722 miles

by Clifton Hood

"The building of the New York City subway system was an epic struggle, and not just for engineering reasons." "As New York grew in importance throughout the nineteenth century, geography imposed physical limits on the city. Manhattan was a narrow and crowded island, with a huge population jammed into its southern tip. By the 1880s surface transportation on Manhattan streets was impossibly slow, and the city's business leadership realized that improved transportation was vital to its future. Mayor Abram S. Hewitt, a wealthy businessman, proposed a subway system, and Hewitt and other prominent businessmen established the political and financial framework for the city's first subway, which opened in 1904." "Hugely popular from its inception, the subway quickly became overcrowded. Expansion of the system was hindered by the autocratic August Belmont, a wealthy banker who operated and controlled the IRT subway. Belmont's efforts to preserve his transportation monopoly precipitated a confron