III. TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION Railroads and Rapid Transit.—The problem of transporta tion and communication in New York City is unique because of the extraordinary concentration in certain regions. The New York Central and Hudson river and West Shore railways follow closely the Erie canal route to Buffalo. The Erie, the Lehigh Valley, the Pennsylvania and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railways reach Buffalo by routes across New Jersey, Pennsylvania and western New York. The New York, New Haven and Hartford railway affords communication with New England ; and the Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore and Ohio railways, with the middle-western and south-eastern parts of the country. The Central railroad of New Jersey and the Long Island railway (belonging to the Pennsylvania), are primarily local. The New York Central and the New York, New Haven and Hartford rail ways have a common terminal in Manhattan (Grand Central station), at 42nd street and Park avenue, and the Pennsyl vania has its great terminal at 32nd street and Seventh avenue, with tunnels to Long Island and New Jersey. The Pennsylvania terminal is used also as a terminal by the Long Island railway which has another terminal at Atlantic and Flatbush avenues in the borough of Brooklyn. The other railway terminals are on the New Jersey bank of the Hudson and are reached either by tunnel, ferries or subways. Elevated or subway systems are operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit Co., the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Co., and the city itself. The subways were built mostly since 1913. Steam locomotives were used on the first ele vated railroad, which forms that part of the present Ninth avenue elevated railway extending from Battery Place near the southerly end of Manhattan to 3oth street. This piece of construction was opened for traffic in 1870, and was slightly over 3 m. in length. The next decade witnessed its growth to 32.5 route miles of track forming four separate transit lines extending north and south on Manhattan; three reached the Harlem river and one ended at 59th street. These lines were entirely private enterprises, built and oper ated over the public streets under perpetual franchises granted by the State legislature. For the next 20 years, there were no exten
sions to the rapid transit lines on Manhattan, but some progress was made in other boroughs—the Third avenue "L" in Manhattan was extended across the Harlem river as far as 169th street by 1888, to 177th street by 1891, to Fordham road by 1901 and to its terminus at Bronx park by 1902. In the Borough of Brooklyn, the first elevated, the Lexington avenue line, having a route length of about 6 m. was opened in 1885. This line was extended and other lines built until by 1900 the Brooklyn system had a route length of 62 miles. In 1902, the motive power of these elevated lines was changed from steam to electricity. In 1900 the first "subway" was planned and finally extended from the Bronx, through Manhattan, to Brooklyn, under the East river. This rapid transit system was a municipal undertaking, its construction cost being entirely defrayed by the sale of bonds issued by the City of New York. Between 1908-10 two tubes under the Hud son river connecting Manhattan with Hoboken (terminus of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western), and Jersey City (terminus of the Erie, Pennsylvania and Central of New Jersey railways) and a connecting tube which extends up Sixth avenue from Cort landt street to 33rd street were completed. In 1913 the city en tered into contracts to create two interborough rapid transit sys tems, each comporting extensions to the existing lines; the one provided for a new Lexington avenue line and the extension of the west side subway down Seventh avenue to lower Manhattan and thence under the East River to Brooklyn. Another contract included a four-track subway on Broadway and Seventh avenue, Manhattan, extending through tunnels to Brooklyn and Queens. The operating contracts made with the two companies run for 49 years, dating from Jan. r, 1919, and from Aug. r, 1920, respec tively. In 1925, the city began building an independent subway system, the main unit of which, the 8th avenue line, commenced operation in 1932. With the aid of WPA funds this work was pushed rapidly forward until by the end of 1936 only the Sixth avenue line remained to be constructed.