The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America's First Subway (53 page)

“The driver quarrels with the passengers”: John Anderson Miller,
Fares, Please!
(Dover Publications, 1941), 13.

“a perpetual city of night”: Robert Fogelson,
Downtown: Its Rise and Fall, 1880–1950
(Yale University Press, 2001), 50.

Walter Gore Marshall was in Greenwich Village: Walter G. Marshall,
Through America
,
Or Nine Months in the United States
(Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1882), 24–28.

“Mr. Whitney had more calm, forceful efficiency than any man I ever knew”: “W. C. Whitney dead after operation,”
The Day,
February 3, 1904:
Life
, February 18, 1904, 158.

In Thomas Fortune Ryan, an aggressive Irish-American: Lewis Randolph Hamersley,
First Citizens of the Republic, An Historical Work
(L.R. Hamersley, 1906), 143.

Whitney and Ryan helped form the New York Cable Railway Company: Burton J. Hendrick,
The Age of Big Business
(Kessinger Publishing, 1919).

It was a formidable team these men created: Burton J. Hendrick, “Great American Fortunes and Their Making: Street Railway Financiers,”
McClure’s Magazine
, November 1907, 33.

“My marriage with Miss Folsom will take place”: Ibid., p 306; Hirsch,
Modern Warwick,
306.

On June 2, beginning at 6:30 in the evening:
New York Times
, June 3, 1886.

“Grover, do you take this woman”: Frederick Elizur Goodrich, “The Life and Public Services of Grover Cleveland” (Winter, 1888), 491.

“The Secretary of the Navy has spent much more time in this city”:
New York Tribune,
January 17, 1886.

“The system could not be perfected with crosstown lines alone”: Charles W. Cheape,
Moving the Masses: Urban Public Transit in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, 1880–1912
(Harvard University Press, 1980), 49.

O’Keefe’s death caused so much worry: McShane and Tarr,
Horse in the City,
153.

New York City could collect as much as $4.60 per horse for its manure: Ibid., 27.

As most New Yorkers slept early on the morning of May 27, 1887: McShane and Tarr,
The Horse in the City
, 102; “Horses Die by Hundreds,”
New York Times,
May 27, 1887.

And it was only fourteen years old, built in 1873: McShane and Tarr,
Horse in the City,
102–03.

“There is growing public sentiment”:
New York Times,
May 29, 1887.

a new operation they called the Metropolitan Traction Company: Hirsch,
Modern Warwick
, 223.

served as a “holding company,” the first one in the United States: Hendrick, “Great American Fortunes and Their Making: Street Railway Financiers.”

It had been almost six years since September 4, 1882: Jill Jonnes,
Empires of Light:
Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World
(Random House Digital, 2003).

More than fifteen hundred street lamps were alive in the city by 1886: “On This Day,”
New York Times,
March 3, 1888.

“New York would undoubtedly lose a great deal in prestige”: Burrows and Wallace,
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898,
1223.

after one o’clock in the afternoon on October 12, 1889: “Met Death in the Wires,”
New York Times,
October 12, 1889.

“The work your Brother is doing in Boston”: Letter from Peter Widener to William C. Whitney, from the papers of WCW, Library of Congress, March 4, 1889.

“the cable system was far superior”: Cheape,
Moving the Masses,
60.

“Dead Man’s Curve”: Ibid., 61.

“It must be a matter of deep thought to all of us”: “City and South London Railway,”
Railway Times,
November 8, 1890.

“Can this electric railway”: “Opening of the Electric Railway,” London
Times,
November 5, 1890.

8: THE ENGINEER AND THE PIANO MAKER

There were four gangs: “Boring for Rock,”
New York Times,
June 14, 1891.

“About how far’ll they have to go daown”: Ibid.

At various points along Whitehall Street: Ibid.

For an island that stretched only seven miles long: Hood,
722 Miles,
75–76.

“When I squeeze lemons, what I’m after is lemon juice”: Arthur Goodrich, “William Barclay Parsons,”
The World’s Work
(Doubleday, Page, 1903), 3467.

dubbed him Reverend Parsons: Tom Malcolm,
William Barclay Parsons: A Renaissance Man of Old New York
(Parsons Brinckerhoff, 2010), 8.

the highest scores on record at the school: Ibid.

“He has never given me, an anxious, watchful parent, one single cause of complaint”: Ibid., 9.

“Oh, but this is the part I have rebuilt”: Goodrich,
World’s Work,
3468.

“will place him in the front rank of the profession in this city”: Malcolm,
William Barclay Parsons,
11.

“During these years I was engaged in various private practice”: Ibid.

“I’ve had considerable experience in this subject”: Letter from Parsons to Hewitt, Abram S. Hewitt Papers, Cooper-Union Library, January 16, 1888.

NOW FOR RAPID TRANSIT
:
New York Times,
February 1, 1891.

anglicized into Steinway: “Steinway to Mark 160th Anniversary with Events, Celebrations,”
http://www.steinway.com
.

“The question is practically narrowed down”: “Now for Rapid Transit,”
New York Times,
February 1, 1891.

“the Royal Feast of Belshazzar”: Donald Dewey,
The Art of Ill Will: The Story of American Political Cartoons
(New York University Press, 2008), 35.

The frustration of the Steinway Commission boiled over: “More Rapid-Transit Talk,”
New York Times,
October 3, 1891.

On January 1, 1892, a fifteen-year-old Irish girl: “Landed on Ellis Island,”
New York Times,
January 2, 1892.

“I haven’t the slightest doubt that capitalists would have eagerly sought the opportunity”: “Money in Rapid Transit,”
New York Times,
December 15, 1892.

“When this is accomplished”: Ibid.

at eleven o’clock, the piano king and president of the Steinway commission climbed into bed: William Steinway Diary, 1861–1896, entry for December 21, 1892,
http://americanhistory.si.edu/steinwaydiary/diary/?entry=12040&search=burglar
.

The entire first floor of City Hall was packed: “Failure to Make a Sale,”
New York Times,
December 30, 1892.

“In what respect is it defective?”: Ibid.

“Resolved: That the bids made this day by W. Nowland Amory”: Ibid.

“Much has been made about the objections to underground transit”: “Statement of Mr. Steinway,”
New York Times,
December 30, 1892.

“To my dismay I see I stand alone in my stand to guard the city”: The Willliam Steinway Diary, 1861–1896, entry on January 14, 1893.

“Hello, Hewitt”: Swanberg,
Whitney Father, Whitney Heiress,
90.

“Empire on Wheels”: Hirsch,
Modern Warwick,
421.

Many New Yorkers said his hiring “was a mistake”: Goodrich,
World’s Work,
3471.

“The devil take him”: New York Transit Museum with Vivian Heller,
City Beneath Us
(W. W. Norton, 2004), 19.

“he doesn’t know any better”: Goodrich,
World’s Work,
3471.

“I am glad I was not older”: Malcolm,
William Barclay Parsons,
17.

9: THE RISE AND FALL OF HENRY WHITNEY

“We went to work vigorously on the contract”:
Fifty Years of Unified Transportation in Metropolitan Boston
(Boston Elevated Railway Company, 1938), 21–22.

“They gave Mr. Whitney permission”: Ibid., 22.

Pearson worked at the Medford Hillside train station: “Fred Stark Pearson: 1861–1915,”
Concise Encyclopedia of Tufts University,
Fred Stark Pearson Papers, Tufts University Library, 356.

he offered Pearson $2,500 a year to be the chief engineer: Ibid., 380.

“It’s got to be done”: Ibid., 382.

“great electric monsters”: Edward H. Clement, “Nineteenth Century Boston Journalism,”
New England Magazine,
vol. 37, September 1907–February 1908.

“without having been obliged to leave the store.”: Fogelson,
Downtown
, 15.

“Experience has shown … The number of passengers”: Auditor’s Report, West End Street Railway Company, year ending September 30, 1890.

The Reverend William Blaxton was living alone: Lawrence W. Kennedy,
Planning the City Upon a Hill
(University of Massachusetts Press, 1992), 12, 19.

On the evening of January 6, 1891, a steady stream of carriages: “Bright Lights, Bright Men, Bright Speeches,”
Boston Daily Globe,
January 6, 1891.

In 1890, 114 million passengers rode the company’s cars: Auditor’s Report, West End Street Railway Company, year ending September 30, 1891.

“I am in my capacity as president of a transportation company”: “Bright Lights, Bright Men, Bright Speeches,”
Boston Daily Globe,
January 6, 1891.

“The city of Boston is no longer a New England town on a large scale”: “Mayor Matthews, Takes the Helm at the City Hall,”
Boston Globe,
January 6, 1891.

A traffic count on Tremont Street:
Argument of Mayor Matthews Before the Committee on Transit of the Massachusetts Legislature
(Rockwell and Churchill City Printers, 1894), 13.

The New York Times
described him as a “brilliant orator”: “Boston’s Local Election,”
New York Times
, December 8, 1890.

those who knew him called him Johnny Fitz: Gerard O’Neill,
Rogues and Redeemers
(Crown Publishers, 2012), 25–32.

A two-wheeled invention called a safety bicycle: Samuel Eliot Morison,
One Boy’s Boston, 1887–1901
(Northeastern University Press, 1962), 30.

“From dusk”: Ibid.

In 1871, 34 million passengers rode the street railways: Massachusetts Rapid Transit Commission,
1892 Report of the Rapid Transit Commission,
7.

At its first hearing on June 25, 1891: “The Rapid Transit Problem,”
Boston Daily Globe,
June 26, 1891.

“We intend to hear everybody”: Ibid.

“The length of this report is greater than we had expected”: Report of the Rapid Transit Commission to the Massachusetts Legislature, April 5, 1892, 103.

“As a piece of engineering I presume it is perfection”: Ibid., 162.

“The well-worn list of public works”: Report to the Massachusetts Legislature, Massachusetts Commission to Promote Rapid Transit for the City of Boston and Its Suburbs, April 5, 1892, 98.

“which shall take the greater part of the through cars”: Ibid., 104.

“If anything is to be undertaken”: Ibid., 106.

“Dear Sir”: Letter from Nathan Matthews Jr. to William Jackson, Papers of Nathan Matthews Jr., Littauer Library, Harvard University, August 5, 1893.

“They were uniformly horrible”: Duveneck,
Life on Two Levels
, 18.

He gave Josephine a strawberry-colored pony she named Merry Legs: Ibid., 16.

The company finished 1892 with $6.3 million in gross earnings: Auditor’s Report, West End Street Railway Company, year ending September 30, 1893.

“The time has come when I feel that I have not the strength to manage”: “Whitney Out,”
Boston Daily Globe,
September 7, 1891.

“pleasant, personal relations”: Letter from Nathan Matthews to Henry Whitney, Letters of Nathan Matthews Jr., City of Boston Archives, March 15, 1893.

“Construction would seriously interfere with travel and traffic”: “Against the Subway,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 27, 1894.

Led by a jeweler named John W. Wilson: “Subway Scare: Merchants Fear Injury to Their Trade,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 26, 1894.

“I think that it is a very expensive method of solving that problem”: “Against Subway,”
Boston Daily Advertiser,
April 30, 1894.

On July 23, 1894, the New York Giants visited Boston: “1894 Boston Beaneaters, Schedule, Box Scores and Splits,” Sports Reference LLC,
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BSN/1894-schedule-scores.shtml
.

The referendum was passed: “Rapid Transit Act Accepted,”
Boston Daily Globe,
July 25, 1894.

“I really thought a large number of people demanded an elevated road”: Ibid.

“I don’t believe in a tunnel or a subway”: Theodore G. Clarke,
Beacon Hill, Back Bay, and the Building of Boston’s Golden Age
(History Press, 2010), 115.

“The people have spoken … I should assume”: “Rapid Transit Act Accepted,”
Boston Daily Globe,
July 25, 1894.

10: BIDDING TO BUILD HISTORY

Beal hoisted the box up and turned it over: “Bids for First Subway Section,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 21, 1895.

“elbowing each other off the sidewalk into the gutter”: Fogelson,
Downtown,
16.

There would be eleven sections to the subway: Bradley H. Clarke and O. R. Cummings,
Tremont Street Subway: A Century of Public Service
(Boston Street Railway Association, 1997), 15.

“An inclined open entrance to subway in the public garden”:
First Annual Report of the Boston Transit Commission, For the Year Ending August 15, 1895
(Rockwell and Church City Printers, 1895), 44.

J. W. Hoffman and Co. from Philadelphia bid $181,206: “Bids for First Subway Section,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 21, 1895.

Meehan was born in Ireland in 1840: “Looking over Ground,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 27, 1895.

Three days after they opened the bids: “Going Right Ahead,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 24, 1895.