#109 New York City Subway, Part 1: Birth of the IRT

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Places & Travel

4.8 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2010

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the fourth part of our transportation series BOWERY BOYS ON THE GO, we finally take a look at the birth of the New York City subway. After decades of outright avoiding underground transit as a legitimate option, the city got back on track with the help of August Belmont and the newly formed Interborough Rapid Transit. We'll tell you about the construction of the first line, traveling miles underground through Manhattan and into the Bronx. How did the city cope with this massive project? And what unfortunate accident nearly ripped apart a city block mere feet from Grand Central Station? www.boweryboyspodcast.com Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	Episode 109 of The Bowery Boys, building the New York City subway.
0:05.1	Hey, it's The Bowery Boys!
0:06.7	Hey!
0:07.7	The Bowery Boys is brought to you by urochipo.com.
0:12.7	Urochipo editors personally visit and review the best budget hotels in Europe.
0:17.6	Now with hotels in New York City, on the web at urochipo.com.
0:22.0	Hello, welcome to The Bowery Boys.
0:24.3	This is Greg Young.
0:25.3	And this is Tom Myers.
0:26.5	With the fourth part in our summer-long mini-series on public transportation, Bowery Boys.
0:31.1	Is it only been four?
0:32.4	Has it only been four?
0:34.4	Bowery Boys on the Go has been going for four episodes.
0:38.0	We started with the ferry system.
0:39.9	Then we went on to the elevated railroad.
0:42.5	Last episode, I talked about cable cars and the trolleys.
0:46.1	And we are finally here at one of our most requested and most anticipated episodes.
0:51.2	And hopefully we don't trip up on the third rail with this one.
0:54.6	We are talking, of course, about the birth of the New York City subway.
0:58.2	We finally made it underground.
1:00.6	If you haven't heard those other episodes, you might want to just take a break and listen
1:04.3	to those first because they really do set up this moment.
	...

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