New York's first subway was a 95-metre tube pushed by air
In February 1870 Alfred Ely Beach opened a demonstration line under Broadway: a single car blown along a 95-metre tunnel by air pressure. Politics and money killed any extension, and its site now lies entirely within City Hall station. The real subway took another 34 years and started with a five-cent ride.
The Great Blizzard of 1888 convinced many New Yorkers that trains belonged underground. A plan won approval in 1894 and digging began in 1900. On 27 October 1904 the first line opened, running 14.6 kilometres from City Hall up to 145th Street in Harlem, and more than 150,000 people paid the nickel fare on day one. Parts of today's network are older still: one Brooklyn elevated structure dates from 1885, and a right-of-way near Coney Island Creek carried steam trains in 1864.
About 7,700 workers, mostly immigrants living in Manhattan, built the original lines, largely by tearing up streets, digging trenches and roofing them over while temporary bridges carried traffic. Crews rerouted twelve miles of sewers along with water mains, gas lines and steam pipes, and propped up the foundations of tall buildings. Deeper sections under the Harlem and East rivers used tunnelling shields and cast-iron tubes.
Two private companies ran most lines until the city launched its own Independent system in 1932 and then bought out the rivals in 1940. Old IRT tunnels are narrower, with tighter curves and shorter platforms, so its cars still form a separate division that cannot share track with the rest. The single busiest day came on 23 December 1946, with more than 8.8 million fares. By the 1970s and 1980s, graffiti, crime and neglect had driven ridership back to 1910s levels, before a recovery in the early 1990s.
The system now has 423 stations, more than any other metro, and runs around the clock most of the year. Its 248 route miles include 665 miles of track in passenger service, and 40 percent of it runs above ground. Express trains usually take the inner tracks of three- and four-track lines while locals use the outer ones. Hurricane Sandy flooded several tunnels under the harbour in 2012.
Source: New York City Subway
