The New York Rapid-transit Subway

8 PARSONS ON NEW YORK RAPID-TRANSIT SUBWAY. [Minutes of Streets, where the street is 102 feet wide between curbs, eight tracks have been built to form a yard. The route mileage of the various track-arrangements is shown in Table II. Table II. Contract No. 1. Contract No. 2. Totals. One-track 0-1 0-0 0-1 Two-track 7-6 2-6 10-2 Three-track 7-6 0’0 7'6 Four-track 6-0 0'4 6-4 Five-track 0-7 0'5 1-2 Eight-track 0'2 0'0 0-2 Total route 22-2 3-5 25'7 When the general type of railway to be constructed was under consideration, the Board was urged by many people to adopt a tube as the basic idea, the first example of that system having just been successfully completed in the City and South London Railway. After a tour of inspection of the underground railways in Europe, the Author decided that a railway built as close to the surface of the street as possible, avoiding the use of lifts, and giving staircases of such height as could be readily ascended by passengers, would be, for the large crowds that such a railway would carry in New York, of greater benefit than any tube type; that, although such construction necessarily involved a readjustment of all pipes, sewers, and other sub-surface structures encountered along the route, the total cost would be no greater than it would be in tube tunnelling; and that, although serious temporary inconvenience might be inflicted on street-traffic, the final result would be preferable. This view was approved by the Board, and the plans were consequently prepared. The form and details of the structure were indissolubly connected with the number of tracks, all of which were to be, so far as local conditions allowed, on the same level. As it had been decided to bring the whole structure close to the street-surface, any attempt at forming an arched roof spanning four tracks would have resulted in serious depression of the rail-level, even if the street-widths would have sufficed for the accommodation of the abutments of an arch of such dimensions. Except, therefore, where topographical variations introduced sufficient head-room for an arch, a flat roof was adopted