Chapter 03. Pioneer Plans for a Subway

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Fifty Years of Rapid Transit · James Blaine Walker

Chapter III

Pioneer Plans for a Subway.

WHILE the first subway operated in New York City is justly regarded as one of the engineering wonders of the world, the fact that its construction was not undertaken until 1901 is equally marvelous, considering that its prototype was conceived and planned in 1864. The plans made in that year for the Broadway Underground proposed by the Metropolitan Railway Company, organized by Hugh B. Willson, covered almost the identical route of the present subway from the Battery to Central Park, called for the construction of twelve miles of railroad under the streets and a tunnel similar to that of the first subway, built nearly a half century later. The chief points of difference were that the 1864 subway was to be only a two-track line and the tunnel was to be of brick and stone masonry instead of steel and concrete and was to be operated by steam locomotives instead of by electric motors.

Mr. William Barclay Parsons, who made the plans for the existing subway, Mr. August Belmont, who financed its construction and others connected with its development, hold the opinion that only the application of electricity to traction power purposes permitted the building of the first subway, and that it was because of the objections to steam power for use under ground that the early day plans for subways were discarded in favor of elevated railroads, which, as everyone knows, were the first rapid transit roads to be placed in operation. Research indicates, however, that it was not power but politics and the war for franchise rights which postponed the building of the first underground road. Steam had been successfully used in London's underground railroad as early as 1863, and if Hugh B. Willson and his backers had been able to obtain the necessary rights from the Legislature, it is clear from the historical review of the period that the first rapid transit road in New York would have been a subway and that it would have been in operation by 1870, or about the time the first elevated road began actual business. The engineer who planned the Willson road has left behind a complete and exhaustive study of a steam subway. In fact, aside from the question of power, the builders of the first subway might have constructed their road from the plans made by that engineer. His name was A. P. Robinson, and he deserves everlasting honor as an American engineer who was far ahead of the times. It is not desired to belittle the work of the men who planned and built the existing subway, but if they did "pioneer" work, what shall be said of Robinson, who about fifty years ago saw, and projected on paper and justified by cogent argument an underground road having all the important features of the present line?

A. P. Robinson's Plans For Subway, 1864, Section of Tunnel Showing Sub-Surface Structures and Ventilation (Section of Tunnel with Details of Sewers, Water, and Gas Pipes, and Ventilation.)

After his defeat in the Legislature of 1864, Willson perfected his scheme and made preparations to go back to the next Legislature for the franchise which had been denied the Metropolitan Railway Company by the previous session. With his associates he had ample financial backing and was enabled to retain first class engineering talent. Poor was the Secretary of the company, of which Danford N. Barney was president and Uriel A. Murdock treasurer. The directors included ten of the most influential of those named as stockholders. Willson was one of the directors. In the fall of 1864 they retained Mr. Robinson to "prepare for the company a statement of the character and cost of the proposed work." This modest statement of his task was made by Mr. Robinson himself in the introduction to his report. This report, which was dated January 1, 1865, was printed in New York by Clayton and Medole, book and job printers in the Trinity Building, No. 4 Thames Street. It is a pamphlet of forty-one pages, illustrated with maps of the route, drawings of cross-sections of the proposed subway and colored prints of the proposed stations. It is written in argumentative style, the author evidently feeling that he was proposing a daring innovation and needed to justify it.

Plate 2, A. P. Robinson's Plans For Subway, 1864, Section of Tunnel at Street Station

Robinson first compared the physical conditions in New York with those of London, and pointed out the great differences existing. He then went into an analysis of traffic conditions in the American metropolis, showing that every north and south avenue except one was occupied by a horse car line at that time, and that even with the numerous omnibus lines the facilities were utterly inadequate. At the rate of increase he showed that a rapid transit line was a necessity. But read a few paragraphs from his report on this subject and marvel that the future was so clear to him in 1864:

"The average increase for the whole period of sixty years," he writes after tracing the growth of traffic for that length of time, "is nearly twenty-five per cent. for each period of five years, and if we apply this ratio we shall find that in the year 1870 we may reasonably calculate upon a population of not less than 1,272,000, and in 1880 of not less than 2,000,000 (the actual figures for those two years were 942,292 in 1870, and 1,206,590 in 1880), or about double the present number. This will cover the entire island. If at the same time the proportion of passengers to population increases in anything like the same ratio as has been shown for the past ten years, we shall not be beyond bounds in estimating that in 1870 we shall have at least 100,000,000 passengers requiring transportation through our streets on the railways, and in 1880 200,000,000. (The actual figures were 115,139,553 in 1870 and 288,000,000 in 1880.)

"When we take into consideration the fact that the increase of population must take place principally in the upper part of the city, and that in consequence of the large area occupied by the Central Park the extension northward must be more rapid for the same increase than in past years, and that the distance traveled by each passenger must be correspondingly lengthened, we can then begin to appreciate how totally impossible it is that the necessities of this population in the means of transit can be satisfied by any system of horse railways that can be devised. The streets would be absolutely blocked, and the time occupied by the trip would be a loss from the occupations of the day which would be unendurable. Speed must come in to fill up the deficiency, and this is inadmissible unless the vehicles, of whatsoever description they may be, are entirely separated from the ordinary traffic of the streets. Steam must necessarily be used, for the want of some other available power. Compressed air has been suggested, but experiments have not yet demonstrated the practicability of its use for considerable distances."

No better grasp of the traffic problem of New York City has been shown by our modern experts. Robinson, after carefully surveying the field and calculating the increase of traffic, accurately gauged the coming developments and foresaw the time when a horse railroad in every street would be insufficient to move the throngs demanding transportation. He did not use the words, "rapid transit," but he did say that "speed must come in to fill up the deficiency." And he proposed to provide it by building what we would now call a rapid transit line beneath the surface -- namely a subway. It was only the necessity of the times that made him advocate steam as a motive power. He realized its weak points, but it was the best available. He noted the experiments made with air as a motive power in the tunnel near Sydenham Palace in England, but concluded: "All these plans are yet experiments, and until they are more fully developed we must confine our attention to steam, and the alternative must be its use either upon railways elevated above the streets or placed in excavations or tunnels below them." He then proceeded to show why subways are better than elevated roads, concluding the argument as follows:

"The statistics I have indulged in convince me that it is only necessary to look to the local travel (unless it be to the transportation of freight at such hours of the night as would not interfere with the passenger business) for such amount of traffic as will work the capacity of your road to the utmost; and I am satisfied that every consideration of economy, safety and convenience justifies the adoption of the plan you propose, viz. an underground railway. In no other way can the public exigency be met."

Robinson recommended that for economy and convenience of operation the road be built "as near the surface of the street as possible," and to accomplish this he discussed the question of routes and their relation to the sewer system, which he wished to disarrange as little as possible. He pointed out that Broadway follows the ridge of the island and that sewers in the cross streets generally can flow both ways from it. For this reason he recommended a route up Broadway from the Battery to Fourteenth Street; thence under Union Square and through Broadway to Twenty-third Street; thence under Madison Square to Fifth Avenue and through Fifth Avenue to Fifty-ninth Street at the southern end of Central Park. This was a slight variation from the route set forth in the articles of incorporation of the Metropolitan Railway Company, adopted before Robinson had been retained. This route was described as follows:

"The road is to be constructed in a tunnel under ground from a place at or near the Battery in the City of New York, following a line under or near Broadway to Thirty-fourth Street, and then following a line under or near the Sixth Avenue to or near the Central Park; with two branches from the last mentioned place, one branch running to a place at or near the Harlem Railroad, and the other branch running to a place at or near the Hudson River Railroad all in the County of New York. The whole length of such road, as near as may be, is to be twelve miles."

Here we have the main outlines of the present subway -- a trunk line running from the Battery to Fifty-ninth street, with two branches, one going up the East Side and the other the West Side. The main difference is that in today's subway the dividing line is at Ninety-sixth Street instead of at Fifty-ninth Street -- a difference due to the northward growth of the city in the meantime.

Type of Car Planned for Metropolitan Subway in 1864.

A novel treatment for the Battery end of the line was proposed. In his plan Robinson advocated starting the road on the surface at a connection with the South Ferry, where the "immense travel from this point to Hamilton and Atlantic Avenues in Brooklyn and also to Staten Island" was to be considered. His line began at the Battery "with a circle for the turning of trains" (exactly what we have today in the subway) and skirting the inner edge of the Battery ran in an ever-deepening cut to Bowling Green, where it entered the tunnel under Broadway. He proposed to span this cut with on ornamental iron bridge to carry the travel through Battery and Whitehall streets.

The existing subway has an inside height of about 13 feet two inches; some of the new subways under construction will have a height of 15 feet. In 1864 Mr. Robinson proposed to make his tunnel 16 feet high in the center and 25.5 feet wide (for two tracks) at the widest part, which was at the level of the platforms of the cars. This width, he says, would be ample for two tracks carrying cars nine feet wide and would allow 2.5 feet in the center and on each side. The tunnel was to be arched, with an oval-shaped roof and sides sloping slightly inward. At present a width of 15 feet for each track is allowed.

Employment of concrete for floor material and of asphalt for water-proofing in the existing subway is generally regarded as a modern and up-to-date method. Robinson specified both in the following description of his tunnel:

"The foundations should be of granite blocks cut to the required form, as skewbacks for the invert; underneath which should be a base of concrete. The spandrils should be well loaded with concrete, and the whole well covered with asphalt. A center drain is provided, emptying into cisterns at all the depressions, from which drain pipes should be provided to carry the water to the sewers. As these cisterns would necessarily be below the level of any sewers in their immediate vicinity, in some cases it will be necessary to construct these drains for some distance before finding outlets for them. But in one case, namely at Canal Street, it will be necessary to pump the drainage which may collect there for a short distance in each direction. This, however, would be but a slight matter, as there would seem to be no cause for any serious accumulation of water if the tunnel is properly constructed. Even the Thames tunnel is kept dry without difficulty."

In the matter of stations Robinson planned better than the designers of the present subway. Instead of kiosks occupying valuable space on the sidewalks, he proposed the purchase and use of appropriate buildings on each side of the street, except in parks etc., where he suggested the erection of suitable structures on city property. For convenience of train operation, he placed the stations at intervals of a half mile apart. Terminal stations were to be erected at Bowling Green and Fifty-ninth Street, with eight intermediate stations and a special station at South Ferry. At stations the tunnel was to be widened so as to give station platforms, which were to be on a level with the platforms of the cars, 12.25 feet wide and 150 feet long.

Robinson's Plan for Subway Station in Parks, 1864.

For the terminal and other stations to be built on public property Robinson proposed to erect structures of iron and glass, with glass floors, directly over the tunnel, and to dispense with the roof of the tunnel under them, so that the daylight would pass through the glass structure and illuminate the station platforms beneath. This was to save artificial lighting of stations during the day. His drawings of these unique structures (Plates 3 and 4) are reproduced on other pages. All stations were to be equipped with everything needful, including telegraph offices. Robinson figured that the cost of stations built on purchased property would be about $125,000 each, and he proposed to rent part of the buildings for enough to earn interest on the cost.

The problem of ventilation, which bothered the designers of the existing subway not a little and was confessedly only partially solved when operation began, was handled by Robinson in an ingenious manner. Whether his plan would have been effective is a question. He gave the credit for the invention of it to Hugh B. Willson, the promoter of the company in whose interest Robinson was working. The plan was to get ventilation through pipes "running laterally to convenient openings", and connected with hollow iron gas lamp posts about 15 inches in diameter, erected on the surface of the street at the edge of the sidewalks. These were to be placed 100 feet apart on each side of the street.

Robinson's plan for the operation of his subway is interesting enough to give in its entirety. Here it is:

"The true theory in all public conveyances is that the oftener the vehicles run the greater is the public convenience, and the greater the number who will ride. If a car with a capacity of 80 passengers can be filled every four minutes, it will be fair to assume that one with capacity for at least fifty can be filled every two minutes. Hence a system should be adopted by which trains can be run at the shortest intervals consistent with safety, provided the capacity required for each train is not too small to enable it to be run with economy proportional to the larger train.

"In my estimate of the total amount of local travel to be expected in this city for the horse railroads in 1870, I have placed it at 100,000,000. Making due allowance for the number which would be carried in stages, the entire movement will probably be 150,000,000. It has not probably been less than 100,000,000 during the past year.

"This would amount to 410,000 per day. If we assume that but one eighth of this number would prefer the speedy and comfortable cars of the tunnel, we should have to provide for 51,250 passengers, or 25,625 each way. As a question of safety it is important that there should never be more than one train between two adjacent stations at a time. If we calculate upon a running speed of twenty miles per hour, the distance between stations being one half of a mile, the time would be one and a half minutes. Allowing one half minute for stopping and the average time from station to station would be two minutes, the trip from Bowling Green to Central Park (4.6 miles) occupying less than twenty minutes.* [* It now takes just about twenty minutes for an express train in the present subway to make this run.] Without violating the condition that there shall be but one train at a time between two adjacent stations, we should then be able to dispatch a train every two minutes, or thirty per hour.* [* The quickest movement in the present subway is 33 trains per hour. but these are ten car trains carrying more than 100 per car.] This is probably as often as the trains could be dispatched or run with safety. If we assume that the 51,250 passengers are distributed through 18 hours, or from six o'clock in the morning until twelve at night, we have to transport each way every hour 1,423 passengers, or 47 in each train. This is the average for the day, but when it is considered that the great proportion of the travel is in one direction in one portion of the day, and in the opposite direction in another, it will be found necessary to provide accommodations for a considerable greater number in order to carry the average and seat every passenger.

"From an inspection of the table giving the statistics of the operation of the horse railways it will be seen that the average number carried per trip each way, in 1864, was 34. It is not probable that the trip in one direction will average 15. In order, therefore, to make an average of 34 each way, they must have carried at least 53 in the other direction. Making allowance for changes on the route and it is probable that the average load was not less than 40. To have averaged 34 passengers per trip each way and to have given each passenger a seat, they should, therefore, have had capacity for 40, while in fact they had but seats for 20. In estimating accordingly for a travel of 51,250 passengers daily through the tunnel, with a train every two minutes, I assume that we should require seats for at least 80.

"I submit herewith two drawings of steam cars suitable for such a traffic. I propose a car 40 feet long, exclusive of engine apartment, divided into eight compartments running cross-wise, with a door to each compartment on the right hand side of the car. Each compartment would be five feet wide, with seats vis-a-vis. The width of the cars being nine feet, from out to out, or about eight feet inside, there would be comfortable and abundant room for seating ten passengers in each compartment, or eighty in the car. The compartments need not be separated above the backs of the seats. The doors should be arranged to slide, all being connected and moved simultaneously by an apparatus operated by the brakeman at the rear of the car. Each car should have its gas holder and burners, or other suitable lighting apparatus."

In Plates 6 and 7, reproduced on another page, Mr. Robinson shows two types of cars, one having the engine in it and the other having it in a separate car. He figured that either car would perform the service required and haul another car of equal capacity if necessary for an expenditure of 12 pounds of coal per mile. With two cars to a train the capacity of the subway would be more than 100,000 passengers per day allowing a seat for every passenger. He advocated the use of coke in the engines, which could be made to condense their own steam and thus render the exhaust scarcely perceptible.

Nor was the proposed system of ticket selling behind modern practice, for Mr. Robinson eliminated ticket collectors altogether and would have had passengers pay at the stations before entering. He was also up to date in planning for electric signals, but in using electricity to start his trains he was guilty of a serious lapse, for he actually proposed to have every train at every station at exactly the same moment. He wanted to have electric clocks in each station, all on the same circuit and ticking together, and an electric starter, which would give the signal to move to all stations at the same instant. How this would work he tells as follows:

"There would be a car at every station at the same time. At a common signal all would leave. There being no train on the track between stations, every engine driver would move with confidence and know that he has only to run his half mile in one and a half minutes. The platform operator at each station would know the second when a train was due. If not arrived, or if so far behind as to render it impossible to start from the station at its proper time, or if stopped by accident, he would send the proper signal to the starter so that he would not give the next starting signal, or the circuit controlling this might be so arranged that any station operator could disconnect it in an emergency so that it could not be operated."

In presenting his estimate of the cost of the road, Robinson is careful to state that it corresponds with the currency then circulating, namely the money of war times, when gold was at a big premium. The figures are interesting in comparison with present prices. He estimated that the work would cost $8,487,006, divided as follows:

          Taking out and relaying 60,000 square yards of Russ 
               pavement from Battery Place to Union Sq. at $3...... $180,000 
          Taking up and relaying 37,000 square yards Belgian 
               pavement from 14th to 59th Street at $2.............   74,000 
          692,000 cubic yards earth excavation at 50 cents.........  486,000 
          560,000 cubic yards earth carted away at 50 cents........  280,000 
          372,000 cubic yards earth refilled at 20 cents...........   74,400 
          101,000 cubic yards rock excavation at $10.............. 1,010,000
          92,000 cubic yards rock carted away at 25 cents..........   23,000 
          9,000 cubic yards rock refilled at 25 cents..............    2,250
          66,114 Ms. brick masonry at $20......................... 1,322,280 
          54,100 cubic yards rubble stone masonry at $6............  324,000 
          21,022 cubic yards granite masonry at $25................  525,550 
          35,000 cubic yards concrete at $7........................  245,000 
          52,200 cubic yards ballast at $1.........................   52,200 
          885,000 square feet asphalt covering at 6 cents..........   53,100 
          500,000 square feet cobble paving at 12.5 cents..........   62,500 
          25,000 lineal feet center drain at 50 cents..............   12,500
          1,700 lineal feet side drain, 12 in......................    1,700
          500 lineal feet pile foundation at Canal St. at $40......   20,000
          25,000 lineal feet 18 in. sewer pipe at $1.50............   37,500
          2,880 lineal feet 48 and 54 in. brick sewer in 
              Canal Street at $10..................................   28,880 
          250 man holes at $60.....................................   15,000
          50 street basins at $200.................................   10,000 
          House connections........................................   10,000 
              1,000 lineal feet 20 in. water mains, and 
              2,600 lineal feet 24 in. water mains,
              6,500,000 lbs. at 5c.................................  325,000 
          14,500 lineal feet 30 in. water mains,
              4,100  lineal feet 36 in. water mains,
              1-3 off for old pipes (97,500).......................  227,500 
          500 lamp post ventilators, 1,000 lbs. each at 5c.........   25,000
          12,500 lineal feet 15 in. pipe...........................   12,500
          500 lineal feet lamp and gas pipe, labor etc.............   25,000
          Bridge at Bowling Green..................................   50,000
          11 miles track complete at $25,000 per mile..............  275,000
          40 engines and cars combined at $8,000...................  320,000
          20 cars (80 passengers each) at $4,000...................   80,000
          40 cars (50 passengers each) at $2,500...................  100,000
          Station grounds at northern terminus.....................  350,000
          Terminal and way stations............................... 1,400,000 
                                                                 -----------
                                                            Total $7,715,460 

          Add 10 per cent. for contingencies, engineering, 
          superintendence, etc.,,,,,,..............................  771,546 
                                                                 -----------
                                                            Total $8,487.006

In a foot note Mr. Robinson pointed out how certain savings might reduce this cost, but he figured the total average cost, including the equipment, at $1,550,000 per mile. This, he said, is less than the cost of the London Underground, which up to January 1, 1864 was $1,670,000 per mile. This he held is a good showing, considering "the extraordinarily high prices now prevailing". Upon a gold standard, he said, the cost of the New York road probably would not exceed one-half that of the London Underground.

Robinson estimated that the tunnel road in its first year would carry 20,000,000 passengers and that the average fare paid would be 7 cents, yielding a gross revenue of $1,400,000, and that rents from station buildings would yield $100,000 more -- a total of $1,500,000. The expense of operation, excluding interest on cost, he estimated at $541,200, leaving a profit of $958,750, equal to about 12 per cent. on the cost. An interesting item in his expense allowance due to the war is $35,000 for the "Government tax on gross receipts."

Summing up the advantages of a subway at the end of his report, Robinson wrote:

"I can conceive nothing so completely fulfilling in every respect the requirements of our population as such a road with such an equipment and worked in the manner suggested. There would be no dust. There would be no mud. Passengers would not be obliged to go into the middle of the street to take a car. They have simply to enter a station from the sidewalk and pass down a spacious and well lighted staircase to a dry and roomy platform. The temperature would be cool in summer and warm in winter. There would be no delays from snow or ice. The cars would not be obliged to wait for a lazy or obstinate truckman. The passenger would be sure of a luxurious seat in a well lighted car, and would be carried to his destination in one-third the time he could be carried by any other conveyance. These would be the advantages to those who ride, and for the other great public in the streets there would be no collisions, no broken wheels or fractured axles, no frightened horses or run-over pedestrians. Everything would be out of sight and hearing, and nothing would indicate the great thoroughfare below."

To us who enjoy the advantages of underground travel there is nothing new in the above statement, but how must it have sounded in the ears of our fathers in the last year of the Civil War? No doubt the scheme was looked upon by many as an idle dream, but that there were a few brave men who believed in it is shown by the fact that Henry V. Poor and his associates were ready to put $5,000,000 into the enterprise. But Robinson and his backers shared the fate of those advanced thinkers who are ahead of their times!

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