The New York Subway | Page 9

Nicoll, Walter G. Oakman, John Peirce, Wm. A.
Read, Cornelius Vanderbilt, George W. Wickersham, and George W.
Young.
The incorporators of the Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company
were Charles T. Barney, August Belmont, John B. McDonald, Walter
G. Oakman, and William A. Read.
[Illustration: (wings)]
[Illustration: EXTERIOR VIEW OF POWER HOUSE]
CHAPTER I
THE ROUTE OF THE ROAD--PASSENGER STATIONS AND

TRACKS
The selection of route for the Subway was governed largely by the
amount which the city was authorized by the Rapid Transit Act to
spend. The main object of the road was to carry to and from their
homes in the upper portions of Manhattan Island the great army of
workers who spend the business day in the offices, shops, and
warehouses of the lower portions, and it was therefore obvious that the
general direction of the routes must be north and south, and that the line
must extend as nearly as possible from one end of the island to the
other.
The routes proposed by the Rapid Transit Board in 1895, after
municipal ownership had been approved by the voters at the fall
election of 1894, contemplated the occupation of Broadway below 34th
Street to the Battery, and extended only to 185th Street on the west side
and 146th Street on the east side of the city. As has been told in the
introductory chapter, this plan was rejected by the Supreme Court
because of the probable cost of going under Broadway. It was also
intimated by the Court, in rejecting the routes, that the road should
extend further north.
It had been clear from the beginning that no routes could be laid out to
which abutting property owners would consent, and that the consent of
the Court as an alternative would be necessary to any routes chosen. To
conform as nearly as possible to the views of the Court, the
Commission proposed, in 1897, the so called "Elm Street route," the
plan finally adopted, which reached from the territory near the General
Post-office, the City Hall, and Brooklyn Bridge Terminal to
Kingsbridge and the station of the New York & Putnam Railroad on the
upper west side, and to Bronx Park on the upper east side of the city,
touching the Grand Central Depot at 42d Street.
Subsequently, by the adoption of the Brooklyn Extension, the line was
extended down Broadway to the southern extremity of Manhattan
Island, thence under the East River to Brooklyn.
The routes in detail are as follows:

[Sidenote: _Manhattan-Bronx Route_]
Beginning near the intersection of Broadway and Park Row, one of the
routes of the railroad extends under Park Row, Center Street, New Elm
Street, Elm Street, Lafayette Place, Fourth Avenue (beginning at Astor
Place), Park Avenue, 42d Street, and Broadway to 125th Street, where
it passes over Broadway by viaduct to 133d Street, thence under
Broadway again to and under Eleventh Avenue to Fort George, where
it comes to the surface again at Dyckman Street and continues by
viaduct over Naegle Avenue, Amsterdam Avenue, and Broadway to
Bailey Avenue, at the Kingsbridge station of the New York & Putnam
Railroad, crossing the Harlem Ship Canal on a double-deck drawbridge.
The length of this route is 13.50 miles, of which about 2 miles are on
viaduct.
Another route begins at Broadway near 103d Street and extends under
104th Street and the upper part of Central Park to and under Lenox
Avenue to 142d Street, thence curving to the east to and under the
Harlem River at about 145th Street, thence from the river to and under
East 149th Street to a point near Third Avenue, thence by viaduct
beginning at Brook Avenue over Westchester Avenue, the Southern
Boulevard and the Boston Road to Bronx Park. The length of this route
is about 6.97 miles, of which about 3 miles are on viaduct.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE LINES OF THE
INTERBOROUGH RAPID TRANSIT CO. 1904]
At the City Hall there is a loop under the Park. From 142d Street there
is a spur north under Lenox Avenue to 148th Street. There is a spur at
Westchester and Third Avenues connecting by viaduct the Manhattan
Elevated Railway Division of Interborough Rapid Transit Company
with the viaduct of the subway at or near St. Ann's Avenue.
[Sidenote: Brooklyn Route]
The route of the Brooklyn Extension connects near Broadway and Park
Row with the Manhattan Bronx Route and extends under Broadway,
Bowling Green, State Street, Battery Park, Whitehall Street, and South

Street to and under the East River to Brooklyn at the foot of Joralemon
Street, thence under Joralemon Street, Fulton Street, and Flatbush
Avenue to Atlantic Avenue, connecting with the Brooklyn tunnel of the
Long Island Railroad at that point. There is a loop under Battery Park
beginning at Bridge Street. The length of this route is about