New York City is home to the nation's largest subway system with 842 miles of track, 42,000 employees, and the largest fleet of rapid transit cars in the world for a total of 5,803 cars. Covering four boroughs with 500 stations and two dozen lines, New York City's rapid transit system served over 3.6 million passengers every day all week long (Nifong 10). The steel tracks of the subway were laid over 100 years ago with its reach being extended in segments over time. While there are many other perhaps larger rapid transit systems in the world, New York City played a pioneer role in developing such a system to facilitate the movement of workers and consumers throughout the city (Metropolitan Transit Authority 1).
The purpose of this essay is to identify the reasoning which led leaders in New York to undertake the development of the rapid transit system in the late nineteenth century. What originally began as a private sector effort to facilitate public transportation evolved over time into a complex system involving rapid transit services that was overseen and operated by public authorities. The development of this system was clearly a response to a growing understanding of the need to provide inexpensive, safe, speedy, and comfortable transportation that would encourage rapid economic development in urban enclaves (Haupt 1). Economic necessity, coupled with new technologies, and a determination to facilitate urban growth were the core explanations for New York City's enormous investment in a rapid transit system (Haupt 1).
History of the Rapid Transit System
James Blaine Walker stated that "like other great conceptions the rapid transit idea was born during the Civil War, but it is impossible to account for it on any theory that it serve a war purpose.... The demand for rapid transit came from the development of New York City and its growth northward just as the demand for elevators came from the development of ...