Cool pic, cool plane. Interesting how wide that street is, he coulda landed that plane on it. Maybe he did!
It looks more like he is taking off?
I should have said that I think this photo was from 1912.
Looks like an early Curtiss biplane, I wonder if it is Glenn Curtiss at the controls?
It's odd that there are no people on the sidewalks witnessing the big event.
Mike,
They're all inside hiding. The darn thing probably scared the heck out of them!
It is a "Put Together" or a composite photo. These were common at that time.
Darel, I think you may be right as the contrast of the airplane and buildings is not the same, but it seems a bit more difficult to doctor a photo than to take a photo. I suspect that they wanted a photo that had not been taken.
To add to Darel's comment:
Another common picture postcard is superimposing a streetcar in the middle of the street in a small town where a streetcar system never actually existed.
Ha, I got married in that courthouse at the end of the street. If I'd known then what I learned 33 years later I would have been running away from that place as fast as my feet would carry me. Oh crap, now I know I'm going to be dealing with flashbacks and I nightmares for the next week.
That street is still that wide. They usually park along both curbs and will park a center row right down the middle of the street.
no shadow on roadway from plane