38. Hotel for Autos
Wikimedia Commons
Parking garages are not built like they used to be. The building in this unbelievable photo from history is a “Hotel for Autos” used in the 1930s in Manhattan. The building automatically parked and retrieved cars. The building could hold over 1000 cars and the machinery could stack them up to 24 stories high. A pusher moved the car about 60 ft in 15 seconds and could easily get a car parked anywhere in the building back to the owner. The elevator system made it easier for the garage to work. Unfortunately, due to the rapidly changing styles and sizes of the cars at the time, the Hotel for Autos became obsolete by the 60s.
