Underground transportation in NYC in the 20th century - Essay Example

Underground transportation in NYC in the 20th century Contents Contents 2 Illustrations 2 Introduction 3 History Prior to the 20th Century 3 Early 20th Century: The Expansion of Urban Transit 5 Expansion of the Lines 9 During the 1930's 11 The Subway at the End of the 20th Century 15 Bibliography 16 Illustrations Figure 1: Map of the IRT, Circa 1906 5 Figure 2: IRT subway. Note the vaulted ceilings of the City Hall Station, above. 6 Figure 3: IRT East Side Line, Spring Street, 1904 7 Figure 4: NYCT IRT, profile of Brookly Extension, Blueprint 7 Figure 5: Beaver design at Astor subway station 8 Figure 6: A graffiti-covered IRT train in September, 1980 13 Introduction This paper is about the subway system in New York during the 20th century. New York has the second-oldest subway system in the United States (after Boston). It ties together five boroughs in a way that allows the residents of one of the largest metropolitan areas of the world to claim that they live in the same city. The subway is more than just a means of transportation. It has been an object of warring city planners, of graft and corruption, and of scandals which have generated hundreds of pages in the local newspapers. It serves as a part of New Yorkers' daily lives, as a place for some to sleep, and for others to practice their trade as beggars and buskers. History Prior to the 20th Century The story begins in 1868. Alfred E. Beach asked the New York State Legislature for permission to build a network of pneumatic tubes under the City of New York in which he could move mail. His real plan was to build a pneumatic subway-moving people the way pneumatic tubes in Paris and London moved paper (Tannenbaum 1995). His plans never got past the digging of a test hole-only 14 feet long. He also dug a 312 foot pneumatic tube under Broadway, which showed that an underground system could be completed, but he never continued with the invention. The actual New York Subway system opened first in 1904, four years after the groundbreaking ceremonies. Mayor Robert van Wyck shoveled the first clump of dirt into his top-hat, to take home (NYT 1900). The line was financed by the city, but was originally operated by private companies. The first line, called the "IRT Ninth Avenue Line," continues with that name to this day. The IRT, which stands for "Interborough Rapid Transit," was one of two lines which were privately run, the other being the BRT, or Brooklyn Rapid Transit. IRT was the first of these private operating consortia, but there were several others. The name "IRT" survives to this day, which described the original line for which the concession was granted. Although the names have been changed to letters, numbers and colors, such as the "red number 2," locals still refer to the "IRT," or the "Bayshore Line," which makes it difficult for non-New Yorkers to understand what they are talking about. Although the IRT Ninth Avenue Line was the first "sub"way, 40% of today's subway lines are actually above ground. The oldest part of the subway system is the Lexington Avenue Line, which is part of the BMT Jamaica Line in Brooklyn. This line was opened in 1885. Figure 1: Map of the IRT, Circa 1906 The Subway was not the first public transport in New York by any means. It was preceded by the "elevated lines," which had opened 35 years earlier. Early 20th Century: The Expansion of Urban Transit The 9th-Avenue Line was a tremendous success, and was followed by municipal expansion projects. The City wanted to unite the five boroughs through public transportation. The City fathers looked upon the subway as a way to spread out the population and allow for greater growth (Fischer 1998). There was a debate about whether the city's growth could be better assured by elevated railroad lines rather than the more-expensive underground tracks. As the City was growing at a tremendous rate, and land values were climbing, those arguing for more elevated lines lost the argument (NYCSubway.org 2005) Figure 2: IRT subway. Note the vaulted ceilings of the City Hall Station, above. Construction of the first line The City's budget for the first line was relatively low. The first line was envisioned to run from 34th Street to the Battery, and stretching to 185th street on the west side and 146th street on the east side. The voters of New York had approved the subway's funding in 1894, but the Supreme Court turned down the plans to go under Broadway due to the cost. The first routes of this IRT were the Manhattan-Bronx route, and the Brooklyn Route, which went under the East River. Figure 3: IRT East Side Line, Spring Street, 1904 The Brooklyn Extension under the East River represented an engineering feat at the time. The builders learned a lot about building the tunnel based on their work on the caissons for the Brooklyn Bridge. Figure 4: NYCT IRT, profile of Brookly Extension, Blueprint As with many public works of the time, the City sponsored artwork along the lines, in the stations, and at the entrances to the subway. Each station had a different decoration and color scheme. In some cases, the number of the street or the intersecting street is indicated on plaques, while in others it was inscribed in mosaic tiles on the walls. Some stations had symbols which were specific to one station. For example, at Columbus Circle, Caravel, the explorer, was featured. At Astor Place, there was a beaver theme. Figure 5: Beaver design at Astor subway station The chief engineer of the first New York Subway was William Barclay Parsons, a graduate of the Columbia School of Mines. August Belmont, who headed the Subway Committee, invited him to head the effort, despite his relatively young 35 years. Many did not think him ready for the job, but Parsons took it enthusiastically: "Success doesn't depend on age, nor does it depend on will or enthusiasm. It depends on the rigorous analytical methods of a trained and educated mind (Heller 2004)." Once chosen, Parsons started to prepare a plan in 1895. Despite the public vote for the project, Tammany Hall and other patrons argued for a long time about how and where the subway should go. In the meantime, other cities, including Boston, Budapest and Glasgow, went ahead with their subway projects. It took over a year for the various factions ruling the city were able to come to an accommodation. For cost and time, Parsons chose a "dig and cover" method, which led to the need to divert underground utilities, such as water and sewage. This process also annoyed many New Yorkers. The opening of the first line was covered extensively by the New York papers. The New York Times reported on October 28, 1904 about Mr. F. B. Shipley from Philadelphia, who was the first man to give up his seat for a woman. The first ticket was purchased by Joseph Curran, and the first theft was reported on that same day: Mr. Henry Barrett noticed that his diamond horseshoe pin was missing shortly after buying his admission ticket (NYT 1904). Expansion of the Lines The New York Subway Commission was slow to expand the system. It did not approve a new line from 1904 to 1907. It was especially slow in approving new routes to companies which competed with the BMT and IRT lines, and to those companies which wanted to cun service in the outer Boroughs. The first commission was asked to step down in 1907, and the pace of new approvals climbed. In 1908, the BRT was given a franchise for the 4th Avenue Subway, from downtown Brooklyn to 89th Street. With the BRT's success, a large number of private companies proposed other routes. The Commission delayed until a master plan was put together for the entire City of New York. By 1912, a master plan was created, and the "Dual Contracts" were awarded for further lines in 1913. In 1913, the extension of the subway was approved for Queens, and ground was broken for a line to Long Island City. The Dual Contracts period lasted from 1913 to 1920, when the BRT went bankrupt after a terrible accident on Melbourne Street; reorganized as the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Company, it was able to continue to provide service along the old BRT lines. The advent of the First World War and subsequent inflation in the 1920's put pressure on the IRT and BRT. They were unable to sustain their nickel fares in the light of these higher costs. The ten-mayor, John Hylan , was an urban populist who resisted a push for higher fares. Hyman knew that the City did not possess the resources to invest in the Subway, but resisted the financial and commercial pressures under which the two private firms operated. In 1928, the IRT proposed a hike in the subway fare from 5 to 7 cents. This was challenged, and the challenge went to the US Supreme Court, which struck down the higher fare request. As a result, the IRT went bankrupt, and management of the lines was taken over by the City of New York. The final evolution into a publicly-owned and -operated line was put in place by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who reorganized the subways in 1934 to become a single network composed of the IRT, BMT and IND. LaGuardia argued that, by combining the three lines, he could introduce efficiencies into the operation of the lines and, at the same time, preserve the all-important 5 cent fare. During the 1930's The building continued through the first half of the 20th century, growing to 722 miles and nearly 500 stations, making it the most extensive subway network in the world. From 1932 to 1940, the IND (Independent Subway System), the third and last major phase, come into being. This new line was publicly owned and operated, which differed from the earlier growth of the IRT and BMT lines (Hood 1993). The subway system prior to World War Two was a democratic system, on which all classes rode, and when the subways were in relatively well-maintained form. The chronic underfunding of the subway, and the City's neglect of needed capital improvements, combined over the 1940's and 1950's to create problems. The mayors of the city attempted to preserve the low fares, but at the cost of a slowly-deteriorating network. Ridership had been its highest during the 1930's, but started to decline in the 1940's. After the Second World War, ridership continued to decline as many New Yorkers moved to the suburbs, and the bulk of public investment was poured into highways rather than mass transit. As service began to deteriorate, more abandoned the subways. The City finally conceded to a hike in the fares, in 1948, to a dime. This marked the end of the 5 cent fare which had been put in place 44 years earlier, at the opening of the first subway line. The fare increased again to 15 cents in 1953. In the same year, the State created the New York City Transit Authority, which was able to combine the City and some suburban transportation, which partially matched the emigration of the City's residence further away from the City Center. The gradual decline in service levels paralleled other changes in New York, including continued suburban flight and increasing crime. By the 1970's, New York City's overall finances were in perilous shape, with the City courting bankruptcy by 1974. The City elected Abe Beame, the former Controller of the City. His astute financial management, and discrete work with the Federal government, restored New York's credit rating and started a renaissance in many city services. The subway reached a low point in the early 1980's, when a third of the fleet was typically out of service during the heavy-use periods, cars broke down, caught on fire, and derailments were common. Graffiti covered every car and every wall along the entire subway system. From a democratic and widely-used system, the New York subway system had reached its nadir. Figure 6: A graffiti-covered IRT train in September, 1980 In 1982, the (now named) MTA put a new capital program in place. This program eventually resulted in $39 billion being spent from 1982 to the present. It was used to create new lines, replace rolling stock, and put in modern management and capital equipment along the whole network. This refurbishment was accompanied by the standard (for New York) political squabbling over procurement. After passing of a second bond issue to fix the subways, the City contracted with Bombardier of Canada to produce cars for the subway; this was hotly contested by a local (Long Island) firm, Grumman, which wanted to acquire the local contract. Mayors and governors continued to play politics with fares: despite the clear need for improvement, Governor Hugh Carey promised the voters in 1980 that he would not allow the fares to grow beyond 50 cents. Perhaps more important to the renaissance of the subway were the organizational improvements that made the subway open to all riders again. David Gunn, a former railroad executive, joined the MTA as its head in the late 1980's. He decided that the subway system needed to be cleaned up, and kept that way. He added subway police on each train to insure that the lines were safe. He underwent a famous anti-graffiti campaign, and kept at the cleaning to insure that the cars did not remain graffiti-covered for long. He even brought in guards for the subway car storage areas to insure that gang members and graffiti artists didn't steal in to deface the subway cars. By 1988, the subway improvements were dramatic. 94% of the trains had no graffiti whatsoever. In that same year, the American Public Transit Association named David Gunn their "Manager of the Year," and recognized New York's subway system as the most improved in North America. Once the subway was cleaned up, and new cars put in place, the MTA embarked on an advertising campaign to bring back riders. The $2 million program, started in 1989, was the most expensive ever undertaken by a city agency. The tag line for their advertising was "The Subway. We're coming back, so you come back. (NYCSubway1980 2005) Gunn led the refurbishment of the subway stations, which had become a haven for the homeless and for criminals. He installed cameras, put police in the stations, and insisted that the stations be clean. One of the most important new initiatives was the fare collection system. New York started a pilot program to install French-designed and -manufactured fare collection systems which dramatically increased revenues, and helped to reduce the problem of skip-fares in earlier times. The Subway at the End of the 20th Century The New York subway system had fought its way back from problems in the mid-century. It had gained back riders from all income levels and in all Boroughs of the City. Of course, the subway system did not come back in isolation. New Yorkers recognize that the reduction in major and petty crime seen during the 1990's created a much more livable city. The improvement of the subway system preceded the rest of the City's "clean-up," but is certainly related to making New York a more livable city. Bibliography Fischer, R. "The Metropolitan Dimension of Early Zoning: Revisiting the 1916 New York City Ordinance." Journal of the American Planning Association, 1998: 170-182. Heller, V. The City Beneath Us: Building the New York Subway. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004. Hood, C. 722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. NYCSubway.org. "IRT: The First Subway." NYC Subway. 2005. http://www.nycsubway.org/irtsubway.html (accessed December 3, 2007). NYCSubway1980. "NYCSubway 1980's." NYCSubway. 2005. http://www.nycsubway.org/articles/history-nycta1980s.html (accessed December 3, 2007). NYT. "Opening of the New York Subway." New York Times, October 28, 1904: n.p. -. "Rapid Transit Tunnel Begun." New York Times, March 25, 1900: n.p. Tannenbaum, SJ. Underground Harmonies. New York: Cornell University Press, 1995. Read More