Development of New York City Subways

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Development of New York City Subways
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• Images from New York City Transit Museum
  (www.transitmuseumeducation.org) unless otherwise
  noted

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Population 1860s and after

• Constant growth
• 1898 consolidation 3.5 million people
• 1900 New York was one of largest cities in the
  world
• Extreme density in certain neighborhoods like
  Lower East Side

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Transit challenges 1860s 1880s

• Density overcrowded neighborhoods
• Traffic patterns Need to get people from where
  they live to where they work
• Physical Environment Geography of the city.
  Also effects of weather on elevated and surface
  lines.

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Transit challenges (continued)

• Cost related to density. Different systems
  different costs. Usually
• Extra features/comforts bring more riders
  increase costs increase fares
• Subways cost the most
• Surface rail next
• Buses using existing highways

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Transit challenges (continued)

• Environmental issues
• Coal and steam trains create pollution choke
  passengers.
• Pneumatic (air-powered/vacuum) huge costs
  (tried 1870-73).
• Need to use electricity.
• Next image crowded streets late 1800s

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• Challenge how to move large numbers of people
  through rapidly growing city on crowded streets
• Horse-drawn streetcars by 1830s
• Operated in New York 1832-1917
• Next image Horse-drawn streetcar from late 1800s

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Next step Elevated rails

• Proposals for subway system in 1860s after London
  subway opened in 1863
• Delays due to expense, political fighting, and
  technology
• Elevated lines better option
• First part of elevated line opened to passengers
  in 1868

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Elevated lines (continued)

• Built with private capital
• Operated under long-term contracts
• Multiple operators
• First line opened in 1870
• El owners Jay Gould Russell Sage JP Morgan
• Next image elevated line, early 1900s

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Electricity

• Electric motors available in 1880s
• Streetcars began using electricity
• Blizzard of 1888 highlighted weather problem for
  surface traffic
• Next image streetcars, late 1800s

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Overcrowding

• Next image Brooklyn Bridge Terminal and Brooklyn
  Bridge
• Note cable cars (streetcars that ran on tracks)

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Subway proposals

• Real estate developers wanted faster transit to
  make housing in outer boroughs more attractive
• Progressives wanted mass transit to reduce
  population densities
• More real estate taxes help the city
• Unify the diverse boroughs

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Subway opposition and compromise

• El owners didnt want competition
• Some city leaders feared corruption if city ran a
  mass transit system (Tammany Hall)
• Compromise combination of public ownership,
  private operation, and weak public supervision

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Subway Plans

• Plan using city funds to build a subway
  overwhelmingly approved in 1894
• Bids reviewed
• Contract awarded to Rapid Transit Subway (RTS)
  Construction Company with a 50-year lease

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RTS required to

• Keep the fare at five cents
• Pay annual rent the interest on the bonds and
  other fees
• Operate the lines at its own expense
• Next image Old subway strap and original
  five-cent fare slot

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IRT Lines

• 1902 Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT)
  formed to operate the subway and given a second
  contract to build another line
• Owner August Belmont
• Next image City Hall Station, 1904

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RTS and IRT

• Both systems working by 1908. First in the world
  to have four-track service (express and local in
  both directions)
• Trains ran about 40 miles per hour
• Very profitable at first
• Increased urbanization in the Bronx, Queens,
  Brooklyn

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More expansion needed, 1905 - 13

• Bitter struggle - how to extend routes
• Trains badly overcrowded neighborhoods
  overcrowded
• RTS and IRT oppose significant expansion

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Expansion needed (continued)

• 1913 city approved the dual system IRT and
  Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company expanded and
  organized as two networks
• Next image 23rd St. Station (1915)

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And more expansion

• 1913 rapid transit system carried 810 million
  passengers
• 1939 2049 million passengers
• Shuttle under 42nd Street added
• Lines extended through Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx

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Bankruptcy/Reorganization

• Mayor John Hylan refused to allow an increase in
  fares BRT went bankrupt between 1918-1923
• Reorganized as Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Company
  (BMC)
• More East River crossings

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And still more expansion

• Hyland fiercely opposed private operators
• Approval in 1925 for Independent Subway System
  (IND) more miles added, nearly all underground
• IND especially encouraged development along
  Queens Boulevard

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Subway in society and popular culture
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Next image Advertisement for the motion picture
Subway Sadie, 1926 (also Broadway stage hit) A
girl in a million straphangers who had
limousine longings and a subway salary. The
subway mixed genders and classesSome attracted
by this mix others appalled.
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Next image Take the A Train

• Sheet Music, Take the A Train, 1941. Music by
  Billy Strayhorn arranged by Duke Ellington
• Helped to make the A line of the IND New Yorks
  most famous subway route

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Transit Workers Union (TWU)

• Transit Workers Union (TWU) formed fought for
  salary increases and better working conditions
  during 1930s
• Next image Michael Quill addressing subway
  workers in 1935 outside the IRTs 59th Street
  powerhouse. The Transport Workers Union of
  America, AFL-CIO.

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Bankruptcy/Reorganization Again

• Financial problems of IRT and BMT worsened
  through 1920s and 1930s
• IRT bankruptcy in 1932 negotiations took 8
  years
• 1940 city bought operating rights, equipment,
  and properties from IRT and BMT

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Bankruptcy/Reorganization continued

• Board of Transportation assumed operations
• Next image Subway Sun Unification, June 12,
  1940.
• Celebrates public ownership of the transit system
  as Mr. Receiver (city official Thomas Murray)
  hands over the IRT to Mr. Mayor (Fiorello
  LaGuardia).

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After WWII

• Opposition to city control of mass transit
• 1953 subways controlled by independent body
  (Transit Authority)
• 1951 Voters approved huge sale of bonds to
  replace subway cars and lines some nearly 50
  years old
• 1951 plan appeared to include a subway planned
  for 2nd Avenue still not built
• Next image first Hagstrom subway map

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