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Chapter 02. The First Rapid Transit Bill

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Fifty Years of Rapid Transit · James Blaine Walker

Chapter II

The First Rapid Transit Bill.

WHILE the transit conditions existing at the opening of the year 1864 demanded relief, the public authorities did little or nothing to provide it. As indicating the complete absence of anything like a rapid transit programme at that time, I quote the following, which is the only mention of the transportation question in the inaugural message of Mayor Charles G. Gunther, delivered January 4, 1864:

"The proper regulation of the city railroads is a matter of public interest in a city like New York, where a large portion of the population is compelled to use this means of conveyance to and from their places of daily avocation. These companies, enjoying a valuable franchise and paying little for the use of the streets in comparison with the revenue derived therefrom, while they increase so materially the expense of cleaning and repairing, should be compelled at least to extend their tracks as far as the avenues they occupy are graded, and also to run cars as often as the local population reasonably demand; nor should they be permitted to use a rail endangering either life or property."

It may be inferred from this that rapid transit was not a question of vital import in January, 1864. The only relief which the Mayor points out in his message is the extension of the tracks of the existing surface railroads and the prohibition of the T rail. He ignores the congestion of traffic and the crowding of cars and omnibuses.

The railroad companies, however, were quick to act on the Mayor's suggestion. In February [1864] the New York and Harlem Railroad Company had a bill introduced in the Legislature to give it the right to extend its line down Fourth Avenue and Broadway to Whitehall street, in accordance with a resolution passed by the previous city administration in 1863. This bill also provided that the railroad company should buy out the Broadway [omni]bus lines, the idea apparently being to substitute a street railroad for the latter in Broadway south of Union Square. Similar rights for a railroad in Broadway had been sought for years by Jacob Sharp, and the property owners were generally opposed to it. They and the newspapers opposed the New York and Harlem bill, and it was killed by an adverse report in the Senate on March 25, 1864. That not all the property owners were opposed to a Broadway railroad, however, is shown by the fact that D. Appleton and Co. and Lord and Taylor were among the signers of a petition sent to the Senate asking for the passage of the New York and Harlem bill.

It was at this session of the Legislature that the first rapid transit bill appeared. On March 21, 1864, articles of incorporation of the Metropolitan Railway Company were filed with the Secretary of State, and a few days later a bill was introduced in the Senate to give this company the rights to build AN UNDERGROUND RAILROAD in Broadway from the Battery to Thirty-fourth street and then under Sixth Avenue to Central Park! This will be a surprise to the present generation, many of whom think that the existing subway, opened in 1904, was the first underground transportation project of the city. It is a historical fact, however, that the first project for a rapid transit railroad, conceived in 1864, was a subway project. The elevated railroad was a later conception and grew out of the subway proposal, as will be told in a subsequent chapter.

The father of the subway idea and the promoter of the Metropolitan Railway Company of 1864 was Hugh B. Willson, a Michigan railroad man, who had been in London during the construction of the London Underground railroad and was present at its opening in January, 1863, when the first three and three-quarters miles was placed in operation. Willson examined the new railroad carefully and traveled on it frequently. He was so impressed with its merits that he conceived the idea of building the same kind of a road in New York, and on his return to that city, in June, 1863, he, in his own words "set to work to secure the aid of prominent men to enable me to present to the public a plan similar to that of London. At first my efforts were not successful. All were deeply engrossed in the War, and it was not till the autumn that I made any substantial progress."

It was not until January, 1864, however, that Willson's work began to take form. He then obtained the cooperation of Henry V. Poor. Poor interested others, and the two succeeded in getting enough support to justify the incorporation of a company with a capital stock of $5,000,000 -- a large amount for those days. This was the Metropolitan Railway Company alluded to above. The list of incorporators includes many well known names. Here it is:

Jonathan Sturges; Simon B. Chittenden; Danford N. Barney; John J. Cisco; William H. Osborn; Luther C. Clark; John T. Agnew; Uriel A. Murdock; Samuel Marsh; Francis Skiddy; John Taylor Johnston; Wehrmit Keight; Edwards Pierrepont; David Dows; Abiel A. Low; Nathaniel Marsh; James B. Johnston; Samuel Sloan; Edward Jones; William Kelly; John J. Astor, Jr.; Moses Taylor; Isaac Bell; Robert S. Hone; Henry F. Vail; Charles H. Russell; Sheppard Gandy; William R. Kirkland; Edmund T. H. Gibson; John J. Phelps; Sidney Webster; Henry V. Poor; James Bryce; Hugh B. Willson; John Lowery; George A. Townsend; William Butler Duncan; John H. Wainwright; Edward S. Jaffrey; James T. Sanford; William E. Dodge, Jr.; Charles Lanier; James F. D. Lanier; Edward C. Brodhead; George Bliss; Wyllis Blackstone; Wilson G. Hunt; Courtlandt Palmer; Elisha Riggs; Thomas Slocomb.

The company was incorporated under the general railroad law of 1850, and the life of the corporation was 100 years. The $5,000,000 capital stock was divided into $50 shares.

With such backing, the new project received the attention of press and public. Everybody began to talk about riding underground, and there was a great demand for information as to the operation of the London road. This was operated by steam locomotives, and the same power was to be used in the Metropolitan line in New York. Such operation was taken as a matter of course, as electricity as a power was then unknown. There were some timid souls who expressed fear of catching cold by suddenly going into a tunnel on a hot day, but there was no serious objection to steam as a motive power at first. Later its use was deprecated by a few engineers who favored propulsion by pneumatic power, but in the scramble for rapid transit rights which Willson's project started all promoters of subways contemplated the use of steam locomotives burning coke to reduce the smoke nuisance to a minimum.

In the Legislature, however, the Willson project was not received with enthusiasm. The corporations of those days had great influence with the Legislators, and as no corporation already operating favored the new scheme it got short shrift in the Railroad Committee of the Senate, to whom it had been referred. In two weeks after the bill had been introduced it was reported adversely by "Senators Beach, Williams and Woodruff, from the Committee on Railroads." The majority of the Committee gave as their reason that there would be another bill for a Broadway underground railroad at the next session, "and this would prove an obstacle in the way unless disposed of now." The obliging Senate adopted the report on the day it was made, April 8, 1864.

News of this summary action on a project in which New York City was so vitally interested aroused general indignation. Petitions were circulated asking for a reconsideration of the bill, and the press denounced the action of the Legislature in unmeasured terms. On April 11 the New York Times said editorially:

"The defeat of the Underground Railroad in the Legislature, coupled as it was with the rejection of Mayor Gunther's proposition to compel the street railroads to pay 10 percent. of their receipts to the City treasury, is a fresh and alarming illustration of the enormous power over our property and comfort which is now wielded by the omnibus proprietors, railroad corporations and political jobbers. The Legislature on which we have been in the habit of relying seems to have surrendered itself completely to their hands.

"The Underground Railroad promised to be an immense boon to the city. It was perfectly feasible; a similar road has been in successful operation in London for one year; it encroaches on no vested interest; takes no one's land or house; interferes with no traffic or thoroughfare; offers cheap, comfortable and speedy transit from one end of the island to the other; requires no money from the public, will add nothing to municipal taxation and is undertaken by men of the highest character and standing both social and commercial. In short, there is not a single objection to be made to it on the part of the public or the Government, and yet the Committee of the Senate has reported against it, under the lead of a Senator from this city, and it has been laid on the table, for what reason is not stated. We wonder how much longer the people of this city will permit themselves to be thus plundered by men who are ostensibly their servants and dependents."

The outburst of popular indignation had its effect on the Legislature. On the day on which the above editorial was published, namely April 11, Senator Angell, chairman of the Railroad Committee of the Senate, asked that the Underground Railroad bill be taken from the table and referred to the Committee of the Whole Senate. He said he considered the matter one of grave importance in which New York city was vitally interested. He presented a petition signed by Brown Bros. and Co. and 1,600 citizens of New York, asking a reconsideration of the bill. The motion prevailed, and the bill was taken from the table and referred to the Committee of the Whole. The spasm of reform, however, was short lived, and nothing came of it. The Legislature adjourned on April 26 without any consideration having been given to the measure by the Committee of the Whole. This ended the matter for the time, but the fight for rapid transit was on and it was waged from that time forward with increasing interest and fierceness.

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