{"id":3122,"date":"2025-12-07T13:52:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T18:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/?p=3122"},"modified":"2025-12-07T21:05:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T02:05:01","slug":"the-first-nyc-subway-revised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/2025\/12\/07\/the-first-nyc-subway-revised\/","title":{"rendered":"The First NYC Subway"},"content":{"rendered":"
Group Members:<\/strong> Naama Ben-Ami, Sahana Singh, Christopher Dagoon, Christina Prekash<\/div>\n
\n

On October 27, 1904, the first subway line was established in New York City. The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), a privately owned company by August Belmont made history by making the first line running from City Hall in lower Manhattan to 145th Street and Broadway in Harlem.\u00a0 The line had three northern branches in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx. These areas were very populated having a high commuter demand. This made these locations the most promising for high ridership and profit. Before this line NYC was overcrowded with street cars and elevated trains that caused very slow traffic and even gridlock. The current trains were causing a lot of noise and blocked needed sunlight. There was a desperate need for a solution to help the transportation crisis in NYC.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before the subway line could be established the Rapid Transit Act of 1894 passed that established a board to plan and build the first subway system. William Barclay Parsons was appointed head engineer over this project. He created the idea of having one central line with other lines branching out from it. Parsons created stations just below street level so they would be easier to access. In 1902 IRT got the rights to build the subway system. The original line from City Hall and 96th Street had four tracks which allowed local and express trains to operate simultaneously. The line connected government buildings and business, giving it a high value economically and politically.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In later years the subway extended its line that became part of the Eastern Parkway Line, Lexington Avenue Line, 42nd Street Shuttle, Broadway\u2013Seventh Avenue Line, Lenox Avenue Line, and White Plains Road Line. The way the subway was constructed is a very interesting process. They would first dig underground and create the stations. Then they would have to cover it back up. Some spots were very deep down and even under rivers they needed to dig special types of deep tunnels. However in the Bronx they built some parts of the track above the streets. Many challenges came up when digging the tunnels like keeping the street above running, and making sure tunnels didn’t flood or collapse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The inspiration for the station was inspired by the Paris Metro. The Paris Metro was functional and aesthetic. Architects Heins and LaFarge designed colorful tiles that were made into mosaics. The trains themselves were made of steel. The only way to enter the train was by purchasing a paper ticket. On opening day the fare price was 5 cent. The mayor himself, Mayor George B. McClellan rode the first official ride. Around 100,000 people used the subway on its opening day. The subway was an instant success. It made transportation within Manhattan much more enjoyable. By 1914 daily ridership reached 1.2 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

The development of the subway encouraged residential development in areas like the Bronx and Harlem. Now the working class can easily travel to Manhattan. This created many more neighborhoods in this area. In the city the theater district was able to move North because it became more accessible. The subway system began a revolution in public transportation. Streetcars and above ground train lines started to move underground. In 1913, the Dual Contracts were signed between the city and IRT to expand the subway system. By 1918 the subway line was shaped as an H. This separated the East from the west side, and allowed local and express branches to be incorporated. A lot of original infrastructure still exists in today’s system. Although some of the original stations were changed or altered. The IRT set an engineering standard in the USA that is used even till today. It laid the foundation to the NYC subway system, the most heavily used system in the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After the subway expanded from Manhattan to the Bronx many new stations like Parkchester were developed. Parkchester became a stop on the NYC MTA 6 train because the city expected the eastern Bronx to grow rapidly, and transit planners wanted the Pelham Line to support that expansion long before the neighborhood was fully built. When Metropolitan Life began constructing Parkchester in 1938, it was designed as one of the first large-scale planned residential communities in New York City, covering 129 acres and containing more than 12,000 apartments spread across over 170 buildings. It was meant to be a \u201ccity within a city,\u201d with plazas, landscaped courtyards, public art, and its own major shopping center, which eventually included well-known stores and even a Macy\u2019s. As Parkchester grew, it attracted a wide range of residents. Today, the population includes large Bangladeshi, Pakistani, African, Caribbean, and Latin American communities, creating one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the Bronx. Because so many residents rely on public transit rather than cars, the 6 train stop at Parkchester quickly became one of the busiest on the Pelham Line.<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of safety, Parkchester falls under the NYPD\u2019s 43rd Precinct. Over the past few decades, the precinct has seen major reductions in serious crime compared with the 1990s, reflecting citywide improvements. However, like many Bronx neighborhoods, Parkchester still experiences crime levels that are higher than the NYC average, and certain blocks deal with more incidents than others. Recent local reports show decreases in some major crimes in 2023 and 2024, along with occasional spikes in specific categories such as grand larceny or auto theft. Many residents say the area feels safe during the daytime, while nighttime can feel more unpredictable depending on where you are. Because the neighborhood is large and densely populated, the safety experience can vary widely from one street to the next.<\/span><\/p>\n

The type of people riding the 6 train at Parkchester reflects the diversity of the neighborhood itself. Mornings and afternoons are filled with students heading to school, retail and service workers commuting to jobs in Manhattan, office workers traveling downtown, and families running errands or visiting other parts of the Bronx. You\u2019ll see immigrants who depend on the subway as their main transportation, teens coming from the surrounding schools, and older residents who have lived in Parkchester for decades. Altogether, Parkchester\u2019s history as a planned community, its huge and diverse population, and its reliance on the subway are exactly why the 6 train stop there is so important today.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the Parkchester station showed how line 6 served the people of the Bronx, the Grand Central Station shows how line 6 played a major role in Manhattan. Grand Central was made a stop on the 6 train mainly because of its location, the growth of Manhattan, and the construction of the Lexington Avenue Line. The IRT Lexington Avenue Line, also called the IRT East Side Line, runs from Lower Manhattan up to 125th Street in East Harlem and is served by the 4,5,6 trains. Later, as part of the Dual Contracts signed in 1913, the IRT extended the line north of 42nd Street along Lexington Avenue, creating a more direct route for the east side of Manhattan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0This extension connected Lower Manhattan to the Upper East Side and beyond, helping to handle the growing number of people in the city, as Manhattan\u2019s population had risen from 516,000 in 1860 to 2.33 million in 1910.<\/span><\/p>\n

The area around Grand Central also grew as a center for education and business, with several colleges and offices nearby,\u00a0 including Hunter College, the CUNY Graduate Center etc, which increased the need for easy subway access. The 6 train specifically serves all local stops on the Lexington Avenue Line and has been running between Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx and Brooklyn Bridge City Hall in Manhattan since the implementation of the IRT \u201cH\u201d system in 1918. Because Grand Central is a key transfer point and sits in the middle of Midtown, making it a stop on the 6 train allowed both local riders and commuters from other lines to access central Manhattan efficiently. Over the years, the Lexington Avenue line has become the most heavily used line in the US, carrying millions of riders each day, showing how important stations like Grand Central are for managing traffic. So, to conclude, Grand Central was made a 6 train stop because it is a major hub, located in the busy part of Midtown and served both commuters and local passengers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our group decided to ride Line 6 to gain a deeper understanding of its role in daily New York City life. We reached the station around 4:30 p.m., just as the evening rush hour was beginning. Almost immediately, we noticed the station becoming busier, with more people streaming in by the minute. One of the first things that stood out to us was the artwork: the walls were lined with impressive mosaic designs that gave the station a distinctive character. These mosaics, paired with colorful movie posters and advertisements, created a vibrant, almost gallery-like atmosphere that added personality to the space. When we first stepped onto the platform, it was fairly empty, giving us time to observe our surroundings. But as the train\u2019s arrival approached, the platform gradually filled with a diverse crowd\u2014students with backpacks, union workers still in their work clothes, businesspeople heading home in suits, and countless others. It was striking to see such a wide range of individuals all sharing the same space and relying on the same form of transportation. No two people looked alike, and each seemed to represent a different story or background. As the train made its way toward the Bronx, the number of passengers slowly decreased. We assumed many were heading home after long days at offices, schools, or job sites across the city. Watching this ebb and flow of people gave us a better sense of how essential the subway is to the rhythm of New York life. Overall, the ride was a meaningful experience. It allowed us to immerse ourselves in the everyday culture of New York City and witness firsthand how the transit system serves as the backbone of the city, connecting people from all walks of life and helping NYC function the way it does.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n



<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

View Project<\/a><\/div>\n
\nHow did completing your project help you explore the role of arts in the lives of New Yorkers and their communities?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Completing the project help my group explore how the transportation system serves the people of NYC. We also saw how it connect different communities and neighborhoods that was able to shape the culture of NYC.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Group Members: Naama Ben-Ami, Sahana Singh, Christopher Dagoon, Christina Prekash On October 27, 1904, the first subway line was established in New York City. The Interborough Rapid Transit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":3123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1029,62,67,1052],"tags":[168,690],"class_list":["post-3122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1029","category-queens","category-seminar-1-the-arts-in-nyc","category-szucs-aniko","tag-art","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3122"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3165,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122\/revisions\/3165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}