Photos: Eye across the Atlantic

After almost 100 years a Victorian dream of building a telescope to look from London to New York has been realised.

Hundreds of people from opposite ends of the world have been waving to each other, pulling funny faces and scribbling messages thanks to the Telectroscope.

Two Telectroscopes, one near Tower Bridge in London and the other in the shadow of Brooklyn Bridge, beam images of people and the cityscapes across the Atlantic via video link.

The elaborate gold telescope, pictured, houses an oval screen to give the illusion of peering into a intercontinental kaleidoscope.