Spoiler alert: New York City has a lot more buildings than it used to.
This film from Reuben Hernandez and The New York Times shows how the New York City skyline has changed over the past 500 years. Mimicking the path of the elevator ride to the observatory atop 1 World Trade Center, Hernandez's film is a really lovely piece of animation. And if you're like me and get a little anxious every time you step into Manhattan, the film is also a lovely reminder that millions of people are crammed onto a small island, and you probably shouldn't think about that part too hard when you're there.
Hernandez has some other excellent time-lapses on his Vimeo account, including Forward, which Hernandez says was "created from 2,634 still images taken over the course of a year in Central Park and documents my first year in New York."