Transportation
Happy Birthday, New York City Subway!
Today in 1904, NYC opened its first underground line, inspiring the biggest building boom in city history—and a spoof by Thomas Edison.
By the end of the 19th century, New York City's Lower East Side housed over half a million people per square mile. With vermin-infested tenements and rampant disease due to bad sanitation, “Staying clean in a neighborhood filled with horse stables, brothels, slaughterhouses and saloons was impossible,” writes transit historian Doug Most. Also difficult: Commuting to work to another neighborhood by horse.
New York needed to move and breathe. In 1894, the city signed the Rapid Transit Act into law, and began planning its first line, boasting to constituents that they'd be able to travel "from City Hall to Harlem in 15 minutes."