Smoke, Noise and Fatalities Helped Drive New York Underground

摘要

Late 19th century commuters in New York City relied on horsepower, steam engines and ferries. Horse-drawn streetcars averaged 6 mph, killed a pedestrian a week and left large quantities of manure. Four elevated rail lines offered somewhat faster service. But the noise, soot, cinders and blasts of steam from locomotives made them difficult neighbors. The city desperately needed a better way of moving large numbers of people around quickly. Until 1883, the big money in New York flowed to the elevated rail lines because of politics and necessity. Trolleys, popular in neighboring Brooklyn and elsewhere, were not allowed in the city due to safety concerns about the tangle of overhead electric wires. An 1883 court decision that the elevateds were depriving adjacent property owners of "light, air and access" halted further construction and led to more rush-hour crowding. Some cities were moving in new directions. Boston put some of its trolley lines underground and created America's first subway in 1897. London had opened the world's first subway in 1863, a 3.7-mile route, followed by Budapest and Glasgow in 1896, Paris in 1900 and Berlin in 1902.