![]() ![]() Nonetheless, Beach's pneumatic subway helped to demonstrate the practicality of constructing an underground railroad in Manhattan. Although Beach received a charter to extend the line from the Battery to Columbus Circle, the Panic of 1873 and innovations in electric traction motors left the pneumatic subway as a short-lived public demonstration project. An eight-foot (2.4 m) long car that could carry 18 passengers was blown through the tunnel by a 100 horsepower (74.5 kW) fan the blower was reversed to create a partial vacuum and suck the car back through the tunnel. Constructed by inventor Alfred Ely Beach, the editor of Scientific American, the subway was driven by pneumatic power. The City's first subway opened back in 1870, a short underground tunnel under Broadway that stretched 312 feet (95 m) from Warren Street to Murray Street near City Hall. ![]() Fortunately, practical electric power arrived on the scene and underground railways soon became a possibility. Engineers looked to an underground solution to add new transportation lines, eliminating the nuisances caused by elevated railroads in the densely populated Manhattan, such as noise, smoke, and a lack of sunlight to the street below. 6) Line.Īs New York City grew and expanded in the nineteenth century its transportation facilities advanced from horse-drawn streetcars to elevated trains pulled by steam locomotives, but late in the century these facilities were being taxed beyond capacity. Now closed to the public, the station is used by local trains turning around on the IRT Lexington Avenue (No. The City Hall Station in Manhattan was the beginning of the first New York City Subway. ![]()
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