The relentless passage of time 🧵
1. Same people as youth and 100-year-olds
2. Titanic's grand staircase, before and after
The large ornate staircases in the Titanic's first-class section are among the most iconic features of the British ocean liner, which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912. This is how they look now, at the bottom of the sea.
3. Jan Langer's "Faces of the Century" pairs portraits of Czech centenarians with images from their youth.
Stanislav Spáčil, 17 years old and 102 Years Old.
Bedřiška Köhlerová, 26 years old (wedding day), 103 years old.
4. A baby tortoise and Hugo, a Galápagos tortoise who is over 70 years old.
5. Hong Kong in 1964 and today
6. The rediscovery of the Pyramid of the Sun
A comparison of a 1870 lithograph of the Teotihuacan temple with a modern photograph.
7. Piccadilly Circus, London, 1949 - 2021
8. The wreck of the SS City of Adelaide.
The ship, gutted by fire in 1916, now lies in ruins on Magnetic Island, slowly being reclaimed by mangroves.
9. Antonín Kovář, 25 years old (bandmaster of his own band) and 102 years old.
Vincenc Jetelina, 30 years old (just finished his house) and 105 years old.
10. WWI trenches then and now
11. The Colosseum in Rome
It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world.
12. Tokyo, Japan - 1945 and now
13. Houtouwan, an abandoned fishing village on Shengshan Island near Shanghai, was established in the 1950s and once housed over 2,000 fishermen.
Nature quickly reclaims what we leave behind.
14. The pyramids in their original form, covered in pristine white limestone with a pure gold peak.
15. The Dubai coastline between 1984-2022
16. The Arctic 100 years apart
17. A couple at Woodstock: this is them 48 hours after they first met, and 50 years later, still happily together.
"We had known each other for less than 2 days when that picture was taken," said Judy and Jerry Griffin.
18. Old London Bridge vs London Bridge now
The present bridge, which opened in 1973, took the place of a 19th-century stone-arched structure, which itself had been constructed after the demolition of this magnificent medieval stone bridge dating back to the years 1176-1209.
19. In 1964, Ringo Starr took a photo of high school students who had ditched class to watch the Beatles perform on their first U.S. tour.
Five decades later, they reenacted the photo.
20. Penn Station in New York City
21. The Roman Forum, both in its prime and as it stands today
22. Hashima Island, Japan, once home to an undersea coal mine, had a peak population of 5,259 in 1959 before being abandoned in 1974.
23. Machu Picchu, before and after excavation
24. Lincoln, before and after the Civil War
25. Oxford in 1810 and 2022.
On the other hand, some places stay the same...
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One more: Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias" explores the ravages of time and the inevitable decline of all human achievements.
The poem was inspired by the Younger Memnon statue of Ramesses II.
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
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