Johannesburg, South Africa

This card shows a view of Pritchard Street in Johannesburg, South Africa, circa 1910. Note the street light in the middle of the road. Johannesburg was a dusty settlement until gold was discovered there in 1886, setting off a massive gold rush and fueling tensions over land ownership between the existing Boer government in Pretoria and the British.  By the turn of the century, Johannesburg had a population of 100,000. It is now one of the 40 largest metropolitan areas in the world, with a population of over 7 million.