Why Novel York Urban Essence Stopped Edifice Subways

From CityLab:

Nearly eighty years ago, a construction standstill derailed the subway’s progress, leading to its acquaint crisis. This is the story, decade past times decade.

In the inaugural of all decades of the 20th century, New York City experienced an unprecedented infrastructure boom. Iconic bridges, opulent railway terminals, together with much of what was hence the world’s largest cloak-and-dagger together with rapid transit network were constructed inward only twenty years. Indeed, that subway organisation grew from a unmarried trace inward 1904 to a network hundreds of miles long past times the 1920s. It spread chop-chop into undeveloped soil across upper Manhattan together with the outer boroughs, bringing a moving ridge of storey houses alongside.

Then it stopped. Since Dec 16, 1940, New York has non opened unopen to other novel subway line, aside from a handful of modest extensions together with connections. Unlike almost other bang-up cities, New York’s rapid transit organisation remains frozen inward time: Commuters on their iPhones are standing inward stations scarcely changed from nearly eighty years ago.

Indeed, inward unopen to ways, things select moved backward. The network is genuinely considerably smaller than it was during the Second World War, together with today’s half-dozen 1000000 daily riders are facing constant delays, infrastructure failures, together with alarmingly crowded cars together with platforms.

Why did New York abruptly terminate edifice subways subsequently the 1940s? And how did a construction standstill that started nearly eighty years agone Pb to the acquaint minute of transit crisis?

Three wide lines of history render an explanation. The inaugural of all is the postwar lure of the suburbs together with the automobile—the embodiment of modernity inward its day. The 2d is the interminable battles of command betwixt the metropolis together with the mortal transit companies, together with betwixt the metropolis together with the nation government. The 3rd is the treadmill created past times ascent costs together with the buildup of deferred maintenance—an ever-expanding maintenance backlog that eventually consumed whatever funds made available for expansion.

To encounter just how together with why New York’s subway went off the rails requires going all the agency dorsum to the beginning. What follows is a 113-year timeline of the subway’s history, organized past times these 3 narratives (with the caveat that no history is fully complete). Follow along chronologically or thematically for the historical context of the system's miserable state, or purpose a playful “map” of the subway's decline.

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1904: First subway opens

The mortal Interborough Rapid Transit society opened the inaugural of all cloak-and-dagger subway trace inward 1904, stretching from West Harlem to Grand Central. After taking over the existing elevated railways, it created a near-monopoly on rapid transit inward Manhattan together with the Bronx. The Brooklyn Rapid Transit society dominated the elevated transit trace organisation inward that borough, also every bit its connections to Manhattan.

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1913: The “Dual Contracts”

In an understanding called the “Dual Contracts,” the metropolis entrusted the 2 mortal subway companies with a radical expansion of the system. Almost immediately, municipal leaders regretted the decision. Many were dissatisfied with the fiscal render from the investment of over $200 million—more than one-half the total terms of construction.

The dispute went beyond mere finance, however: The subway became a symbol of the battle betwixt world together with mortal interest, together with a populist criterion for a succession of mayors. Their almost of import leverage was command of the subway fare: By refusing to allow the mortal companies accuse to a greater extent than than a nickel for decades, inflation meant that inward 1948 riders were effectively paying less than one-half what they had been paying inward 1904....

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