In this Autochrome image from a January 1930 National Geographic story on Florida, colorful umbrellas shade members of an oceanfront club in Miami Beach. They "bathe in the blue, sunlit Gulf Stream," says the picture's caption, "and enjoy other healthful exercise when the northern resorts are icebound."
In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, many people come straight to the seashore at the end of the workday. Despite the city’s deep social divisions, the beach is democratic. Rich and poor share the sand all day and into the evening.
Photographer James Stanfield captured the city of Salvador, Brazil, for a 1969 story on Charles Darwin's voyage aboard the H.M.S. Beagle. "A peculiar and rather fantastic style of architecture," National Geographic quotes Darwin, who was impressed by the city and its grand view of All Saints Bay. "But these beauties are as nothing compared to the Vegetation."
"Traveling by train is the most convenient way to travel in Japan," says photographer Danilo Dungo, a member of the National Geographic Your Shot community. Here, a train operator announces the approach to Tokyo's Shinagawa subway station on the busy Yamanote Line.
Arches frame a street in Limassol, Cyprus—also called Lemesos—in this photo from the 1920s. An ancient port city that's home to numerous archaeological sites, Limassol today is the Mediterranean island's wine capital and a popular beach destination.
In Paris, old limestone quarries fan out in a deep and intricate web under many neighborhoods, mostly in the southern part of the metropolis. Here, a fire thrower named Louis spins light at a gathering in one old quarry. Nearly all of the more than 180 miles of quarry tunnels are off-limits, but parties happen anyway.
Travelers crowd the platforms at Churchgate Railway Station in Mumbai—the largest city in India—in this photo shot on assignment for National Geographic magazine's special series, Population 7 Billion.
