New York City Subway

“ If the city government of New York had at its head a man “with a beard on his chin,” he could find a way to solve this Subway problem and all kindred problems within a few weeks, and in such a manner that it would never be presented again. ”

“ What is to be probably the finest “shanty” ever erected in the United States is being put up by Frederick L. Cranford, Inc., subway contractor, at the southwest corner of City Hall Park, close to Broadway, New York City. It is to have a height of three stories, the first to form a sort of arcade to allow free passage for pedestrians along the Mail Street sidewalk. ”

“ The subway ride was murderous. New York is always a crowded city, but it seemed as though the whole United States had moved in. The subways were so tightly jammed the doors couldn't even close. When I finally got out, the streets were filled from one curb to the other. Traffic had given up, and people were piling out of cars and buses anywhere they were stopped, adding to the jam in the streets.
In the store, Frank and Minnie were already there. ”

“ New York's two great problems have been housing and transportation, and most of its colossal engineering works have aimed at the solution of one or the other. The four bridges across East River are supplemented by three tunnels under it. The first was built by the Long Island Railroad; the second by the Belmont street-car system to Long Island City, to connect surface-lines. The last is the Brooklyn extension of the subway system, running from the Battery. ”

“ These business men take three or four hours for lunch lots of times.”
“Lead on,” said Frank. “Do you know where his office is located?” 37
“At Times Square,” said Bob. “I’ve been there once with Dad. Come on. We’ll take the Subway. It’s only one station up the line.”
The three boys were familiar with the great city, having lived on Long Island all their lives. Although many miles distant from New York, they were frequent visitors. Crossing the big waiting room, they entered the West Side subway, and a few minutes later disembarked from an express train at the Times Square station. ”

“ This means that one may go under the Hudson and East Rivers, across New York under the skyscrapers, from Jersey City to Brooklyn Heights. On Manhattan itself, in addition to the surface lines, there are four parallel lines of elevated tracks from the docks to Spuyten Duyvil, three of them crossing the Harlem into the Bronx. And there is the subway!
By 1899, to use a chemical expression, New York was populated to the point of saturation. More and more people had to get away from Manhattan Island at night, and no more streets were available for cars. ”

“ They retained the most experienced experts for every part of the work and, perfecting an organization in an incredibly short time, proceeded to surmount and sweep aside difficulties. The result is one of which every citizen of New York may feel proud. Upon the completion of the road the city will own the best constructed and best equipped intraurban rapid transit railroad in the world. The efforts of the builders have not been limited by the strict terms of the contract. ”

“ The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co. went into the hands of a receiver in 1918, and the majority of the surface lines in Manhattan, all those operated by the New York Railways Company, met a like fate.
There are over 600 miles of subway and “L” tracks in the city, of which 361 miles are Interborough lines, and 258 are Brooklyn Rapid Transit lines. The Interborough subway roads total 222 miles; the Manhattan “L” system, 139 miles. The Interborough subway roads have cost over $300,000,000; the Brooklyn Rapid Transit subway roads over $193,000,000. ”

“ The work of construction has been greatly facilitated by the broad minded and liberal policy of the Rapid Transit Board and its Chief Engineer and Counsel, and by the coöperation of all the other departments of the City Government, and also by the generous attitude of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company and its lessee, the New York City Railroad Company, in extending privileges which have been of great assistance in the prosecution of the work. ”

“ It seems a very grave question if a radiating city like Pittsburgh can support such a subway as proposed, to say nothing of a system serving adequately all parts of the city. Subways have usually turned out to be very poor investments, as many companies have learned to their cost, in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Berlin. The New York subway pays only for about half its length, a considerable part of the dividends coming out of the surplus obtained from the elevated roads. Boston can afford subways, because they are mere short links in an extensive system. ”

“ Early in 1896 plans were prepared and presented to this Commission; first, for a subway from Flatbush Avenue Terminal for the entire distance to the limits of the City of Brooklyn at Eldert's Lane; second, for a subway from the Flatbush Avenue Terminal to East New York, Manhattan Crossing, the railroad to remain as it previously existed at grade through the 26th Ward of Brooklyn. Each of these schemes contemplated an extension through Brooklyn to New York City at Cortlandt Street and Broadway, and surveys and borings for this work were made across the East River. ”

“ All attempts to build a road under the early special charter and later under the general laws having failed, the city secured in 1891 the passage of the Rapid Transit Act under which, as amended, the subway has been built. As originally passed it did not provide for municipal ownership. It provided that a board of five rapid transit railroad commissioners might adopt routes and general plans for a railroad, obtain the consents of the local authorities and abutting property owners, or in lieu of the consents of the property owners the approval of the Supreme Court ”

“ As early as 1868, forty-two well known business men of the city became, by special legislative Act, incorporators of the New York City Central Underground Railway Company, to build a line from the City Hall to the Harlem River. ”

“ And now, not only are there scores of surface roads in New York city which feel no inconvenience from the elevated railroads, but there is actually another stage line while trolley lines are being projected without number to parallel the surface roads, the elevated roads are projecting extensions and there is at least one subway railway which is reaching out for capital. ”

“ Two notable examples of cut-and-cover methods of tunneling are the Boston Subway and the New York Rapid Transit Ry., a description of which follows.
Boston Subway. —The Boston Subway may be defined as the underground terminal system of the surface street railway system of the city, and as such it comprises various branches, loops, and stations. The subway begins at the Public Garden on Boylston St., near Charles St., and passes with double tracks under Boylston St. to its intersection with Tremont St., where it meets the other double-track branch, passing under Tremont St. ”

“ The average speed of express trains between City Hall and 145th Street on the West Side will approximate 25 miles an hour, including stops. The maximum speed of trains will be 45 miles per hour. The average speed of local and express trains will exceed the speed made by the trains on any elevated railroad.
To attain these speeds without exceeding maximum safe limiting speeds between stops, the equipment provided will accelerate trains carrying maximum load at a rate of 1.25 miles per hour per second in starting from stations on level track. ”

“ On the Brooklyn Extension the maximum grade is 3.1 per cent. descending from the ends to the center of the East River tunnel. The minimum radius of curve is 1,200 feet.
STANDARD STEEL CONSTRUCTION IN TUNNEL—THIRD RAIL PROTECTION NOT SHOWN
PLAN OF BROOKLYN BRIDGE STATION AND CITY HALL LOOP
Track
The track is of the usual standard construction with broken stone ballast, timber cross ties, and 100-pound rails of the American Society of Civil Engineers' section. The cross ties are selected hard pine. All ties are fitted with tie plates. All curves are supplied with steel inside guard rails. ”

“ Provision had to be made, not only for buildings along the route that towered far above the [Pg 53] street surface, but also for some which burrowed far below the subway. Photograph on page 47 shows an interesting example at 42d Street and Broadway, where the pressroom of the new building of the "New York Times" is beneath the subway, the first floor is above it, and the first basement is alongside of it. Incidentally it should be noted that the steel structure of the building and the subway are independent, the columns of the building passing through the subway station. ”

“ But up on the airy decking of the Brooklyn Bridge, where we repaired with G—— W—— for a brief stroll, the afternoon seemed mild and tranquil. It is a mistake to assume that the open spaces are the windier. The subway is New York's home of Æolus, and most of the gusts that buffet us on the streets are merely hastening round a corner in search of the nearest subway entrance so that they can get down there where they feel they belong. Up on the bridge it was plain to perceive that the March sunshine had elements of strength. ”

“ Entering the car, the observer is at once impressed by the amount of room available for passengers. The seating arrangements are similar to the elevated cars, but the subway coaches are longer and wider than the Manhattan, and there are two additional seats on each end. The seats are all finished in rattan. Stationary crosswise seats are provided after the Manhattan pattern, at the center of the car. ”

“ They must either depopulate the streets through which they run or utterly destroy the sensibility of the inhabitants; and they enormously increase and complicate the dangers of the traffic beneath them. Indeed, in the view of the unaccustomed stranger, every Elevated is an affliction so appallingly hideous that no degree of convenience could atone for its horror. The New York Subway is a masterpiece of celerity, and in other ways less evil than an Elevated, but in the minimum decencies of travel it appeared to me to be inferior to several similar systems in Europe. ”

“ On the street surface, over and in advance of the excavations, temporary plank decks are placed and maintained during the drifting and tunneling operations, and after the permanent subway structure has been erected up to the time when the street surface is permanently restored. The roof of the subway is about 5 feet from the surface of the street, which has made it necessary to care for the gas and water mains. This has been done by carrying the mains on temporary trestle structures over the sidewalks. The mains will be restored to their former position when the subway structure is complete. ”

“ The to-and-fro movement of a dense traffic on a four-track railway requires a large amount of switching, especially when each movement is complicated by junctions of two or more lines. Practically every problem of trunk line train movement, including two, three, and four-track operation, had to be provided for in the switching plants of the subway. Further, the problem was complicated by the restricted clearances and vision attendant upon tunnel construction. ”

“ For those to whom seeing is necessary to believing, the speed above may be cut in half, which will then be about that in the New York Subway. The express trains will then run on a two-and-a-half-minute schedule and twice as many will be required, but the cost will still be much lower than present day commuting service and efficient enough to make the entire Roadtown from New York to Philadelphia as accessible for commuters as is now a suburban home fifteen miles from New York and a half mile from the railroad station. ”

“ The overloading of the Brooklyn bridge is repeated in the subway—that hidden giant of New York, which is the real backbone of the island of Manhattan. Built to carry four hundred thousand humans a day, that busy railroad has begun to carry more than a million each working day. ”

“ Leaving the blood-stained blouse on the bed beside him where she had flung it down after tearing it off, she turned out the light, darted down stairs and into the street. At Times Square she took the Subway for the Bowery. To change one's world, one need not travel far in New York; the ocean is not so wide as is the gap between the Tenderloin and the lower East Side. ”

“ The repair and inspection shop of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company adjoins the car yards of the company and occupies the entire block between Seventh Avenue on the west, Lenox Avenue and the Harlem River on the east, 148th Street on the south, and 149th Street on the north. The electric subway trains will enter the shops and car yard by means of the Lenox Avenue extension, which runs directly north from the junction at 142d Street and Lenox Avenue of the East Side main line. ”

“ They were so packed that people clung tightly to each other at the doors, somewhat reminiscent of rush-hour in the New York subway. Those not able to get on the vehicles dog-trotted along behind. The busses never ran on any schedule, and the driver, if given a large enough bribe, would even change the route at a moment’s notice. ”

“ The subway runs northward from the Battery, branching north of Central Park, one branch running north through Harlem to 230th Street, the other northeast under Harlem River to the Zoological Park in the Bronx. It has a total length of 21 miles, the longest tunnel in the world. By tunnels under the Hudson and East River the subway is connected with Jersey City and Brooklyn. ”