Tunneling to the Future: The Story of the Great Subway Expansion That Saved New York

by Peter Derrick

Overview

A look into the 1913 subway expansion project that "proved the city's physical salvation"

In 1910, New York City was bursting at the seams as more and more people crowded into a limited supply of housing in the tenement districts of Manhattan and the older areas of Brooklyn. With no outlet for its exploding population, and the burgeoning social problems created by the overwhelming congestion, New York faced a serious crisis which city and state leaders addressed with dramatic measures. In March 1913, public officials and officers of the two existing rapid transit networks shook hands to seal a deal for a greatly expanded subway system which would more than double the size of the two existing transit networks.

At the time the largest and most expensive single municipal project ever attempted, the Dual System of Rapid Transit set the pattern of growth in New York City for decades to come, helped provide millions of families a better quality of life, and, in the words of Manhattan borough president George McAneny (1910-1913), "proved the city's physical salvation." It stands as that rare success story, an enormously complicated project undertaken against great odds which proved successful beyond all measure.

Published in conjunction with the History of the City of New York Project.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814719107
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2001
Pages:	442
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.09(d)

About the Author

Peter Derrick is Archivist for the Bronx County Historical Society.

Table of Contents

1 Never Enough: The Beginnings of Rapid Transit in New York

2 The Deadlock over More Subways, 1902–1909

3 Rapid Transit to Save New York

4 Stumbling toward a Solution

5 The Dual System of Rapid Transit

6 The Battle over Financing the Dual System

7 Impact of the Dual System

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

-,

"An exceptional history . . . Derrick's well-written narrative is packed with thoroughly researched facts and reasoning."

-Library Journal,

"...a valuable case study in the micropolitics of one of the Progressive era's signature projects."

-The Wall Street Journal,

"[An] excellent addition to the literature of the city's planning, development and economics."

-Publishers Weekly,

"As the most detailed and thorough account available of the dual system, Derrick's book has improved out understanding of rapid transit politics and urban planning."

-The Journal of American History,June 2002

Editorial Reviews

"As the most detailed and thorough account available of the dual system, Derrick's book has improved out understanding of rapid transit politics and urban planning."

-The Journal of American History,June 2002

"An exceptional history . . . Derrick's well-written narrative is packed with thoroughly researched facts and reasoning."

-Library Journal

"Reveals not only the details of the subway movement's slow progress in the political arena, but the process of coming to terms with the private subway companies and their financial backers in 1913.”

-Choice

"[An] excellent addition to the literature of the city's planning, development and economics."

-Publishers Weekly

"...a valuable case study in the micropolitics of one of the Progressive era's signature projects."

-The Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

As the most detailed and thorough account available of the dual system, Derrick's book has improved our understanding of rapid transit politics and urban planning.

Journal of American History

Reveals not only the details of the subway movement's slow progress in the political arena, but the process of coming to terms with the private subway companies and their financial backers in 1913.

Choice

In 1913, more than two-thirds of New York City's residents lived in tenements and the Lower East Side had the highest population density in the world, housing approximately 600,000 people in less then two square miles. Contagious diseases such as TB were rampant, and the infant mortality rate in the Italian community had grown to 71%. In response to these dangerous conditions, city officials decided to double the mileage of New York's subway lines (which first opened in 1904) and triple their capacity, to encourage people to move uptown and into the outer boroughs. Derrick, the archivist for the Bronx County Historical Society, has produced a rousing history of the myriad struggles to build these lifesaving additions to the city's rapid transit system. Charting the fights between the city and privately owned transit companies (the two were sharing the cost of the subway system's expansion), he shows how the popular Hearst press and other media attacked the private companies for greed, while the companies themselves discovered that the new subway lines would not be as immediately profitable as they had planned. Derrick carefully explicates the impact of these rapid transit extensions on the city's economy, housing, jobs, neighborhood development and human interactions. Writing in a clear, compelling style, he constructs his history within the framework of several disciplines. Though the level of detail may overwhelm general readers, those already knowledgeable about New York political and social history will welcome this excellent addition to the literature of the city's planning, development and economics. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Set in America's centum transportare, the century that saw the ascendancy of a national highway system and commercial flight, this is an exceptional history of the development of the unglamorous underground transportation system critical to the expansion of New York City. Bronx County Historical Society Archivist Derrick complements Clifton Hood's 722 Miles (S. & S., 1993) with a precise recounting of this little-known story, exploring the political and economic indecision that preceded the subway's building at a time when the very survival of the nation's largest city its teeming tenements a catalyst for poverty, disease, and crime seemed threatened. He depicts ego-driven decision makers unable to meet the most crucial needs of New Yorkers, until finally someone who understood the purpose of government emerged from the faceless crowd to guide the project. Derrick's well-written narrative is packed with thoroughly researched facts and reasoning. Occasional digressions into details of proposed tunnel locations slow down the narrative, but in the end, Derrick boldly describes this extraordinarily complex project as "the most important decision made by New York's government in the twentieth century." An excellent addition to any large collection of American history. John E. Hodgkins, Yarmouth, ME Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Derrick (archivist, Bronx County Historical Society) tells the story of what was, at the time, the largest and most expensive single municipal project ever attempted<-->the 1913 expansion of the New York City Dual System of Rapid Transit. He considers the factors motivating the expansion, the process of its design, the controversies surrounding financing it, and its impact on New York then and today. Appendixes summarize the contracts and related certificates and list the opening dates of Dual System lines. Twenty-four pages of photographs are also included. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Derrick's insights-particularly in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center-are useful in reflecting on New York City's history and its resilient sense of building and moving forward.

The Connecticut Post

No other historian has identified so important a piece of the city's history, on which so little is known, and written so lucidly about it. This is not just enjoyable history. You cannot understand New York today without reading this book.

Bronx County Historical Society Journal