25 Before and After Photos of Famous Cities

Do you have a favorite city that you’ve been dreaming to visit? A city with a signature look like Dubai, London or New York? Most of us have must-see places like that, but not many of us realize that these cities have transformed in appearance fairly recently. In fact, just a mere 100 years ago we wouldn’t have recognized them! LA was built almost from scratch – a sleepy little Spanish pueblo town at it’s roots. Similarly, Moscow has lots of skyscrapers now and London has become virtually unrecognizable. Here are 25 photos of the world’s most spectacular cities before and after.

LA, California: 1878 and now
The barren lands of Los Angeles gave birth to a hi-tech city of the future. BTW Los Angeles has always had smog – it’s the “Valley Effect”.

Moscow, Russia: 1896 and now
From Soviet chic to modern skyscrapers.

Kuala-Lumpur, Malaysia: 90s and now
This city has been developing rapidly over the last few decades and it really shows.

London, Great Britain: 19th century and now
It’s like a totally different city! London has changed greatly over recent years.

Chicago, Illinois: 1909 and now
The roads were just as busy then as they are now! And we really miss those vintage-looking trams. Chicago was immortalized by poet Carl Sandberg in 1916 as “The Hog Butcher For The World”. Chicago is still an edgy city as it makes its way in the 21st Century being America’s homicide capital.

Tokyo, Japan: 20s and now
Tokyo has undergone the most spectacular transformation in quite a short amount of time.

Toronto, Canada: 1930 and now
The skyline of Toronto is unrecognizable now! It’s a transformation no one could have foreseen.