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

Notes

NOTES Chapter 1: August Belmont and His Subway 1. David McCullough, Mornings on Horseback (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981), 262. McCullough’s work is a study of Theodore Roosevelt, whose first major speech as a member of the New York State Legislature in 1882 was a denunciation of Gould and his acquisition of Manhattan Railways. McCullough, Mornings on Horseback, 262–65. 2. For additional information about Manhattan Railways and the New York elevated lines, see William Fullerton Reeves, The First Elevated Railroads in Manhattan and the Bronx of the City of New York (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1936); see also Robert C. Reed, The New York Elevated (New York: A. S. Barnes, 1978). For a detailed chronology of operational milestones associated with the elevated lines from 1867 through 1955, see ‘‘New York’s El Lines,’’ Electric Railroads, 25 (December 1956). 3. In 1889, two years before it was acquired by Manhattan Railways , Suburban’s main line was 2.98 miles long, and the company owned thirteen steam locomotives plus twenty-six passenger cars. By contrast, Manhattan Railways included 32.4 route miles, owned 291 locomotives and 921 passenger cars. Annual Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners of the State of New York (Albany, N.Y.: James B. Lyon, 1890), 661, 671. 4. For a treatment of the Tweed era in New York politics and Tweed’s dealings with Jay Gould and Manhattan Railways, see Seymour J. Mandelbaum, Boss Tweed’s New York (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1965), 59–73; see also Maury Klein, The Life and Legend of Jay Gould (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986). Klein believes that Manhattan Railways was the ‘‘most incongruous pillar of Gould’s business empire’’ and also suggests that available source materials are insufficient to provide adequate explanation of why he entered the elevated railway business. Klein, Life and Legend of Jay Gould, 282. 5. Klein, Life and Legend of Jay Gould, 474. 6. Gustavus Myers, ‘‘History of Public Franchises in New York City,’’ Municipal Affairs (March 1900):172. 322 NOTES 7. Ibid., 172–73. 8. Mere days before the election, Roosevelt was thought to be substantially ahead of Hewitt. But there was a third-party candidate in the race, Henry George, the nominee of the Labor Party. When George’s campaign appeared to be making serious headway in the final days of the race, there was significant GOP defection from Roosevelt to Hewitt to avoid the possibility of a George victory. For further details, see Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (New York: Modern Library, 2001), 339–59. 9. Mayor Hewitt’s message was printed in its entirety in the New York Times. See ‘‘The Mayor’s Big Scheme,’’ New York Times (1 February 1888):9. No negative implications should be inferred from the newspaper’s use of the word ‘‘scheme’’ in its headline. See also ‘‘The City’s Crying Needs,’’ New York Herald (1 February 1888):4. 10. Hewitt believed that two of the railroad’s four tunnels under Park Avenue north of Grand Central should be converted into rapidtransit facilities. For additional details about the Park Avenue tunnels, see Chapter 4. 11. ‘‘The Mayor’s Big Scheme,’’ 9. 12. New York Times (1 February 1888):9. 13. For additional information about Sprague and his achievements in Richmond and elsewhere, see Brian J. Cudahy, Cash, Tokens and Transfers (New York: Fordham University Press, 1990), 35–50; William D. Middleton, The Time of the Trolley (San Marino, Calif.: Golden West Books, 1987), 5, 65–73. For an account of the development of electric railways by Sprague himself, see Frank J. Sprague, ‘‘Some Personal Experiences,’’ Street Railway Journal (October 8, 1904):566–71. 14. The words are those of Hardin H. Littell, the first president of the American Street Railway Association, delivered on the occasion of the association’s second annual convention. Verbatim Report of the Second Annual Meeting of the American Street-Railway Association (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Office of the Association, 1883–1884), 8. 15. For a comprehensive chronology of political developments that led to the construction of the subway as well as technical details associated with early phases of its construction, see ‘‘The New York Rapid Transit Subway,’’ Street Railway Journal (5 October 1901):425–33; for a series of five articles dealing with various aspects of the subway’s development, see Railroad Gazette (16 September 1904):338–45; for a recent in-depth account, see Clifton Hood, 722 Miles (New York: Simon...