The fire escape is as quintessentially New York as the hot dog stand or flatbread pizza. The lines and angles on these sometimes rickety and rusty structures are so interesting to look at. In the 19th and early 20th century, the fire escape wasn’t just something photogenic. For a family of ten crammed inside a one-bedroom apartment in a tenement building, the fire escape offered an escape. You stepped onto the fire escape to feel the breeze and the city below you. Children, too, sought refuge there, using it as their urban jungle gym.

The city mandated the addition of these safety structures in the late 19th century, much to the chagrin of landlords. Exterior fire escape ceased being a requirement in 1968 though you can obviously still find them on older buildings. Just stroll through the Lower East Side, East Village, Greenwich Village, and Soho, and you can see fire escapes in different colors and people sitting or standing on them, perhaps also just looking to escape the daily grind for a brief moment.