A Century of Subways: Celebrating 100 Years of New York's Underground Railways Review

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(More customer reviews)Don't be misled by the title into thinking that this book is mainly about the history of the NYC subway system. While the genesis of the NYC subway is covered, particularly the first IRT line, it forms only a modest part of the book, which also describes the start of the Boston, London, Glasgow and other subways, and the development of the commuter rail network into New York City. The book also dwells a lot on the physical, mechanical and electrical attributes of rolling stock, electricity supply, line construction methods, etc., for the various systems. While this does put the NYC subway system into context, it doesn't make for a particularly "light" read or give the reader an overall perspective on how the entire NYC subway system developed during the past 100 years and its impact on the city.

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"I declare the subway open," said Mayor George B. McClelland at about 2 p.m. on October 27, 1904. His hand on the switch, McClelland drove the new electric-powered cars of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company out of the City Hall station for the ride under Broadway to 145th Street in Harlem.After a decade of digging, New York was moving uptown. And everything began to change. Brian Cudahy offers a fascinating tribute to the world the subway created. Taking a fresh look at one of the marvels of the 20th century, Cudahy creates a vivid sense of this extraordinary achievement- how the city was transformed once New Yorkers started riding in a hole in the ground. The story begins before 1904. For years, everyone knew only a new public transportation system could break the gridlock strangling the most crowded city in America. Cudahy's hero is August Belmont, Jr., the banker who risked a fortune to finance the building of the IRT. Next, Cudahy moves to Boston and London, whose subways were older than New York's, to compare the experiences of these great cities. And he explores the impact of the new IRT on New York's commuter railroads and later on rail transportation from Buffalo to Los Angeles. New York simply would not be possible without its subways. With this spirited salute to the powerbrokers and politicians who planned it and the engineers and laborers who built it, Brian Cudahy helps us remember the real legacy of the subway - and the city it made.

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