New York City is a city like no other. It has huge
skyscrapers, flashing lights, endless taxicabs, and lots of people—lots
and lots of people. Of course, the great city is also known for its
enormous and efficient subway system. Without the subway, the population of
over eight million certainly couldn’t travel, commute, and function as easily
as it does today.
Today, there are nearly 500 subway stations operating on
twenty-eight different lines throughout New York City. Every week,
approximately 4.8 million people hop into over 6,000 subway cars and ride to
different destinations across the city. The number of daily subway riders
today exceeds the entire population of the city when the lines first opened in
1904. Wow!
New York City’s subway system wasn’t always so impressive.
While the city was booming by the early 1800s, there wasn’t enough reliable
technology to build an underground transportation system. But the city kept on
growing.
The United States became an industrial powerhouse over the
course of the 19th century, and New York City was the center of it
all. Immigrants were literally coming by the boatload to find work in Big
Apple, and Americans living in small, rural towns were also leaving the farm to
live in the fast-paced city.
By the mid-1800s, the streets of New York City were becoming
overcrowded with no sign of slowing down. The idea of an underground
transportation system was first proposed in 1868. Unfortunately, any time a
brave soul took on the task, he was inevitably defeated by a slew of financial,
legal, and logistical problems. How could you build an entire network of
tunnels and railways under a city without disturbing the day to day life of the
citizens? The answer—it wasn’t easy.
In 1900, with the streets growing more crowded everyday, the
construction started again on the underground tunnels. Millions of man-hours
were spread out over four years to create the cutting edge subway system for New York City.
The climax of the project came on October 27, 1904, when New
York Mayor George B. McClellan took the first subway train ride in New York. McClellan even insisted on taking the controls for a few miles.
The first New York subway wasn’t what we think of today.
There were just slightly over nine miles of track (as opposed to the 685
miles that there are today). The original subway trains traveled much
slower, and the riders did not have many options about where to get on and
off. Nonetheless, the subway quickly caught on and immediately helped the city
operate more smoothly.
As the popularity of the subway increased, so did the miles
of track, number of stations, and frequency of stops. Today, the subway system
is a staple of the city, and it continually expands to make room for a growing
market.