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Building The Independent Subway NYC By Frederick Kramer
Building The Independent Subway NYC By Frederick Kramer
Soft Cover
Copyright 1990
The technology and intense struggle of New York Citys most gigantic venture
80 Pages
Contents
Introduction5
A Brief Historical Review6
Conflicting Plans10
Breaking Ground 13
Building The Eighth Avenue Line 16
Open At Last24
207th Street Shops And Yards30
Rolling Stock And Equipment36
Laguardia Arrives 42
Map 43
Tunneling45
Into The Boroughs 54
Crossing The Gowanus Canal 60
The Sixth Avenue Project 65
Unification At Last74
Epilogue 80
WHO BUT HENRY could have characterized New York City with a greater flight of fancy when he called it "Baghdad on the Subway". That colorful phrase at once implies a city of great variety, turmoil, human interest, and perhaps even intrigue. As for choosing a symbol of New York, Henry identified its subway-the essence of the city it served and an indispensable element in the city's pre-eminence.
Nothing but superlatives can describe that subway system. Deservedly so It carries more passengers, has more equipment, and produces more revenue than any other subway system in the world. It is also the richest in history. Its ambitious beginning took physical form at the close of the Victorian era and, within a single generation, subways had opened vast areas of The Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens for intensive development. And still mote subways were needed.
The ingredients for growth included vision, the profit motive, and plenty of politics. Whereas the city's elevated railways had been built by private enterprise, its subway system always involved some measure of public ownership. At first, public ownership played a small part in subway operations, but the inevitable force of social change and the realities of New York's city and state politics worked their particular effects upon this arrangement. As the city burrowed and borrowed to greatly expand the subway system in the 1920s, its officials fought interminably to own and operate every subway line in the city. As the time to open the Independent Subway system approached, the scuffling continued and the issue was still unresolved.
Nevertheless, it was just moments after midnight on Saturday, September 10, 1932 that the long-awaited municipal project was opened to the public. City-owned and city-operated, the Independent Subway system was at last in service. Only the 8th Avenue portion of it, to be sure, but here were eleven miles of superb subterranean route connecting the Hudson Terminal at Chambers Street with the upper reaches of Washington Heights at 207th Street. It was an engineering feat most worthy of its day: it featured the latest equipment, fast schedules, express trackage over most of its main line, all new shops and yards, and a state-of-the-art power supply and signalling system. The Independent System truly was a wonder to behold.
Imagine the speech making at official banquets, the civic pride bursting from the mayor and accompanying dignitaries. Picture the ribbon cutting ceremony, the champagne christening of the first train, and what it was like to ride on the inaugural trip as an honored guest. Incredible as it may seem, one must dream all those things because none of them ever happened.
First of all, the mayor never even showed up. Jimmy Walker had resigned from the office of mayor barely a week earlier. The acting mayor was Joseph V. McKee, formerly president of the Board of Aldermen. He somehow found it more important that particular midnight to be up in The Bronx conferring with the district attorney about a steamboat explosion.
Notwithstanding the mayor's absence, the crux of the matter was that the city government didn't want to open the subway, even though it had been ready for over a year. The fear was that once the subway was in operation at the five cent fare which city officials had insisted upon, it would lose money, and that money would have to come from the city's Depression-strained budget. On top of that, the operating losses would make it impossible to sell the additional city bonds needed to fund the still incomplete parts of the construction program.
What city officials wanted was municipal ownership of the privately owned rapid transit systems, in the expectation that the fares from a unified system would produce a flow of cash that would support municipal subway operation and expansion. However, gaining control of the private companies required successful negotiating at an agreeable price. As the city ran out of cash and credit, its negotiating position weakened.
On the other hand, further delay in opening the subway was no longer acceptable to the public, largely through immense pressure applied by local business groups. Thus the tone of the opening of the Independent Subway system was more in keeping with the grim determination to be found on a drill field than it was with the ceremonial display in front of a reviewing stand.
With the Independent Subway opened, the political fat was in the financial fire. As with most New York City matters, there were other complicating factors. The entire picture can be best appreciated from the perspective of the historical review which follows.
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