You're listening to the Bowery Boys, and today we've got something a little special to share with you.

At the turn of the 20th century, getting into New York City wasn't simple. If you were coming from the

west, you got off your train in New Jersey and took a ferry across the Hudson River. Manhattan

was powerful, but it wasn't fully connected. So the Pennsylvania Railroad, then the largest

corporation in the world, decided to change that. Its president, Alexander Cassatt, set out to do

something that had never been done before, built a mile-long tunnel under the Hudson River through mud,

shifting silt, and unpredictable tides.

It was a staggering gamble on new engineering, on electricity, on the belief that New York

deserved to be physically joined to the rest of the country. The tunnels they dug more than a century

ago still carry hundreds of thousands of people every day.

They helped make Penn Station possible.

And today, those same tunnels are once again at the center of a national conversation

about infrastructure, politics, and the future of New York City.

This story comes from History This Week, a podcast from the History Channel.

If you enjoy the deep dives that we do here on the city's past, we think you'll enjoy this one too.

The History Channel, Original Podcast.

History This Week, February 14th, 1905.

I'm Sally Helm.

There is one thing standing between Alexander Cassatt and greatness.

Cassat is the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

As of 1900, it is the largest corporation in the world.

But his trains can't get into one of the largest cities in the world.

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