How the New York subway was built: 'most of the work was done by hand'

Today the subway is the most popular form of transportation in New York. Before him there was a pneumatic metro - an experimental project that was not destined to be fully realized. About how the subway was built and what difficulties the builders faced, the author of the "Ideological Inspirator" channel told on the website Yandex Zen.

With the beginning of the development of New York in the second half of the XNUMXth century, the first transport problems appeared. To solve them, the city authorities began to actively build railways. However, this did not improve the situation.

Before the metro in New York, there was a 95-meter tunnel - the so-called pneumatic railway, the rolling stock of which was set in motion by the energy of compressed air. It was more of an experimental project. “However, in the first week, 11 thousand citizens took advantage of it, and a year later - almost half a million people. Everything worked until 1898, and then it burned down in a fire, ”the author writes.

In the same year, engineer William Parsons proposed a new subway project, which was quickly approved. But one problem could prevent its implementation. The fact is that monolithic rocks, lying at a depth of 4 to 6 meters, complicated the work tenfold. Therefore, the engineer suggested building tunnels where possible - under city streets. And in order not to waste energy trying to break through the ground, he proposed to build elevated stations on supports.

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This is how the construction of the New York subway began. In those days, the technologies available to modern people were not yet available, so most of the work was done manually.

The first subway line was built in four years. The official opening of the metro took place on October 27, 1904. By that time, 24 stations had already been opened. And in 1905, seven more were opened.

The first line was built by IRT. Then another company entered the market, BRT, which owned ground transportation in Brooklyn. Fierce competition for construction began between the two companies.

In 1913, the city government signed contracts with both companies. “Construction went not so actively, capital grew significantly, which did not suit the authorities,” the author writes.

In 1932, the state-owned company IND was established. In 1940, it bought out the private companies of competitors, BRT and IRT, forming a single whole. “The problem was that IRT, which was actively building the first line, acted according to its own standards: it used narrow platforms and carriages that other trains could not walk on. They do not intersect with the rest of the routes, and on the map they began to be designated by numbers, while the lines IND and BRT - by letters, ”the author explained.

The construction of future stations has slowed down. Many ground stations were demolished because they were useless.

In 1953, the New York City Transportation Authority was formed. Thanks to this, the state gained full control over the metro, excluding the influence of private companies.

And from 1953 to 1999, 23 new stations were opened in the city.

“The structure of the New York subway is in many ways different from those that were built in the Soviet Union. For example, there are lines and routes. The line, as in our metro, is a section of the subway with several stations. Lines - 36. A route is the movement of a train from one terminal to another, but along different lines. There are 28 routes, ”the author specifies.

There are also three S shuttle routes: the Franklin Avenue shuttle, the 42nd Street shuttle, and the Rockaway Park shuttle. “The J / Z route operates on the skip-scop principle, that is, two trains can travel in one direction. The first stops at some stations, the second at others. This was done in order to quickly pass the section of the path, as opposed to the usual movement (stops at each station), ”we read from the author.

On many lines, four paths operate simultaneously. External - are intended for local trains (stop at all stations), internal - for express trains (stop only at some stations). The maximum number of carriages on a train does not exceed 11.

“A single trip will cost 200 rubles ($ 2,70 at the exchange rate at the time of publication of the material. - Ed.), while another two hours can be taken by bus. The tokens were canceled in 2003, and plastic cards came to replace them. Unlimited travel for a month costs about 9200 rubles (almost $ 124).

Here are some more facts about the New York subway: gauge - European standard, 1435 mm; length of routes - 394 km; the length of all lines is 1070 km; in total, about 60% of the station is underground, the rest are ground or above ground.

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The New York subway operates XNUMX hours a day, but some stations close at night.

There are also problems affecting the Big Apple subway. Among them are unsanitary conditions, noise and flooding. “The noise level is higher than the permissible level, on average 95 dB inside the car. Plus frequent hurricanes and floods. The city authorities spend enormous amounts of money on pumping out water and eliminating the consequences of flooding the stations. And also rats. There are huge accumulations of them, they can dig in garbage cans right at the stations, ”the author details.

Nevertheless, the subway in New York is the most popular form of transport. It ranks seventh in the world in terms of annual passenger traffic - 1,698 billion people.

By the way, before the era of air conditioning, New Yorkers spent most of their time in the ... subway in the summer. A huge crowd gathered there, while many were not going to go anywhere - they just wanted feel the underground coolness.