The New York Subway | Page 3

limit permitted a contract for the work, because
if the limit should be exceeded, "no liability could possibly be imposed
upon the city," a view which might comfort the timid taxpayers but
could hardly be expected to give confidence to the capitalists who
might undertake the execution of the contract.
Various corporations, organized during the thirty odd years of
unsuccessful attempts by the city to secure underground rapid transit,
claimed that their franchises gave them vested rights in the streets to
the exclusion of the new enterprise, and they were prepared to assert
their rights in the courts. (The Underground Railroad Company of the
City of New York sought to enjoin the building of the road and carried
their contest to the Supreme Court of the United States which did not
finally decide the questions raised until March, 1904, when the subway
was practically complete.)
Rival transportation companies stood ready to obstruct the work and
encourage whomever might find objection to the building of the road.
New York has biennial elections. The road could not be completed in
two years, and the attitude of one administration might not be the
attitude of its successors.
The engineering difficulties were well-nigh appalling. Towering
buildings along the streets had to be considered, and the streets
themselves were already occupied with a complicated network of

subsurface structures, such as sewers, water and gas mains, electric
cable conduits, electric surface railway conduits, telegraph and power
conduits, and many vaults extending out under the streets, occupied by
the abutting property owners. On the surface were street railway lines
carrying a very heavy traffic night and day, and all the thoroughfares in
the lower part of the city were congested with vehicular traffic.
Finally, the city was unwilling to take any risk, and demanded millions
of dollars of security to insure the completion of the road according to
the contract, the terms of which were most exacting down to the
smallest detail.
The builders of the road did not underestimate the magnitude of the
task before them. They retained the most experienced experts for every
part of the work and, perfecting an organization in an incredibly short
time, proceeded to surmount and sweep aside difficulties. The result is
one of which every citizen of New York may feel proud. Upon the
completion of the road the city will own the best constructed and best
equipped intraurban rapid transit railroad in the world. The efforts of
the builders have not been limited by the strict terms of the contract.
They have striven, not to equal the best devices, but to improve upon
the best devices used in modern electrical railroading, to secure for the
traveling public safety, comfort, and speedy transportation.
The road is off the surface and escapes the delays incident to congested
city streets, but near the surface and accessible, light, dry, clean, and
well ventilated. The stations and approaches are commodious, and the
stations themselves furnish conveniences to passengers heretofore not
heard of on intraurban lines. There is a separate express service, with
its own tracks, and the stations are so arranged that passengers may
pass from local trains to express trains, and vice versa, without delay
and without payment of additional fare. Special precautions have been
taken and devices adopted to prevent a failure of the electric power and
the consequent delays of traffic. An electro pneumatic block signal
system has been devised, which excels any system heretofore used and
is unique in its mechanism. The third rail for conveying the electric
current is covered, so as to prevent injury to passengers and employees

from contact. Special emergency and fire alarm signal systems are
installed throughout the length of the road. At a few stations, where the
road is not near the surface, improved escalators and elevators are
provided. The cars have been designed to prevent danger from fire, and
improved types of motors have been adopted, capable of supplying
great speed combined with complete control. Strength, utility, and
convenience have not alone been considered, but all parts of the
railroad structures and equipment, stations, power house, and electrical
sub-stations have been designed and constructed with a view to the
beauty of their appearance, as well as to their efficiency.
The completion of the subway marks the solution of a problem which
for over thirty years baffled the people of New York City, in spite of
the best efforts of many of its foremost citizens. An extended account
of Rapid Transit Legislation would be out of place here, but a brief
glance at the history of the Act under the authority of which the subway
has been built is necessary to a clear understanding of the work which
has been accomplished. From 1850 to 1865 the street surface horse
railways were sufficient for the requirements of