Chapter 15. Rapid Transit Commission Abolished and Succeeded by Public Service Commission

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Fifty Years of Rapid Transit · James Blaine Walker

Public Service Commission, First District, 1907-1911. (1) John E. Eustis; (2) Milo R. Maltbie; (3) Chairman William R. Wilcox; (4) Edward M. Bassett; (5) William McCarroll.

Chapter XV

Rapid Transit Commission Abolished and Succeeded By Public Service Commission.

THE year 1907 will be forever memorable in the transit annals of New York City, for it marked the passing of the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners and the creation of the Public Service Commissions, one of which (the First District Commission) was charged with the old board's powers and duties in respect of rapid transit construction.

Why the change? The reader of history may well ask that question, for it is only answerable by those who lived at the time and witnessed one of the curious phenomena of free government. One would suppose that the Rapid Transit Commission, having triumphed over so many difficulties and successfully built the first subway, would have been crowned with laurel by their contemporaries and continued indefinitely in their official places. Yet precisely the opposite transpired. Instead of being commended, they were condemned, not because they had not done well with the first subway, but because it was such a great success that they had not multiplied it fast enough to suit those who, now that underground travel was a demonstrated success, clamored for new underground roads all over the city! Because the old board had not ended the crush at the Brooklyn Bridge, because it had not built subways into Brooklyn, and Queens and in other parts of Manhattan, it was denounced by the press, which clamored for its abolition.

Giving all due credit to the old Commission, it must be said in fairness that there was some ground for complaint. It procrastinated unduly, deliberating and negotiating when it should have been acting. But it did not deserve the odium heaped upon it. However, a public sentiment against it was created and it had to go. Complaints against the board became so frequent, criticism of its inaction so vociferous that it got a bad name. Before the subway which it had brought into being was two years old, demands in and out of the press were being made for its removal.

Denunciation was at its height when Charles E. Hughes, elected Governor in 1906, began his career as a public officer in January, 1907. To impress upon him the need of action in the transit field, a committee of Brooklyn men invited him to "come and see for himself" the horrors of the crush at the Brooklyn Bridge. The Governor came, saw and was conquered. He assured the Brooklynites that he would do something to end such conditions, and he kept the promise. With his advisers the Governor set to work to devise an agency which in the name of the State should supervise and regulate the corporations performing a public service under franchises granted by the public. The result was the Public Service Commissions act, which passed the Legislature of 1907 and was approved by the Governor as soon as passed. This law created two commissions of five men each, to be appointed by the Governor by and with the consent of the State Senate, and gave them the power to supervise and regulate railroad and street railroad companies, gas and electric light companies etc. both as to their finances and the service rendered. One commission was given jurisdiction over the First District, comprising the City of New York, and the other over the Second District, embracing the rest of the State. The law also repealed the act creating the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners and devolved their duties on the Public Service Commission for the First District. As this rapid transit work was entirely for the benefit of New York City, it was provided that the expenses of this commission, save and except the salaries of the five commissioners, the Secretary and Chief Counsel, should be paid by the City. To attract a fit type of men the salaries of the commissioners were fixed at $15,000 a year each, that of the Secretary at $6,000 and that of Counsel at $10,000. These salaries amounted to $91,000 for each commission. In the Second District all other expenses are paid by the State out of appropriations made by the Legislature; in the First District all other expenses were paid out of the City Treasury. The law was amended in 1916 so as to make payable by the state all expenses of the Commission for the First District except those incurred for rapid transit purposes which were continued as a charge against the City.

Public Service Commissioners 1913. (1) George S. Williams; (2) Edward E. McCall, Chairman; (3) J. Sergeant Cram. Milo R. Maltbie And John E. Eustis Were The Other Members.

The act took effect July 1, 1907, and on that day the First District Commission appointed by Governor Hughes met and organized. It was composed of William R. Willcox, of Manhattan, a lawyer, former Park Commissioner and at the time of his appointment Postmaster of New York; William McCarroll, a business man of Brooklyn; Edward M. Bassett, a lawyer and former member of Congress, of Brooklyn; Milo R. Maltbie, of Manhattan, then Secretary of the Municipal Art Commission; and John E. Eustis, of the Bronx, a lawyer and former Park Commissioner of that borough. Willcox, McCarroll and Eustis were Republicans; Bassett and Maltbie Democrats.

By the terms of the law the new commission took over the staff of the old Rapid Transit board, and the work of the engineers went along, with scarcely any interruption. Additions to the staff were made as rapidly as possible, and in the selections little if any attention was paid to political considerations. The men were chosen for fitness and competency alone. The first appointment made was that of Secretary, and for that position the Commission chose Travis H. Whitney, a lawyer, a Republican and at the time Secretary of the Citizens' Union. He remained Secretary of the First District Commission for nearly nine years and was appointed a member of the Commission by Governor Whitman in 1916.

Abel E. Blackmar, now a Justice of the Supreme Court, was appointed Counsel but he served only one year, when he was appointed and later elected to the Supreme Court bench. He was succeeded by George S. Coleman, who served until 1917, when he was succeeded by William L. Ransom, the present incumbent.

For a time George S. Rice, Chief Engineer of the old board, acted in similar capacity for the commission, but in 1908 he was succeeded by Henry B. Seaman, who served until 1910, when he resigned and Alfred Craven, the Deputy Chief Engineer of the old board, became Acting and later Chief Engineer of the commission, a position he held until 1916 when he was made Consulting Engineer and Daniel L. Turner was appointed Chief Engineer. The Commission fixed the salary of the Chief Engineer at $15,000 and it remained at this figure until 1913, when it was increased to $20,000. In 1916 it was again made $15,000.

One of the first acts of the new Commission was to inaugurate the Interborough-Metropolitan investigation. Clothed with inquisitorial powers by the Legislature and having authority to examine books of account and compel the attendance of witnesses, the Commission immediately received requests for an inquiry into the famous merger. It adopted a resolution for such an investigation and retained the late William M. Ivins, a leading member of the bar, to act as special counsel for the inquiry. Hearings began in August and continued until October, 1907. Officers of the Interborough and Metropolitan companies were examined under oath, and soon the precarious financial condition of the surface lines was exposed. The testimony showed that some of the subsidiary companies of the Metropolitan street railway system had been taken over at extravagant rentals; that others were excessively capitalized; that dividends had been paid out of funds not derived from earnings and that money had been wasted in a variety of ways.

Toward the close of the investigation creditors of the New York City Railway Company, the company which operated the surface lines for the Metropolitan, filed petitions in court alleging insolvency and asking for the appointment of receivers. The petitions were granted and the company went into the hands of receivers, Adrian H. Joline and Douglas Robinson being appointed. Later Frederick W. Whitridge was named separate receiver for the Third Avenue Railroad Company and its subsidiaries. For three years and more the properties underwent rehabilitation and reorganization, emerging finally as the New York Railways Company, which took over the old Metropolitan lines, and the Third Avenue Railway Company, which took over the lines of the Third Avenue Railroad Company. Complete new equipments were purchased and the properties put in first class operating shape.

It was during this investigation that the word "acceleration" was coined into a local meaning. Lemuel E. Quigg, who handled for the Ryan-Whitney interests the publicity campaign in support of the Metropolitan offer to build subways for free transfers to and from the surface lines, was examined as to the methods he employed. He told how he had caused the organization of various civic associations to meet and pass resolutions in favor of the Ryan subway offer; also of hiring lawyers and others to appear at public meetings to advocate the cause. "Did you do anything more?" was one of the questions asked him in this connection by Mr. Ivins. "Yes", replied Mr. Quigg, "I even wrote some of the speeches with which they confounded the arguments of our opponents."

At another time Mr. Ivins asked whether he did all this to influence public sentiment. "Not so much to influence it, as to accelerate it; I think accelerate is the proper word", replied the witness. The press and public seized on the new word as a fitting designation of the effective form of influence employed, and "acceleration" since has been resorted to by numerous parties who sought to influence or arouse public or official sentiment in their favor.

The new board at once began a study of the rapid transit situation, with the view of affording relief at the earliest possible time. It had inherited from the old board four different rapid transit projects -- the Brooklyn extension of the first subway; the Van Cortlandt Park Extension of the Broadway branch of the subway; the Centre Street loop subway and the Fourth Avenue (Brooklyn) subway. It wisely determined to push these projects to completion while devising plans for further amplification of facilities.

Both the Brooklyn and Van Cortlandt Park extensions were in course of construction when the new Commission came into existence. Work on both was continued under the new regime, and pushed to successful completion.

The other two projects were not so far advanced. Contracts for the construction of the Centre Street loop subway had been awarded by the old board, as told in the preceding chapter, but actual work had not been started. The new Commission made radical changes in the plans, enlarging the bore of the subway by providing for a height of fifteen feet as against thirteen feet and for a width of fifteen instead of twelve feet for each track. It also reduced some of the heavy grades provided for in the old plans. The contractors accepted the revised plans and proceeded with the construction of the subway.

In the case of the Fourth Avenue subway in Brooklyn matters were even less advanced. The old board had adopted the route and general plan for this line, which was to run from the Centre Street loop subway in Manhattan over the Manhattan Bridge, under Flatbush Avenue Extension to Fulton Street, under Fulton Street to Fourth Avenue and under Fourth Avenue to Fort Hamilton. It was found that two tracks of the first subway occupied a part of this route in Fulton Street and if made part of the proposed Fourth Avenue line would make it difficult for any company other than the Interborough, the operator of the first subway, to operate it. The new Commission, wishing to produce a line which would be attractive to an independent company, modified the route by diverting it from Fulton Street around through Ashland Place and thence into Fourth Avenue, thus avoiding the Interborough tracks. Meanwhile it had held public hearings on the route and started its engineers to work on detail plans.

At the same time a study was made of the situation in Manhattan and the Bronx, with the view of laying out a new subway. This study was completed during the first six months, and on December 31, 1907, the Commission adopted the Broadway-Lexington Avenue route. This was a combination of routes adopted by the old board, with some modifications. As adopted by the new Commission the Broadway-Lexington Avenue route began at the Battery, ran up Greenwich street to Vesey street, through Vesey to Broadway and up Broadway as far as Ninth street, where it turned eastward through private property to Irving Place, ran up Irving Place into Lexington Avenue and up Lexington Avenue to Harlem River; under the Harlem River by tunnel to Park Avenue and 138th street, the Bronx, where it divided into two branches, one running up Mott, River, Gerard and Jerome Avenues to Woodlawn Road, and the other through 138th street, Southern Boulevard and Westchester Avenue to Pelham Bay Park.

While the engineers were preparing detail plans for this route the Commission studied the financial situation, for the City was close to its constitutional debt limit of ten per cent. of the assessed value of the realty within its boundaries and could not at the time provide funds for such an extensive piece of work. It was estimated that the construction of the Broadway-Lexington route would cost about $50,000,000. As a beginning or path-finder, the Commission decided to advertise for bids for the construction of a part of the Fourth Avenue subway in Brooklyn, estimated to cost about $16,000,000. Advertising was begun in February, 1908, and bids were opened in March for six sections, extending from Manhattan Bridge to Fourth Avenue and Forty-third street, Brooklyn. In May awards were made for the six sections to the lowest bidder in each case, and the contracts were sent to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment.

A Democratic administration controlled the city. George B. McClellan was Mayor and Herman A. Metz Controller. Both had been ex-officio members of the Rapid Transit Commission, and neither looked with particular favor on the new Commission, appointed by a Republican Governor and having a Republican majority. They naturally regarded the building of rapid transit lines in the city a purely local function and did not like to see it entrusted to a State Commission over which the City authorities not only had no control but in which they had not even a representation. The new law provided that all the expenses of the new Commission, aside from the salaries of Commissioners, Secretary and Counsel, should be paid by the City of New York, and yet the City was denied any control of or supervision over such expenses. The Commission was authorized to draw on the Board of Estimate and Apportionment for such expenses, and if the bill were not paid was empowered to apply to the Court to compel payment.

The Fourth Avenue subway contracts were the subject of the first difference. Controller Metz, who in the Rapid Transit Board had been the staunch friend of the Fourth Avenue project, now took a decided stand against it. The contracts as transmitted by the Public Service Commission, were referred to him for certification, and he reported to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment that they proposed to commit the City to an expenditure of $16,000,000, and that the City was so close to the debt limit that he could not certify the contracts. Jefferson M. Levy brought a tax-payer's action for an injunction to restrain the Board of Estimate and the Controller from approving the contracts on account of the City's financial condition. A temporary order was served and action on the contracts was postponed pending the report of Benjamin F. Tracy, whom the Court appointed referee to ascertain the exact borrowing capacity of the City as of June 30, 1908.

About a year later the referee reported that the City on the date named had a clear margin of about $54,000,000, which of course was more than ample to finance the construction of the Fourth Avenue subway. The matter was taken to the Court of Appeals, however, and that tribunal in October, 1909, confirmed the referee's findings. The temporary injunction was immediately dissolved, and the administration, just then facing a general election for new City officers, made haste to approve the contracts and appropriate the necessary funds. Upon this action the Public Service Commission asked the contractors who had put in the lowest bids for the six sections of the work in May, 1908, whether they were prepared to carry out the contracts on the figures then submitted, and on receiving affirmative answers proceeded to execute the contracts. Ground was broken with appropriate ceremonies on November 12, 1909, in Flatbush Avenue Extension, Brooklyn, on one of the contracts of the Bradley Contracting Company, William R. Willcox, chairman of the Public Service Commission turning the first shovel-full of earth. Thereafter the work continued without serious interruption to completion.

Meanwhile the Public Service Commission was seeking in every way to clear the pathway for additional subway building. Two courses were open -- to increase the City's borrowing capacity and to get the law amended so that investment in rapid transit leases would be more attractive to private capital than it was under the Elsberg amendment which limited such leases to twenty years. The Commission found that bonds issued for water works were excluded by the State constitution from the obligations considered in figuring the debt limit, and that this exemption was made because the works were self-supporting properties. There was equal reason, therefore, for exempting the bonds issued for the construction of docks and the city subway, which were also self-supporting. Accordingly the Commission drafted and sent to the Legislature of 1908 an amendment to the constitution providing for the exemption of bonds issued for the docks and the subway.

The promptness with which this was done speaks well for the Public Service Commission. Organized on July 1, 1907, it had not been in office six months when it disclosed the weakness of the city in the matter of borrowing capacity and applied the obvious remedy. Its action later made possible the undertaking of rapid transit expansion on an extensive scale. Constitutional amendments must pass two sessions of the Legislature and then be approved by a vote of the people at a general election before becoming effective, and this amendment was approved successively by the sessions of 1908 and 1909. In the latter year it was submitted to popular vote and duly approved, and the Legislature of 1910 passed the legislation necessary to put it into effect. The immediate result was the expanding of the borrowing capacity of the City of New York by an amount estimated at $120,000,000, and thanks to the prompt action of the new Commission this came at the very time when it was imperatively needed to enable the City to embark upon a generous policy of rapid transit expansion.

During the same period the Commission formulated and sent to Albany many amendments to the Rapid Transit act drafted with the view of lessening the rigors of that statute. The twenty years' lease clause was repealed and instead the Public Service Commission was empowered to make leases of city-owned rapid transit lines for any period deemed advisable. The most important of these amendments were passed in the sessions of 1909 and 1912. In the popular mind it is doubtful if the Commission received any credit for these legislative achievements, yet their importance is unquestionable. Without them and the constitutional change the city would have been absolutely unable to enter upon the comprehensive scheme of subway building later undertaken.

While these matters were pending in the Legislature the new Commission continued its study of the transit situation and sought to devise a comprehensive plan for rapid transit extension in all boroughs of the city. Having adopted the Broadway-Lexington Avenue route for Manhattan and the Bronx, it tried to adapt certain routes in Brooklyn for connection with it. Thus the so-called Tri-borough plan was evolved early in 1908. The City had spent millions in building the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges over the East River, and as yet these bridges were giving no rapid transit service. The Commission wisely decided to put them into use in the new rapid transit system, and made them links in the Tri-borough chain to connect Manhattan and Brooklyn lines. On the Brooklyn side it adopted the Fourth Avenue subway running to Fort Hamilton and Coney Island, and the Broadway-Lafayette subway running from the Williamsburg bridge out Broadway, Brooklyn, to Lafayette Avenue and back through Lafayette Avenue to a junction with the Fourth Avenue subway at Fulton street. The Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges were to be used to connect these lines with the Centre Street loop subway in Manhattan. In 1908 and 1909 the engineers of the Commission prepared detail plans for this system, which, it was estimated, would add 45 miles of new road and cost about $147,000,000.

While the plans were being prepared the Commission sought to ascertain whether any private company would join the city in the new enterprise. Immediately after the Legislature of 1909 passed the amendments to the Rapid Transit act eliminating the twenty years' lease provision the Commission invited proposals from all the prominent street railroad companies. It held large ideas as to the extent of the rapid transit improvements which should be made and felt that, even with the enlarged debt limit, the City would not be able at once to provide all the funds required. Consequently it sought to get private companies who might become bidders for a lease of such lines to contribute out of their own funds toward the cost of construction.

On June 30, 1909, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company submitted a proposal to build third tracks on the Second, Third and Ninth Avenue elevated lines, to lengthen station platforms in the first subway so that ten car express and six car local trains might be operated and to build certain extensions of the subway with its own money, provided the City would authorize their construction as "extra work" under the original McDonald contract for the first subway. The company offered the City the option of building the new subway extensions with its own funds or having them built at the company's expense and operated at a fixed rental like the first subway or under a profit sharing arrangement by dividing profits with the City after paying operating expenses and other costs. In return the company asked for a lease of the new lines to be coterminous with the existing lease of the first subway, which would expire in 1954, and for practically perpetual franchises for the elevated railroad additions.

This proposal provided for the extension of the subway from Forty-second street up Lexington and Third Avenues to and under the Harlem River to a junction with the first subway at 149th street; the extension of the subway on the West Side of Manhattan south from Times Square through Seventh Avenue, Varick Street and West Broadway, Canal Street and the Manhattan Bridge to a junction with the first subway in Brooklyn and two tracks south of Canal Street to Battery Park; also to extend the Sixth and Ninth Avenue elevated line from 149th Street across McCombs Dam bridge and up Jerome Avenue in the Bronx to 194th Street; to extend the Second Avenue elevated road across the Queensboro bridge to Long Island City, and finally to sell to the City and to operate as part of the subway system the Steinway tunnel, owned by Interborough interests, already built under the East River from 42d Street, Manhattan, to Long Island City, in Queens Borough.

The Commission gave long and serious consideration to this offer, but finally rejected it on August 27, 1909, for various reasons, chiefly because it did not provide for an adequate scheme of extension. The Commission in its letter to the company, however, plainly indicated its willingness to consider a further proposal which would more adequately meet the needs of the City. This was the beginning of an exchange of correspondence between the Commission and the company, which lasted for two years. Conferences accompanied the passage of letters, and steady progress was made, although at times the differences between the parties seemed to be irreconcilable.

While these negotiations were being carried on a momentous change and one having an immediate bearing on the rapid transit situation occurred in the City government. In the election of 1909 William J, Gaynor was elected Mayor, and while he was the Tammany candidate, the other City officers and the members of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment were elected by the Fusion forces. The new Board of Estimate, which organized in January 1910, consisted of William J. Gaynor, Mayor; William A. Prendergast, Controller; John Purroy Mitchel, President of the Board of Aldermen; George McAneny, Borough President of Manhattan; A. E. Steers, Borough President of Brooklyn; Cyrus C. Miller, Borough President of the Bronx; Lawrence Gresser, Borough President of Queens, and George Cromwell, Borough President of Richmond. Mr. Gresser was later succeeded as Borough President of Queens by Maurice E. Connolly.

With the advent of the new government the official atmosphere cleared. The new Board of Estimate adopted an attitude of friendliness and co-operation toward the Public Service Commission, and thereafter both boards worked in harmony. The Board of Estimate appointed a special Transit Committee consisting of McAneny, Miller and Cromwell, and this committee worked hand in hand with the Public Service Commission and actively participated in the conferences and negotiations which marked the years 1910 and 1911 as particularly notable for rapid transit progress.

Following the rejection of the Interborough proposal of 1909, the Commission resolved to bring matters to a focus by advertising for bids for the Tri-Borough system, as above outlined. While the engineers were busy preparing detail plans, counsel to the Commission under its direction proceeded to draft the necessary contracts. To test the attitude of private capital toward sharing the construction cost or assuming it altogether, the Commission drew up two different forms of contract -- one providing for construction, equipment and operation by the bidder, in other words a private capital contract, and the other contract for construction alone, the City to bear the cost and to provide an operator later. The contracts were completed during the summer, the required public hearings were held, the detail plans were finished and on September 1, 1910, the Commission began advertising for bids. The bids under the private capital form were set for opening on October 20 and those under the municipal construction form for October 27.

When October 20 came not one bid was received under the form of contract for construction, equipment and operation by private capital, but on October 27 several responsible contractors submitted bids for the construction of various parts of the system. While the private capital contract covered the whole Tri-Borough system, the other form embraced only the Broadway-Lexington Avenue line, the Broadway-Lafayette Avenue line and the Canal Street line, for the reason that the city's funds were limited and it was thought prudent to limit the extent of the bidding to an amount to which it would be safe to commit the City.

While the failure to receive bids for private capital construction was a disappointment, it was not an unexpected result. The Interborough company, which was the most likely bidder, preferred other routes to those embraced in the Tri-Borough system and also objects to the terms of the contract, which were deemed to onerous by the operating company. The Commission, therefore, felt that it would be wise to await another proposal from the company, which indicated that it was ready to make another offer. No action, therefore, was taken on the construction bids received October 27, but they were held under advisement.

The Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company, which operated the so-called McAdoo tunnels under the Hudson River, was then under the management of Hon. William G. McAdoo, who later became Secretary of the Treasury under President Wilson. Mr. McAdoo took up the Tri-Borough matter, and early in November 1910, shortly after the bids were opened, his company submitted to the Public Service Commission a proposition to equip and operate the whole Tri-Borough system if constructed by the City and connected with the Hudson and Manhattan line.

Engineers of Public Service Commission. (1) Daniel L. Turner, Chief Engineer, 1917; (2) Alfred Craven, Chief Engineer, 1912 to 1917; (3) Robert Ridgway, Engineer of Subway Construction.

This offer spurred the Interborough company to further effort, and on December 5, 1910, that company made another proposal, which came so near to meeting the views of the Commission as to the needed extensions that it changed the whole aspect of the situation. While it was under consideration the Hudson and Manhattan company, in accordance with a time limit placed in its letter, withdrew its proposal, leaving only the Interborough offer before the Commission.

This proposal offered to construct certain extensions of the subway to cost $128,000,000, providing the City would contribute $53,000,000 thereof, the extensions to be as follows:

Down Seventh Avenue from Times Square, down Varick street, West Broadway and Greenwich street to the Battery, with a branch from Greenwich street through Liberty street, under the East River to Pineapple street, Brooklyn, and through Pineapple and Fulton streets to a junction with the terminus of the first subway, and an extension from that terminus under Flatbush Avenue to Eastern Parkway and through Eastern Parkway to Buffalo Avenue; also an extension under Lafayette Avenue from Flatbush Avenue to Broadway, Brooklyn.

Also an extension of the first subway from 35th street and Park Avenue under private property at 42d street to Lexington Avenue and up Lexington Avenue to and under the Harlem River to 138th street, whence one branch would run to a connection with the West Farms branch of the subway, and through Mott Avenue, 153d street, and River Avenue to 157th street, with an elevated extension up River Avenue to 162d street where a connection would be made with the proposed Jerome Avenue extension of the Ninth Avenue elevated railroad; another branch to run through 138th street, Southern Boulevard and Whitlock Avenue to Westchester Avenue, continuing as an elevated road over Westchester Avenue to Pelham Bay Park.

Also an elevated extension of the West Farms branch of the subway from its terminus at 180th street out White Plains Road to Gun Hill road, where it would connect with the proposed extension of the Third Avenue elevated line.

It was also proposed that the company should turn over to the City the Steinway tunnel, providing the City would complete it at a cost estimated at $1,500,000. Included in the offer also was the company's previous proposal to add a third track to the Second, Third and Ninth Avenue elevated lines and extend the Ninth Avenue line across the Harlem River and up Jerome Avenue to 194th street -- all at its own expense.

The so-called Steinway tunnel was about completed when the Public Service Commission was created in 1907. It was projected by William Steinway, later Rapid Transit Commissioner, who got a charter for it from the Legislature. This charter was acquired by the New York and Long Island Railroad company, the stock of which was acquired by the Interborough Rapid Transit company, which supplied most of the funds to build the line. Its charter required that it should be in operation by January 1, 1907, but it was not completed by that date, and the City of New York brought suit and had its franchise to operate declared void. The courts, however, held that the title to the physical property remained in the trustees of the New York and Long Island Railroad company, through whom the Interborough company proposed to turn it over to the City for completion. It runs from 42d street, Manhattan, from a point between Lexington and Third Avenues, under 42d street and the East River to Jackson and Van Alst Avenues, Long Island City, in Queens. In 1908 the Interborough company placed its cost up to that time at about $8,000,000. This included nearly $900,000 paid for real estate.

Public Service Commission, 1917. Left to right: Travis H. Whitney, William Hayward, Oscar S. Straus (Chariman), Henry W. Hodge, Charles S. Harvey.

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