"THIS DAY IN HISTORY"

"New York City Subway Opens"
UPDATED: 10/27/2010

At 2:35 on the afternoon of October 27, 1904, New York City Mayor George McClellan takes the controls on the inaugural run of the city's innovative new rapid transit system: the subway.

While London boasts the world's oldest underground train network (opened in 1863) and Boston built the first subway in the United States in 1897, the New York City subway soon became the largest American system. The first line, operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), traveled 9.1 miles through 28 stations. Running from City Hall in lower Manhattan to Grand Central Terminal in midtown, and then heading west along 42nd Street to Times Square, the line finished by zipping north, all the way to 145th Street and Broadway in Harlem. On opening day, Mayor McClellan so enjoyed his stint as engineer that he stayed at the controls all the way from City Hall to 103rd Street.

At 7 p.m. that evening, the subway opened to the general public, and more than 100,000 people paid a nickel each to take their first ride under Manhattan. IRT service expanded to the Bronx in 1905, to Brooklyn in 1908 and to Queens in 1915. Since 1968, the subway has been controlled by the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA). The system now has 26 lines and 468 stations in operation; the longest line, the 8th Avenue "A" Express train, stretches more than 32 miles, from the northern tip of Manhattan to the far southeast corner of Queens.

Every day, some 4.5 million passengers take the subway in New York. With the exception of the PATH train connecting New York with New Jersey and some parts of Chicago's elevated train system, New York's subway is the only rapid transit system in the world that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No matter how crowded or dirty, the subway is one New York City institution few New Yorkers—or tourists—could do without. LINK, Video-Via: Youtube

New York Subway Hero

A 50-year-old man saved a stranger's life on a New York subway. The man was having a seizure, and Wesley Autrey saved him from being run over by covering him with his body. LINK: Youtube

Fast Lane - The Slide

A long staircase. Next to it a slide. Which way would you go? LINK: Youtube

The Most Beautiful Subway Stations in the World

Design Boom has a huge gallery of the most beautiful works of subway station and tunnel architecture across the world. Pictured above is the Solna Centrum metro station in Stockholm, which opened in 1975. Shades of red dominate the artwork of the station, which depicts the social concerns of 1970s Sweden.

Link, Via: Fast Company | Photo: flickr user Erwyn van der Meer, used under Creative Commons license, Via: Neatorama

The Subway Car Room by Michal Tatarkiewicz

For his art exhibition, Michal Tatarkiewicz turned a room into the inside of a subway car! Link | Michal’s website. Via: Neatorama

Subway Stations in Moscow

The Subway in Moscow deserves a special visit. You will have the opportunity to go thru these images and appreciate Moscow's Subway Stations Architecture...
Baumanskaya - Work on the Subway started in 1930 - Its length is approx. 256 km (159Miles), actually the subway has 138 stations, and the most beautiful stations are located near the center of the capital.
A Special Visit is very impressive to the foreign tourists, who will think they're in a museum or even a palace with very spacious hallways. LINK

Israel’s Bizarre Uphill Subway System

it’s called the carmelit, it runs underground in the citry of haifa, israel and it’s the country’s only subway system. due to the city being located on the side of mount carmel, the entire single track ‘funicular’ system has been designed to accommodate the incline, hence the strange stepped stations and diagonal trains. Video below. LINK


Via: Youtube