Engineering the NYC Subway System

Engineering the NYC Subway System — page 3 — PERSPECTIVES A LONG WAIT The New York City subway system has long had difficulties keeping up with increasing ridership The East Side in particular has been plagued by overcrowding and delays In 1920 officials made a plan to ease the problem They would build a Second Avenue subway line But the project was postponed several times Many New Yorkers were skeptical it would ever be built The first phase of the project finally opened for service on January 1 2017 It is New York City’s biggest subway expansion in 50 years When all phases are complete the Second Avenue line will extend service along Manhattan’s East Side by 8 5 miles 13 7 km 6 stand away from the platform edge The train doors open wide A river of travelers flows onto the platform Waiting passengers nudge their way into the train When each subway car is packed the doors shut The train clacks off to the next station The Times Square 42nd Street station lies at the heart of midtown Manhattan It is New York City’s busiest subway station Each year more than 66 million passengers

Engineering the NYC Subway System — page 4 — get on and off at Times Square The New York City subway system has a total of 472 stations This is the most of any subway system in the world THE SUBWAY NEVER SLEEPS New York City cannot function without its subway system Workers shoppers and sightseers rely on it 24 hours a day In 2015 more than 1 7 billion passengers rode its 661 miles 1,063 km of rails More than half of the system lies underground Interest in building subways began in the mid-1800s Many major cities worldwide were overcrowded Traffic jams were common City leaders decided to build underground transportation tunnels Traveling underground would relieve crowding on busy streets In 1863 the world’s first subway system opened in London England New York City was also suffering from jam-packed streets But its first subway would not open until October 27 1904 7

Engineering the NYC Subway System — page 5 — Some portions of the subway system include above-ground sections of track Most people who ride the subway probably do not give much thought to how it was built The creation of the New York City subway system was a long and complex feat of engineering Civil engineer William Barclay Parsons took on the challenge As chief engineer Parsons planned and oversaw every phase of construction Parsons’s deputy chief engineer was George S Rice Rice had previous experience with 8

Engineering the NYC Subway System — page 6 — building subways He had supervised the construction of the subway system in Boston Massachusetts Parsons and his team were highly skilled engineers They set out to solve New York City’s transportation problems The engineers calculated the pressure that soil rock and water would exert on subway tunnels They considered the weight of streets and vehicles as well as the weight of trains and passengers 9

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