Tunneling to the Future: The Story of the Great Subway Expansion That Saved New York (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780814719107)

A look into the 1913 subway expansion project that "proved the city's physical salvation"

In 1910, New York City was bursting at the seams as more and more people crowded into a limited supply of housing in the tenement districts of Manhattan and the older areas of Brooklyn. With no outlet for its exploding population, and the burgeoning social problems created by the overwhelming congestion, New York faced a serious crisis which city and state leaders addressed with dramatic measures. In March 1913, public officials and officers of the two existing rapid transit networks shook hands to seal a deal for a greatly expanded subway system which would more than double the size of the two existing transit networks.

At the time the largest and most expensive single municipal project ever attempted, the Dual System of Rapid Transit set the pattern of growth in New York City for decades to come, helped provide millions of families a better quality of life, and, in the words of Manhattan borough president George McAneny (1910-1913), "proved the city's physical salvation." It stands as that rare success story, an enormously complicated project undertaken against great odds which proved successful beyond all measure.

Published in conjunction with the History of the City of New York Project.

Author: Peter Derrick
ISBN-10: 0814719104
ISBN-13: 9780814719107
Publisher: New York University Press
Language: English
Published: 03/01/2001
Pages: 442
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.74lbs
Size: 9.23h x 6.27w x 1.09d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/12/2001 pg. 193
Library Journal 03/01/2001 pg. 112
Reference and Research Bk News 08/01/2001 pg. 102
Choice 12/01/2001 pg. 744