Grand Central's Engineer: William J. Wilgus and the Planning of Modern Manhattan

CHAPTER FOUR. Expanding the Subway in Manhattan

106 4 new york’s transportation challenges extended beyond the need for roads and rail lines tying the city with the rest of the country and with the city’s growing suburban areas on Long Island, in Westchester County, and across the Hudson in northern New Jersey. Over 500,000 people lived in Manhattan in 1850; by 1880 the population had doubled to 1,164,673, dramatically increasing the need for better transportation on Manhattan Island. Over a number of decades, different modes of transportation evolved to move passengers more efficiently on the city streets, above the streets, and eventually below the streets. From the humble omnibus in 1827 to the opening of the city’s first subway, the Interborough Rapid Transit, in 1904, public and private investors created a complex transit system with a history riddled with layers of political intrigue and corporate machinations. EXPANDING THE SUBWAY IN MANHATTAN When the IRT began service, the subway seemed to offer truly rapid transit and to be the ideal solution to moving passengers around the most crowded island in the world. The story of the New York City subway system involves a convoluted tale. Clifton Hood’s masterful history of the city’s subways, 722 Miles, details the difficulty of financing, building, and operating what eventually came to be the largest subway system in the world.1 The first subway was an immediate success, with hundreds of thousands of riders each day, and led to demands for an expanded system, not only in Manhattan, but out to the other boroughs. For the next nine years a battle royal ensued over how and where and by whom to expand the subway. Never hesitant, in 1909 Wilgus stepped into the subway controversy and proposed building a combined passenger and freight subway and an elevated railroad to encircle lower Manhattan. With the Amsterdam Corporation’s proposal for a small-car freight subway still officially before the Public Service Commission, Wilgus presented the commission with another bold plan to expand subway service and at the same time solve the city’s west side freight problem. Wilgus argued: “No system appears to have been devised for efficiently caring for internal circulation on the Island, between various rail and water terminals now established or proposed in connection with future subways and bridges.”2 EXPANDING THE SUBWAY IN MANHATTAN 107 His proposed “Inter-Terminal Belt Line” would connect all major terminals, bridges, and ferries to move people around the city much more efficiently, especially in lower Manhattan. Wilgus dismissed previous efforts to improve passenger circulation in Manhattan. For well over half a century a series of new transportation technologies had improved transportation on the island, but none had provided a perfect solution to “internal circulation.” Manhattan Brooklyn Manhattan Brooklyn H U D S O N R I V E R E A S T R I V E R Grand Central 58th St. Pennsylvania Station Westchester Long Island Grand Central 58th St. Pennsylvania Station Canal Street Canal Street NYC PRR PRR Long Island Queensboro Bridge Belmont Tunnel Williamsburg Bridge Manhattan Bridge Brooklyn Bridge P r e s e n t S u b w ay Elevated Subway NYC PRR New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Pennsylvania Railroad Severn RR piers & freight terminals Atlantic steamship lines Coastwise Long Island Sound & New England Hudson River lines Ferries to New Jersey Coastwise to south Ferries to Brooklyn Coastwise Long Island Sound & New England lines NYC NYC Wilgus’s proposed InterTerminal Belt Line, 1909: connecting piers along the Hudson River south of 58th Street, piers and bridges along the East River, and subway connections to Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station. 108 GRAND CENTRAL’S ENGINEER Improving Internal Circulation on Manhattan Island Mass transportation in New York City began in 1827, when horse-drawn wagons with benches for passengers—omnibuses—appeared on Broadway, carrying passengers between Battery Park and Canal Street. The omnibus provided transportation along a fixed route for a standard fare and facilitated the settlement of areas of the city to the north of lower Manhattan. Soon, omnibuses were available on all of the city’s north-south avenues and on many cross streets. While an improvement over walking, the omnibuses added to the overall congestion on the city streets, competing for space with horse-drawn drays carrying freight, private coaches, and hackney cabs for hire. As the Times reported, “So numerous have [omnibuses] become...