cleans windowpanes. The window cleaner cleans exterior of the window and gets into office. He goes away after completing his work.