The Subways in Trouble
One hundred years ago today … Rapid transit in New York City was plagued by delays, service breakdowns, and overcrowding.
So great were the problems that on March 3rd NYC Corporation Counselor W.P. Burr threatened to take over the independently-run I.R.T. (Interborough Rapid Transit) and either make it a city agency or turn it over to private interests. This became front page news for the next day’s Brooklyn Standard Union*:
Brooklyn Standard Union March 4, p. 1. Newspapers.com.
At the time, the subways and elevated trains were not under city control. Two systems served the city, their routes swerving and angling around one another. The I.R.T. had opened the first NYC subway, in 1904; it was joined in 1908 by Brooklyn Rapid Transit, which operated subways in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and was soon renamed Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit.
The NYC rapid transit map from 1920 has not been digitized. Here are two details from the Ohman Map Company’s complete 1921 rapid transit map, printed at 256 Broadway, and distributed in 1921 by the American Map Co. whose offices were at 7. West 42nd Street. The B.R.T. lines are represented in orange. All the other-colored lines are the I.R.T.
Lower Manhattan detail of 1921 rapid transit map. New York Public Library, map division.
Long Island City/Astoria Detail of 1921 rapid transit map. New York Public Library, map division.
The B.R.T. lines are represented in orange. The red (underground) and blue (elevated) lines are I.R.T. The checkered blue and red line was an elevated shared by the two companies.
Burr’s March 3rd threat was part of an ongoing campaign by the city to take over and merge the two systems, which finally happened in 1940.
*The Brooklyn Standard Union was one of several Brooklyn dailies available in 1920. It was bought out by the Brooklyn Daily Times in 1932.