Nobody seems to dispute that the subway system is an integral part of New York City, and that New York “wouldn’t be New York” without it. Yet there was a time before the city had its subways, slightly more than 120 years ago to be exact. The first IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) subway train left the beautiful, historic and now-defunct City Hall Station for its uptown trip to 145th Street on parts of today’s Lexington Avenue and West Side Lines on Oct. 27, 1904.
Unlike the huge celebration for the subway’s centennial 20 years ago (which Railway Age marked in June 2004 with a special supplement, download below), this year’s event was comparatively low-key, although the occasion was marked by special “nostalgia trains” run by the transit agency in cooperation with the New York Transit Museum. The “specials” called at the City Hall Station, which was a masterpiece of architecture from the era of the “City Beautiful” movement. It certainly lived up to that name and it is preserved, although few people have seen it since it was closed in 1945. There were two special runs on the actual anniversary day. Tickets were $60, and both trips were sold out. There are two more such runs scheduled for Nov. 16, but they are also reported as sold out.
The “nostalgia trains” were operated by New York City Transit, a component of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The MTA said: “The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) together with the New York Transit Museum today celebrated the 120th anniversary of the New York City subway system by hosting two vintage train rides along portions of the city’s first ever subway route. The 1917 Lo-V subway cars departed from the decommissioned Old South Ferry Station and traveled north along the 1,2,3 line to the Bronx before returning via the Lexington Avenue line. Riders had the unique chance to pass through the famous Old City Hall Station and conclude the journey at Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall Station. This round-trip ride immersed participants in the sights and sounds of the original subway experience, offering a nostalgic glimpse into New York’s transit history.”
The trips ran with four historic Lo-V cars in the museum’s collection. Two were built in 1917, and the others in 1922 and 1924. They closely resemble the original IRT cars, which have a narrower loading gauge than the BMT and IND equipment that came later.
Also, according to the MTA: “The subway system transformed New York City—120 years and billions of rides prove it,” said New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow. “New York’s history and cultural identity are inextricably linked to our subway system,” said New York Transit Museum Director Concetta Bencivenga. “It is incredible to reflect on the transformational impact the subway has had on the city and on New Yorkers over the past 120 years.” The MTA also mentioned a new exhibited titled “The Subway Is …” at the Transit Museum in downtown Brooklyn.
While the special trains traversed most of the original line, it is no longer practicable to ride all of it on a single train. The route was 9.1 miles long and served 28 stations. It started at City Hall, proceeded up the Lexington Avenue “6” line, crosstown on what is now the Times Square-Grand Central shuttle, and up the “1” line on the West Side to 145th Street. It was part of the IRT system, which already included four elevated lines in Manhattan: on Second, Third, Sixth, and Ninth Avenues. Those lines were torn down in the 1940s and 1950s, the last one being the Third Avenue El, which lasted until 1955.
The IRT expanded quickly, moving downtown to South Ferry (where connections are still available for ferries going to Staten Island), further north along the “Lex” on the East Side, downtown from 42d Street and uptown from 145th Street on the West Side, and into the Outer Boroughs. The BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation) lines came later, growing from the original Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT). So did the City-owned Independent (IND) Subway in Manhattan, which began in the 1930s and whose mains are the Sixth and Eighth Avenue subways. All three divisions of the transit system merged in 1940, but many New Yorkers and transit fans still use the pre-1940 nomenclature. According to the MTA: “In 1940, these companies were unified and today they comprise the current New York City subway system, which is made up of 25 routes, 472 stations, 800-track miles and a fleet of more than 6,000 passenger cars. Laid end to end, NYC Transit train tracks would stretch from New York City to Chicago.”
The system is not as big as it once was, because many elevated lines were torn down during the past 84 years, and there has not been much expansion until recently, when the first segment of the long-planned, long-delayed Second Avenue Subway opened a few years ago. Still, the sheer breadth of the current system is not only a part of life that many New Yorkers take for granted, but also a majestic symbol of transit, a system that attracts tourists who come from all over the world to see it, and not all of them are railfans.
The subway that just celebrated its 120th birthday was not the first subway in Manhattan. That one was built by Alfred Ely Beech of the Beech Pneumatic Transit Company of New York, organized in 1869 and built in 1870. It consisted of a pneumatic tube that was eight feet in diameter and whisked passengers along a 312-foot “fixed guideway” that ran the length of one block under lower Broadway, between Murray and Warren Streets. The Panic of 1873 killed any potential investor interest, and New Yorkers had to wait for 31 more years before they got a subway line that could take them somewhere.
The Lo-V and other historic cars are operated for charters and on special occasions. A train of R1/9 cars built in the 1930s for the IND usually runs on Sundays in December. We’ll keep an eye out for it.
