Chapter 13. First Subway Completed and Placed in Operation

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Fifty Years of Rapid Transit · James Blaine Walker

Chapter XIII

The First Subway Completed and Placed In Operation.

On January 24, 1901, the Rapid Transit board adopted the route and general plan for the Brooklyn extension of the subway. This was done in less than a year after the execution of the contract with McDonald for the construction of the Manhattan-Bronx subway. The line as approved extended from City Hall down Broadway to the Battery and thence by tunnel under the East River to Joralemon street, Brooklyn, up Joralemon street to Fulton street near Borough Hall, thence under Fulton street to Flatbush Avenue and under Flatbush Avenue to Atlantic Avenue, near the Brooklyn station of the Long Island Railroad.

The resolution approving the route was transmitted to the Municipal Assembly on February 2, 1901, accompanied by a letter in which the board set forth its reasons for the choice. In this letter the board said:

"The board is aware that the route now proposed does not afford a complete solution of the rapid transit problem in Brooklyn. It is, however, beyond doubt, the best route for the first rapid transit connection between the boroughs. It reaches two great distributing points in Brooklyn, Borough Hall Park and the Long Island Railroad station. The new road can thence be conveniently extended as the financial means of the city will permit, to any and every important district in Brooklyn. It is to the interest of the city that the rapid transit connection now proposed between the boroughs should be promptly constructed rather than that the city and especially the Borough of Brooklyn should be made to wait several years for the initiation of a system more nearly complete."

After public hearings the Municipal Assembly on May 21, 1901, approved the new route, the Mayor gave his approval on June 1 and the Park Board its consent on July 11. This completed the consents of the local authorities, and the Rapid Transit board, having failed to get the statutory consents of property owners, applied to the Appellate Division, First and Second Departments, for the appointment of commissioners and a determination in lieu of such consents. The First Department tribunal appointed Theron G. Strong, Thomas C. T. Crain and Henry W. Gray as its commissioners, while the Second Department named William Cullen Bryant, Richard H. Laimbeer and Frederick R. Kellogg in similar capacity. To expedite proceedings both sets of Commissioners sat together to take testimony, and on December 26 and 27 respectively reported favorably on the route. Thereupon the board proceeded with the preparation of detail plans preliminary to the letting of the construction contract. The reports were confirmed by orders of the respective Appellate Divisions on January 30 and January 17, 1902.

A sub-committee consisting of Mr. Orr and Mr. Charles Stewart Smith was appointed to draft the contract for the Brooklyn extension. This committee reported on May 23, 1902, submitting a draft following the general lines of Contract No. 1 for the Manhattan-Bronx road. It was provided, however, that the bidder should name in his bid what connections he would make with other railroads or rapid transit lines for a single fare of five cents. This was undoubtedly to provide an opportunity for the Belmont company, which was building the Manhattan-Bronx line, to bid for the Brooklyn extension, so that both roads might be operated as one and for a single fare between the boroughs. The contractor was required to deposit $1,000,000 in cash or securities, to give a bond in the same -amount, to deposit with the board all bonds of sub-contractors, and to provide at his own expense all of the equipment of the road on which the city was to have first lien. The work was to be done and the road ready for operation in two years after the execution of the contract. A new provision not in Contract No. 1 was that no advertisements were to be allowed in the stations except by special permission from the board.

After a public hearing the board adopted the form of contract substantially as submitted by the committee, the only changes of consequence being the length of the leasing term, which was fixed at thirty-five instead of fifty years and the extension of the period for construction from two to three years. The contract was approved June 12, 1902, and the board immediately advertised for bids, to be opened July 21. On that day three proposals were received as follows:

From John L. Wells, of counsel for and representing the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, who offered to build the road for $8,000,000-$7,000,000 for construction and $1,000,000 for terminals. For connections at a single fare Mr. Wells offered a series of rides over various lines of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company extending to Fort Hamilton on the south, Kings Highway on the roads to Coney Island, East New York and interior points.

From the Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company, offering to build the road for $3,000,000 for construction and $1,000,000 for terminals. For connections at a single fare the company offered through rides from the Brooklyn extension over the lines of the Manhattan-Bronx subway to be operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, except if the contractor made any agreement with a connecting line to carry a passenger for less than five cents such passenger coming from the Brooklyn line should not be carried beyond Fifty-ninth street for the less fare. This bid was accompanied by a letter from John B. McDonald stating that in the event of its acceptance he would agree to build an extension of the Manhattan subway from Forty-second street south in Broadway to Union Square for $100,000 provided he was awarded the contract prior to July 1, 1903.

From the Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company, offering to build the road for $2,000,000 for construction and $1,000,000 for terminals, with the same provisions for connecting trips at a single fare as in the other bid by the same company. McDonald's offer to build the Broadway extension in Manhattan, however, was not embraced in this bid.

The last bid, namely $2,000,000 for construction and $1,000,000 for terminals, being the lowest, was accepted by the Commission on July 24, 1902, when the contract was awarded to the Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company. It was executed on the 11th day of September following. Thus on account of the Belmont company's eagerness to acquire the Brooklyn extension, the city got for the sum of $3,000,000 a piece of railroad and tunnel construction which the Commission's engineers estimated could not be done for less than $6,000,000. As a matter of fact it cost much more than that. Construction of the road was formally begun in front of No. 17 State Street, Manhattan, on November 8, 1902.

Old and New Methods of Building Subways; Lower Broadway During Construction of Brooklyn Extension, Showing Decked Roadway.

During the year 1902 the Pennsylvania Railroad Company obtained its franchise to construct its tunnel and terminal system in Manhattan, so as to bring its trains into the heart of New York City. Its first appeal was to the Legislature, where a bill was introduced to confer the required rights. The Rapid Transit board successfully asserted the rights of the city to control underground railroad construction in its streets, and obtained the passage of an amendment to Section 32 of the Rapid Transit Act making it the duty of the board to grant such franchises, with the result that the Pennsylvania Company received its franchise from the board only after a complete study had been made of the project and the route and terms had been fixed satisfactorily from the viewpoint of the city.

Under the same amendment the board also acted on the application of the New York and Jersey Railroad Company for a tunnel under the New York half of the Hudson River to Morton Street and to Christopher Street in Manhattan. This franchise was granted by the board on July 10, 1902, and with subsequent modifications made possible the construction of the McAdoo system of tubes now operated by the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company.

The success in placing the contract for the Brooklyn extension led the board to consider the plan for another tunnel to Brooklyn to connect with the Brooklyn Rapid Transit system and thus to give the people of both boroughs the benefit of the connections on the Brooklyn side offered in the bid submitted by that company. Accordingly on July 24, Mr. Orr offered and the board adopted a resolution directing its chief engineer to submit route and general plan for a rapid transit railroad which would "as directly as practicable connect the general region of the City Hall Park, in the Borough of Manhattan, with the general region of Borough Hall Park, or some other equally convenient passenger transportation center, in the Borough of Brooklyn."

Prior to this time the board on May 9 had instructed its chief engineer to prepare and submit to the board a comprehensive scheme or plan of rapid transit for the whole city, looking to the needs of the future as well as to the present. In his letter to Mr. Parsons conveying these instructions Mr. Orr said:

"The far-reaching plan I have suggested could not, of course, be carried out at once, or perhaps, completely carried out for many years. But if such a plan be now wisely prepared and the streets of New York be dedicated to tunnel railroad purposes with a proper regard to the long, and no doubt splendid future of the city, two things may be reasonably expected: First that rapid transit construction will proceed upon the lines so laid down as rapidly as the means of the city and the amount of private capital ready for rapid transit investment will permit. And, second, that relatively unimportant franchises will not be granted in such way or special routes be so devised as to prevent or obstruct a permanent and sufficient programme."

Later we shall see the result of this foresight on the part of Mr. Orr and his fellow commissioners.

It was about this time that an important change took place in the composition of the city government and therefore in the personnel of the Rapid Transit Commission. In the campaign of 1901 for the election of officers of the Greater City, Tammany Hall met with a crushing defeat. Seth Low, the candidate of the fusion forces, was elected Mayor with all his associates on the city ticket, the fusionists also capturing a small majority of the Board of Aldermen. At the end of the year, therefore, Mayor Van Wyck and Controller Bird S. Coler retired and were succeeded on January 1, 1902 by Mayor Low and Controller Edward M. Grout, who became ex officio members of the Rapid Transit Commission.

Another change in the board's membership took place at the close of the year 1901. George L. Rives resigned on December 27 and John Claflin was elected in his place. Mr. Claflin was named in the act of 1894 as one of the original members, but had resigned in 1899. Mayor Low also had been one of the original members, but had resigned in 1896. The opening of the year 1902 saw them both back in the board, much to the gratification of the other members. Mr. Rives later was appointed one of the board's counsel on the retirement of Edward M. Shepard.

Construction work on the Manhattan-Bronx rapid transit road proceeded rapidly after the signing of the contract with McDonald. At the end of the year 1902 the board reported that $23,464,000 had been expended, out of the estimated total of $35,000,000. It was necessary here and there to alter the plans, and in some cases the route, but these were minor changes and did not affect the general lay-out of the line. The work was unattended with serious interruptions or accidents until January 27, 1902, when an explosion of dynamite in the contractor's shanty at Forty-first street and Park Avenue near the Murray Hill hotel killed five persons and injured many others. The explosion shook down the plaster in the Murray Hill hotel, broke all the windows in houses in the vicinity and in some buildings 600 feet distant. No serious damage was done to buildings or to the subway structure. This accident led to the appointment by Mayor Low of a Municipal Explosives Commission, which revised the city regulations governing the storage and use of high explosives in the city limits.

On March 20 and 21 slides of rock occurred in the deep tunnel for the subway on the eastern side of Park Avenue between Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth streets. No lives were lost here, but the accident caused some delay and gave the contractor much trouble.

Pursuant to the act of the Legislature of 1902 Belmont and his associates were enabled to form a corporation for the construction and operation of the municipally-owned rapid transit railroad. This was done in April, 1902, when they incorporated the Interborough Rapid Transit Company for the purpose. The original capital of this company was placed at $25,000,000 divided into 250,000 shares of the par value of $100 each, all of the stock to be common stock. The incorporators, each of whom subscribed for ten shares of stock, were: William H. Baldwin Jr., Charles T. Barney, August Belmont, Andrew Freedman, James Jourdan, John B. McDonald, Delancey Nicoll, Walter G. Oakman, John Peirce, William A. Read, Cornelius Vanderbilt, George W. Wickersham, George W. Young, all of New York City; E. P. Bryan, of Yonkers, N. Y.; and Gardiner M. Lane, of Boston, Mass. Of these all but Nicoll and Wickersham were named as directors. The capital stock subsequently was increased to $35,000,000.

It was provided in the articles of incorporation that the directors might annually appoint an executive committee composed of seven of the directors, who should exercise all the powers of the board of directors except when the board is in session. The certificate of incorporation was filed with the Secretary of State on May 6, 1902, and the company paid a tax of $12,500 for the privilege of organizing.

The type of cars to be used in the subway when completed gave the Interborough company much concern. Finally two cars were built to illustrate various details of manufacture. The car chosen was to be a wooden frame on a steel bottom, with sides sheathed with copper and the electrical machinery encased in fireproof casing. The length was about 51 feet and the width eight feet eleven and seven-eighths inches. This was four feet longer and four inches wider than the cars used on the Manhattan elevated lines. While the question of multiple doors was considered, the company decided to adhere to the usual plan with platforms and end doors. Contracts were placed for five hundred of these cars during the year.

At the close of the year 1902 the Rapid Transit Commission had 322 men on its engineering payroll. The executive officers of this department were: William Barclay Parsons, Chief Engineer; Geo. S. Rice, Deputy Chief Engineer; Albert Carr, Engineer First Division; Alfred Craven, Engineer Second Division; Beverly R. Value, Engineer Third Division; Eugene Klapp, Engineer Fourth Division; Calvin W. Hendrick, Engineer Sewer Division; St. John Clarke, General Inspector of Designs; W. A. Aiken, General Inspector of Materials; M. J. Farrell, Private Secretary.

The construction work was divided into five divisions, each being placed in charge of a Division Engineer. The First Division covered the work from City Hall north to 41st street and Park Avenue; the Second Division, from Forty-first street north to 104th street and Broadway; the Third Division, from 104th street to the portal of the tunnel at Fort George on the west side, and to the portal of the tunnel at Westchester Avenue on the east side; the Fourth Division, all of the viaduct or elevated railroad work north of the last two mentioned points and the viaduct over Manhattan valley between 125th and 135th streets; the Fifth or Sewer Division, all reconstruction of sewers in streets off the line of the road.

The above divisions were strictly engineering divisions; for construction purposes the work was further divided into sections and each section was awarded to a sub-contractor by the Rapid Transit Subway Construction company.

In all there were seventeen contract sections and as many different sub-contracts, but as some contractors got more than one section the number of sub-contractors was only twelve. They were: The Degnon-McLean Contracting Company; the Holbrook, Cabot and Daly Contracting Company; Ira A. Shaler; Naughton and Company; William Bradley;, Farrell and Hopper; McMullen and McBean; J. C. Rogers; the Terry and Tench Construction Company; E. P. Roberts; John Shields; and L. B. McCabe and Brother. The Degnon-McLean Company, which had the two contracts extending from City Hall to Great Jones and Centre streets, was the first to begin work, which was started on March 24, 1900. Nine other contracts were begun in that year, and the remainder in 1901 and 1902.

The furnishing of materials of construction was also committed to sub-contractors, of whom the leading ones were the American Bridge Company for steel, John Fox and Company for cast iron, the United Building Material Company for cement and the Sicilian Asphalt Paving Company for asphalt, waterproofing and felt. All subcontractors were placed under heavy bonds.

As the contract with the city made it the duty of the contractor to supply all the equipment, including power houses, the Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company purchased a site for the main power house between 58th and 59th streets and Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues and there erected a complete electricity generating plant with a total energy of 90,000 horse power. Property also was purchased for the necessary sub-stations, of which there are eight located in various parts of the territory reached by the road.

In the days since the subway traffic reached a million passengers a day, the statement has been made frequently that it was designed to carry only 400,000 a day. Efforts to verify this statement have failed. George S. Rice, who was Deputy Chief Engineer under Mr. Parsons, asserted that the engineers used no upset figure in calculating the capacity of the line, or rather did not plan a road to carry any estimated number of passengers, but planned to give it as great a carrying capacity as the limitations of the line would permit. There must have been some reason, however, for limiting the length of station platforms, for at first these were built to accommodate seven-car express trains and five car local trains. As the traffic grew the operating company managed to run eight-car express by allowing the front and rear cars to extend past the ends of the station platforms, but later on all platforms had to be lengthened.

Old and New Methods of Building Subways; Upper Broadway During Construction of First Subway.

Careful studies of the existing traffic were made, however, by the Commission's engineers, the results of which are set down in the various annual reports of the board. In the present year (1917) when the last year's travel on all the street railroads was more than 1,800,000,000, it is interesting to note that in 1902, when the subway was under construction, it was about 937,000,000. In other words since the first subway was built the street railroad traffic in fifteen years has about doubled!

By the end of the year 1903 the work was about 90 per cent. completed and the city's expenditure on account of it aggregated more than $30,000,000. In the report for that year the board said the work would have been still further advanced were it not for delays caused by labor strikes both on the road and at the power house.

On January 1, 1903 the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, which was to operate the subway, leased the Manhattan Elevated Railway, then controlled by the Gould interests, for 999 years, the lease taking effect April 1, 1903. The lessee agreed to pay as rental seven per cent. on the capital stock of the lessor, which was $60,000,000. This placed the Interborough company in control of practically all rapid transit lines in Manhattan and the Bronx, for the Manhattan company operated all the elevated railroads in those two boroughs. These lines were the Ninth Avenue, the Sixth Avenue, the Third Avenue and the Second Avenue lines, embracing all the elevated roads built by both the New York Elevated and the Metropolitan Elevated (Gilbert) companies.

Although labor strikes continued during the year 1904 the construction work progressed steadily, and on October 27 of that year operation of the finished portion of the road began. This extended from the City Hall on the south to 145th street and Broadway, on the West side branch, and the occasion was signalized by appropriate ceremonies. The first train over the road started from City Hall station and was operated by Mayor George B. McClellan, who had succeeded Seth Low in the city's chief magistracy as the result of the election of 1903. Mayor McClellan stationed himself in the motorman's closet and manipulated the electric controller during the journey northward. The ceremonies were held in the Aldermanic chamber of the City Hall prior to the starting of the train. At one o'clock the Mayor led a procession into the chamber. He walked with Archbishop John Farley, now a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic church, and following them came Charles V. Fornes, president of the Board of Aldermen, with Coadjutor Bishop David H. Greer, of the Episcopal church; Alexander E. Orr, president of the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners, with Rev. M. J. Lavelle, rector of St. Patrick s cathedral; John H. Starin, Vice President of the Rapid Transit board, with the former Mayor, Robert A. Van Wyck; Controller Edward M. Grout; Deputy Controllers J. W. Stevenson and N. Taylor Phillips; Morris K. Jessup, Woodbury Langdon, John Claflin and Charles Stewart Smith, members of the Rapid Transit board; August Belmont, the financier and John B. McDonald, the builder of the subway; William Barclay Parsons, chief engineer, Edward M. Shepard, Albert B. Boardman and George L. Rives, counsel; George S. Rice, deputy chief engineer and H. A. D. Hollmann, auditor of the board.

President Fornes called the assemblage to order and asked Bishop Greer to offer prayer. After the prayer Mr. Fornes yielded the chair to Mayor McClellan, who made an address, in which he emphasized the importance of the occasion and said that without rapid transit Greater New York would be little more than a geographical expression.

Addresses were then made by Mr. Orr, Mr. Starin, Mr. McDonald, and Mr. Belmont. These addresses are published in full in the annual report of the board for 1904. At their conclusion benediction was pronounced by Archbishop Farley, the Mayor declared the new subway open and received from Mr. Belmont an ornamented controller in a mahogany case with which to start the first train. The ceremonies ended at twenty-four minutes past two o'clock and ten minutes later the first train bearing all the above named officials and many invited guests whirled out of the City Hall station under the guiding hand of Mayor McClellan.

The people took kindly to the new mode of transportation, and within a few days after the opening the subway began to show signs of crowding during the rush hours. There never was a break in the increasing tide of travel and the traffic it has built up is one of the wonders in the world of railroading. Nothing approaching it had ever been recorded.

On December 1, 1904, William Barclay Parsons resigned as Chief Engineer of the Rapid Transit Board. The great work which he had called into being was nearly finished -- the greater part of it in successful operation -- and he desired to resume private practice in his profession. Later he became and still is consulting engineer for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company. The first New York subway stands as a monument to his skill and courage as an engineer. In a conversation in July, 1913, Mr. Parsons said:

"I was thirty-five years of age when I became Chief Engineer of the Rapid Transit Commission. When I look back now I am glad I was not older. I doubt if I could now undertake or would undertake such a work under similar conditions. But I had the enthusiasm of youth and inexperience. Had I fully realized all that was ahead of me, I do not think I could have attempted the work. As it was I was treated as a visionary. Some of my friends spoke pityingly of my wasting time on what they considered a dream. They said I could go ahead making plans, but never could build a practical, underground railroad. This skepticism was so prevalent that it seriously handicapped the work."

Mr. Parsons, who had been an engineer for the Erie railroad, began business in New York City toward the end of the year 1885. He soon became connected with the New York District Railway Company, an offshoot of the old Arcade Railway, which held the old Beach Pneumatic franchise for an underground road in Broadway. The directors of the Arcade Railway quarreled among themselves, and the dissatisfied element organized the New York District Railway. August Belmont was a stockholder in this enterprise and Mr. Parsons became its chief engineer.

"The New York District Railway," said Mr. Parsons,

"was important in its way, for it settled the fundamental law governing the building of a rapid transit railroad. The State constitution provided that no such line could be built without the consents of the local authorities and of a certain proportion of the property owners along the line. Holding that the old Beach franchise was not for a railroad but for a tube 54 inches in diameter, the District Railway applied to the Board of Aldermen of New York City for a franchise for a railroad subway in Broadway. Dominated by Tammany and the elevated railroad interests, the Board of Aldermen refused to make the grant, and the District Railway appealed to the courts. The company contended that the refusal of the local authorities justified it under the Rapid Transit act and the constitution in asking the court for a determination in lieu of their consent. The case was fought to the Court of Appeals, which decided that the consent of the City was vital and that the court determination could serve only in lieu of the consent of property owners. And that is the law today. This decision, rendered in 1886, ended the efforts of the Arcade Railway and the District Railway to build a subway in Broadway."

In December, 1904, George S. Rice was promoted to be Chief Engineer of the Rapid Transit board to succeed Mr. Parsons. This and other changes in the staff made the executive force of the engineering department of the board in 1905 as follows: Chief Engineer, George S. Rice; Deputy Chief Engineer, Alfred Craven; Engineer First Division, George Hallett Clark; Second Division, John H. Myers; Third and Fourth Divisions, C. V. V. Powers; Fifth Division, Frederick C. Noble; Sewer Division, Amos L. Schaeffer; General Inspector of Designs, Sverre Dahm; General Inspector of Materials, W. A. Aiken; General Inspector of Stations, D. L. Turner; Secretary to Chief, M. J. Farrell; Official Photographer, Pierre P. Pullis. The other staff officers of the board were Bion L. Burrows, Secretary, and H. A. D. Hollmann, Auditor.

Mr. Rice remained Chief Engineer, Burrows Secretary and Hollmann Auditor until the board was abolished in 1907 and immediately after the Public Service Commission was created Mr. Rice and Mr. Hollman and most of the engineers mentioned joined its staff and continued their former work. Mr. Burrows went into private business and promoted an unsuccessful installation of a type of mono-rail railroad in the Bronx. He died in 1916.

Other parts of the first subway were opened to traffic as follows: Broadway, 145th to 157th street, November 5, 1904; Lenox Avenue branch, Broadway and Ninety-sixth street to 145th street, November 20, 1904; and from 149th street and Third Avenue along Westchester Avenue and Boston Road to the terminus at 180th street, November 26, 1904. The intervening link from 145th street under the Harlem River to Westchester Avenue was opened later and the remainder of the Broadway line, 157th street to Kingsbridge, in March, 1906.

Exceptionally rapid progress was made on the Manhattan part of the Brooklyn extension, which was completed and ready for operation in about two years after the commencement of work. The line from the Brooklyn Bridge station at City Hall to the Battery was opened in 1905. This section was built under the direct supervision of Albert Carr, Division Engineer for the Rapid Transit board. The rest of the line, including the river tunnel, was built under the direction of Robert Ridgway, also a Division Engineer for the board. Mr. Ridgway later supervised the construction of a part of the Catskill aqueduct for the City and then returned to rapid transit work under the Public Service Commission, with whom he became Engineer in Charge of Subway Construction.

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