The New York Rapid-transit Subway

Proceedings.] PARSONS ON NEW YORK RAPID-TRANSIT SUBWAY. Leading Principles of the DESIGN. In constructing the « Subway," as it is popularly called, there were two ends to be served. One was to add to New York’s transportation- facilities and the other was to give a high-speed service. As such a service is not possible on a line with frequent stations, and as a line with stations far apart would not be profitable, it was decided to construct four tracks in the district of maximum traffic, on which there could be run simultaneously a high-speed service with long intervals between stopping-stations, and a local service with short intervals between stations, and with convenient means of transfer from train to train at each express stop. Beyond the four-track zone there are either two-track or three-track lines, the latter to carry an express service in the direction of traffic movement, that is, towards the business district in the morning and from it in the evening. The interval between “ express” stations varies between 1 and 14 mile. There are three or four local stations to the mile. The route, as adopted and built, is shown on the accompanying map and profile (Figs. 1 and 2, Plate 5). It commences in Brooklyn at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, a terminus of some of the suburban lines of the Long Island Railroad ; runs thence to the East River and under it to Manhattan Island, where it proceeds under Broadway, Elm Street, and Fourth Avenue to the Grand Central Station, the terminus of the New York Central and New York, New Haven and Hartford systems; thence westward to Broadway, and again north- ward under that thoroughfare to 103rd Street, where the route divides, one branch continuing northward to and across the Harlem River at Kingsbridge, the other branch extending in a general north- easterly direction to the Zoological Gardens in Bronx Park. The total length of the route is 25-7 miles, and it is under or over streets, or under parks and rivers, except in six places, where private property had to be secured to ease curves or to pass from one street to another. The express-service section is on Manhattan Island. Another four- and five-track section has been built in Brooklyn for a distance of 0-9 mile, to provide for the bringing in of other routes to be built hereafter, without interfering with the line in operation. There are, however, several variations from the normal two- and four-track arrangements. For example, a single track terminating the local tracks at the end of the four-track section, a third track for express service on two-track sections, and sidings for disabled trains on the four-track section; while under Broadway between 137th and 145th