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The New York Subway System

Arnaud Edjamian
Molloy College

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Arnaud Edjamian
Professor Russo/Cullinan
Gotham: The New York Experience
The New York Subway System
The New York Subway system really revolutionized the means of transportation
in many ways. This newer means is a staple in the everyday lifestyle of hundreds of
thousands of people today. From work, transportation of goods or simple leisure
activities, the subway system is a key component and symbol of The New York
lifestyle Because it has 468 operating stations throughout Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan
and the Bronx Today; it is one of the worlds largest and oldest transportation networks
in the world (Clifton, 1993, p.12). It has come a long way since the early beginnings of
New York transit.
In Pre-Subway New York modes of transportation was much different, in the
early 1900s people would rely heavily on horses. Now, horses pale in comparison to
trains not only in speed, but also in economic efficiency. The issue with horses was that
every year, horses would leave millions of pounds of poop behind; it was up to the point
where the roads were engrossed in hills of horse feces. It was a major hygienic concern
because it contributed to a lot of the sickness that occurred. Additionally, Lower
Manhattan was severely overpopulated because all the jobs were located in the lower east
side (Stern, 2008, p.2). Between 1900-1910 there were more people inhabiting lower
Manhattan than there are people that live on long Island today. The hygienic epidemic in
conjunction with the overpopulation caused people to realize that perhaps it was time to
consider a train system as a better means of transportation throughout the city.
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Elevated railroads were built in the 1870s and 80s by private companies to
provide quick public transportation above the immense street congestion in the growing
cities of New York and Brooklyn. (Stern, 2008, p.3) By 1881 wooden railroad cars
hauled by small steam locomotives were running above the heavily populated Manhattan
streets because they provided swift transportation to the employment centers in Lower
Manhattan. (Stern, 2008, p.3) But, although a railroad system was implemented, that
mistake was quickly regretted once the worst blizzard of New York set its sights on the
city.
The Great Blizzard of 1888 or often-coined The Great Blizzard of '88 was one of the
most severe documented blizzards in United States history. (Russo & Cullinan, 2014,
p.202). The Snowfall rang in at 50 inches in 3 days, and there were sustained winds of
more than 45 miles per hour, which produced snowdrifts of close to 50 feet. The result of
the blizzard was over fifteen hundred New Yorkers trapped on elevated trains, railroads
shut down and people ended up confined to their houses for up to a week, this showed
that the citys well-being was completely dependent on transport (Clifton, 1993, p.12).
After the blizzard, the subway system was taken into serious consideration, it was
decided that it would be safer to put trains underground as a better means of travel.
In 1894 the state legislature passed the rapid transit act, this gave the
City the authority to begin the building of underground routes. Construction started 1900,
and the Interborough Rapid Transit Company also known as the IRT, was established in
1902 to build the new lines (Clifton, 1993, p.12). The first underground line of the
subway opened on October 27, 1904, nearly 35 years after the opening of the first
elevated line in New York City. The opening of the underground line brought about
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many benefits. Besides the newfound ability to bypass unforeseen and vicious weather
conditions, its cheap price allowed new Yorkers to reach their new jobs in record timing.
Its time efficiency is also accompanied by economic efficiency especially in an era where
fuel prices climb drastically. Not only did the Subway system provide New Yorkers with
quicker transportation methods and time preservations but also it endowed New Yorkers
with Identity. The Subway system gave the city its unique urban identity, as most people
know it today (Clifton, 1993, p.17).
The astounding the effect of the subway system on New York City is surpassed
only by the methods used to build it. There were 2 main methods of building the subway
system (Russo & Cullinan, 2014, p.202). The first and most typical way to build When
the IRT started in 1904 was the cut-and-cover method. The street was torn up to dig the
tunnel below before being rebuilt from above. This method worked well for digging soft
dirt and gravel near the street surface (Russo & Cullinan, 2014, p.202). However, mining
shields were required for deeper sections, such as the Harlem and East River tunnels.
Although this method was the more inexpensive of the two, it caused a lot of noise and
disturbances in the areas where the subway was being built. The other method was called
deep bore tunneling, in this method boring machines are put inside a hole dug at a
location along the line being built line, and then it progressed eating through the earth bit
by bit. The boring machines ate through rock along the distances of seventy to eighty feet
per day! These boring machines are huge and the generally excavate only in single fixed
shape, which is usually presented as circular (Russo & Cullinan, 2014, p.202). A great
advantage with this method is that these machines do not have to follow the
predetermined street grid so they allowed for great flexibility when it comes to mapping
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out the route design. (Russo & Cullinan, 2014, p.202). Also, there is virtually no
disruption to life along the surface the only disruption would be at the points where the
machine was being inserted. You would be unable to tell that a subway was being built.
The disadvantage that comes with deep bore drilling is that it is more expensive than cut
and cover. In addition to these methods, the workers also used Miting; this was a very
dangerous technique. It involved using sticks of dynamite to set off Controlled
explosions to blow away some of the hard-to-cut away rock. This rock was called Schist.
The men who took on this perilous job also undertook a peculiar nickname; they were
called Sandhogs.
Sandhogs were mostly immigrants from Ireland and various parts of the West
Indies. They undertook the task of digging, underneath nearly 80 feet below the waters
system with nothing but Gaslight in pressurized caissons. It is estimated that for every
mile of rock they made it through they would lose a man. Sometimes, the pressure was so
high in the tunnels that sometimes the tunnel would crumble and the collapse would
cause the high-pressure air to suck the workers out like a vacuum and into oblivion. It
was a very dangerous job and it is fair to say that our marvelous subway system was built
on the literal blood, sweat and tears of these workers.
There are many factors that contributed to the building of our subway systems.
From horses to elevated railroads this city has had to undergo trial and error until they
finally arrived at a system that worked. This system not only revolutionized
transportation but it was economically savvy and it gave identity and character to the
great city we know as New York. There are many thanks to be given to the fearless
workers known as Sandhogs, who risked their lives to build the subways that we take for
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granted today. But it is through their great efforts that we have our marvelous subway
system.





















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Work Cited
Hood, Clifton. 722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed

New York. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Russo, M., & Cullinan, M. (2014). Essential New York. New York: Ars Omnia Press.

Stern, J. (2008). The New York Subway: A Century. New York: Aesthetic Realism Looks.