Subway Centennial


Published in 1901 by the Marks Arnheim tailor shop, this map (click on illustration for full map) shows early route planning, including the opening day IRT subway route.

See also
Centennial events
Press release

By 1900, New York City was the second-largest city in the world, but most of its 3,437,202 people were squeezed into Manhattan (the Lower East Side was one of the most densely populated areas in history). Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens were largely undeveloped. Getting around was near impossible; it took hours to get from Wall Street to Harlem, and while moving out of Manhattan was desirable, it was impractical for most.

New York City developed, and flourished, because public transportation made it possible to live in one area, work in another, and get anywhere easily. As subway lines were planned and opened, whole neighborhoods of houses and shops sprang up around stations. New York’s population quickly spread beyond Manhattan: in the 1890s Harlem was a little town in the suburbs; by 1914, 75 percent of New York’s African-Americans lived there. In 1923, a million people lived in the formerly bucolic Bronx — it was as big as the sixth largest city in the America.


	(The New York Subway Centennial trademark)

Beginnings In March 1900, ground was broken in Manhattan for an electric-powered subway. Twelve thousand men worked to build the subway for the privately owned Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) using the cut-and-cover method: rather than drilling and tunneling deep beneath the city, a trench was cut to accommodate a typically 55-foot wide and 15-foot high tunnel, the rails were laid and stations built, the finished work was enclosed in steel beams, and a shallow layer of fill and paving was placed over the trench.

Completion When the subway opened on October 27, 1904, 150,000 people paid a nickel each to ride. New Yorkers embraced the IRT’s clean (electric power produced no smoke and cinders), quick ride. It was the fastest city transportation system in the world; its four-track design enabled both express and local trains to run in each direction, and “City Hall to Harlem in 15 minutes!” was the slogan.

Soon the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company began building a new subway between Brooklyn and Manhattan, tunnelling routes south into Brooklyn and east into Queens. The BMT opened in 1915, and construction work began on a third subway in 1925. In 1932 New York City’s Board of Transportation completed the Eighth Avenue Line, creating the Independent -- independent from private interests -- City Owned Rapid Transit Railroad, or IND. The Sixth Avenue line, the last major piece of the IND system, opened in 1940. The city now had three separate, separately owned and operated subways -- forming the largest subway system in the world.


	Early fare-collector

New York City’s subways and els provided more than 8 million rides a day in the 1940s, and on Monday, December 23, 1946, the number reached 8,872,244 -- a standing record.

Decline The Depression brought bankruptcy to the private subway companies. By 1940 New York City had taken over the IRT and BMT and become owner-operator of all the subway and elevated lines. But it too was unable to maintain the system. For the 42 years since the first subway opened in 1904 the fare had remained a nickel, and the nickel fare was inadequate for maintaining trains, stations, equipment, and aging infrastructure. Now ridership was declining: after World War II, enormous sums of money were poured into highways rather than mass transit. Customers moved to the suburbs, service began to falter, and more customers left.

Modest fare increases did not keep the subways from going into a three-and-a-half decade decline from the late 40s to the early 80s. In 1948 the fare went to a dime; in 1953 to 15 cents, and tokens were introduced. In that year the New York State Legislature also created the New York City Transit Authority to manage and operate the subway system. Through the 50s and 60s, the subways continued to deteriorate, and, with no significant sources of new funding, NYCTA could not halt the downward trend. In 1968 the New York State Legislature created the current Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the Transit Authority joined the MTA family. But nevertheless the decline continued in the 70s and 80s.

Turnaround and Advances By the early 80s a third of the fleet was typically out of service during the morning rush hours, cars broke down or caught fire, trains derailed on hazardous track, and graffiti covered virtually every car. In 1982 the MTA began to rehabilitate the subways through a series of five-year Capital Programs, the largest public transportation rebuilding effort in national history. Over $39 billion has been invested since the program began.

By 1990 New York City subway system was returned to a state of good repair and began moving forward with improvements. On May 14, 1997, the entire New York City Transit bus and subway system began to accept MetroCard. On July 4, the technology enabled free bus-to-subway, subway-to-bus, and bus-to-bus transfers. In 1999 a full range of fare and travel options including volume discounts and unlimited-ride one-day, 7-day, and 30-day passes was introduced, and New York City's subways and buses stopped accepting tokens at the end of 2003.

This 1924 IRT map (click on illustration for full map) illustrates the rapid expansion of the system. In 1917, the 2, 5 lines reached White Plains Road/241st Street, the 4 line reached Woodlawn in 1918, and the 6 line reached Pelham in 1920. In Queens, the N, W reached Astoria in 1917, the 7 was completed to Corona, and the continuation to Flushing was under construction. In 1920 the 3 reached New Lots Avenue in Brooklyn and the 2, 5 reached Brooklyn College.

As the MTA rehabilitated subway stations to make them safer and more convenient, it began for the first time to focus on accommodating the needs of the disabled, making the subways more accessible to people with disabilities by introducing elevators, ramps, signage, and other features in conformity with the Americans with Disabilities Act. At the same time the MTA also seeks to create a rich and esthetically pleasing environment in subway.

The first IRT stations were artistically designed; they featured elegant kiosks for entrances, elegant mosaic borders, and specially designed plaques linked to the name or neighborhood of the station. Astor Place, for example, has a beaver motif in reference to John Jacob Astor’s involvement in the fur business; Fulton Street uses images of Robert Fulton’s steamboat; Grand Central Terminal uses images of a train engine. Today, the MTA Arts for Transit program continues this tradition, encouraging the use of public transit by commissioning and installing permanent works of art by both well-established and emerging artists that create visually unique links to the architectural history and design of stations and the neighborhoods they serve. To date 125 works have been installed and 81 are underway or planned.

Over one hundred stations have been renovated and hundreds more renovations are planned; reliability, safety, and personal security have been improved; over a thousand new high-tech cars have been purchased, and more are on order, at a cost of $2.4 billion; automated fare collection has enabled free transfers and discounts – all these advances proclaim that New York’s subways have once again become a prime driver of its economic life and cultural and ethnic vibrancy. For business as for leisure, for New Yorkers as for tourists, the subways move New York.