Today marks the beginning of Fleet Week in New York, that special time of year when massive ships cruise the Hudson and sailors spill out to roam the city. Experience the magic with these vintage photos of when sailors taking over New York in Fleet Weeks past.
Back in 1970, Times Square was less a hub of bright lights and tourists than a seedy swath of peep show and prostitution. Not that the sailors minded. These two walked across 45th Street with two glamorous, Twiggy-esque ladies with hair as big as the ships the sailors came on.
Sailors in crisp white uniforms gaze above and beyond the island of Manhattan from the observation deck of the Empire State Building in 2010.
Sailors from the USS North Carolina battleship approached New York in 1942, when the city’s skyline was just a teensy bit humbler than it is today.
Sailors aboard the USS Guadalcanal stand on the deck as they pass by the World Trade Center as an international armada of ships steam into New York Harbor in 1994.
The Navy’s most dedicated sailor or just showing off for city girls? This sailor took time out from sightseeing for a few pull-ups during Fleet Week in 2009.
Gerald Holubowicz/laif/Redux
Marines and sailors on the USS Iwo Jima salute as they pass Ground Zero, the site of the former World Trade Center.
Henny Ray Abrams/AFP/Getty
Even in a place as densely crowded as Times Square, the sailors of Fleet Week are always easy to spot in their all-white, freshly pressed uniforms. Little do the sailors know, they’ll be swarmed in 10 seconds by camera-toting tourists who want photos with them—like celebrities!
Three sailors in long black coats make for a striking sight as they sail past the Statue of Liberty on the USS Shreveport as it sails into New York Harbor in 2003.
