Watch these webcams as Hurricane Sandy hits the US East Coast

Webcams date to an earlier era of the internet: the very first one, in 1991, was pointed at a coffee pot in a computer lab at Cambridge University. But the tradition lives on in various corners of the web, which comes in handy when, say, an enormous storm is barreling toward the East Coast of the United States.

The webcams listed below should provide a good view of Hurricane Sandy’s arrival. If you know of other webcams we should add, email me or send me links on Twitter.

Please note that some webcams may be loading slowly or not at all under the crush of traffic. Links below in green were loading fine late Monday afternoon.

New York City

• Coney Island
• Far Rockaways (thanks to Matt Miner)
• Statue of Liberty
• New York Harbor
• Gowanus, Brooklyn (thanks to Jessica Johnston)
• Midwood, Brooklyn
• Brooklyn Bridge
• Manhattan Bridge (thanks to Amrit Richmond)
• Battery Park City
• Downtown Manhattan
• Wall Street Bull
• Ground Zero
• SoHo
• USS Intrepid
• Midtown West
• New York Times Building (and what the camera looks like)
• Highrise near Penn Station (thanks to Liz Markham)
• Times Square
• Bryant Park
• Columbus Circle
• 79th Street Boat Basin
• Upper East Side
• Co-Op City in the Bronx
• NYC traffic cameras

Long Island

• Long Beach (thanks to Herman Wong)
• Lincoln
• Gilgo Beach

Jersey Shore

• Brigantine (thanks to Sam Petulla)
• Cape May
• Cape May
• Point Pleasant Beach
• Seaside Heights
• Wildwood
• New Jersey traffic cameras

Virginia Beach

• Waterman’s Boardwalk
• Hampton Inn Oceanfront North (thanks to @Peacebird9)
• Williamsburg

West Virginia

• Canaan Valley (thanks to Sam Petulla)

Delaware

• Bethany Beach (thanks to Jim Keeley)
• Dewey Beach
• Rehoboth Beach
• Delaware traffic cameras (thanks to Steven Thorp)

Maryland

• Fager’s Island, Ocean City (thanks to Sarah Barton)
• Ocean City (thanks to Sam Petulla)
• Ocean City
• Garrett College, McHenry (thanks to Jack Lancelotta)
• Inner Harbor, Baltimore (thanks to Jim Keeley)
• Maryland traffic cameras (thanks to Kat Palmore)

Massachusetts

• Nantucket

Maine

• Casco Bay, Portland (thanks to Lisa)

And this isn’t a webcam, but Instacane is a great, intimate view of how people are experiencing Sandy as documented on Instagram. (Thanks to Chris Ackermann for the tip.) It might also get interesting over at NSKYC, which displays the average color of the New York City sky, captured every five minutes.

Last updated on Oct. 29, 2012, at 4:37 p.m. ET.

More coverage of Hurricane Sandy on Quartz:

• Nine ways to make your cell phone last the whole storm even if the power goes out
• This is what the floor of the New York Stock Exchange looks like today
• Around Hurricane Sandy, discounts on eye-liner, Volkswagens and, yes, even Sandman comics