Pershing Square, 1939, during the days when Pershing Square was a lovely and leafy place to rest your feet. And it looks like a lot of people did – and not just homeless people! Behind that palm tree in the middle, you can see a neon sign for the Union Pacific railway which, immediately prior to WWII, would have been enjoying their halcyon years. After WWII, air travel swiftly became the preferred mode of coast-to-coast transport.