The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America's First Subway (52 page)

“Bear up, My dear, we must”: Ibid., June 6, 1883.

“The only time [Olive] spoke when I could not understand her”: W. A. Swanberg,
Whitney Father, Whitney Heiress
(Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1980), 64–65.

He placed it inside an envelope and would hold on to it for the rest of his life: Hirsch,
Modern Warwick,
198.

when he came to speak he was armed with maps, schedules, and even sample tickets: “The Story of Your Whitney Ancestors (especially Henry Melville Whitney),” from the private papers of Josephine Whitney Duveneck.

The Boston Globe,
in 1887, showed just how busy Tremont Street was downtown: Louis M. Lyons,
Newspaper Story: One Hundred Years of “The Boston Globe”
(Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971), 66.

“That the streets of Boston are and have for a long time”: Reports of Proceedings of Boston City Council, 1893.

“I believe that this company is destined to play a very important part”: George L. Austin, “Henry M. Whitney, the Builder of the West End Street Railway System of Boston,” Whitney Research Group,
http://wiki.whitneygen.org/wrg/index.php/Family:Whitney,_Henry_Melville_(1839-%3F)
.

“Into whose hands will all this pass?”: “West End Stock,”
Boston Daily Globe,
July 14, 1887.

“locate, construct and maintain one or more tunnels”: Acts and Resolves Passed by the General Court of Massachusetts (Secretary of the Commonwealth, 1887), 1076.

“If our delegation will present the name of Mr. Cleveland”:
New York Herald,
July 6, 1884.

“Governor—Pay no attention to newspaper or other advocacy of me”: Grover Cleveland papers, undated letter written from 2 West Fifty-seventh Street, from the papers of WCW, Library of Congress.

On a summer’s day on the outskirts of downtown Boston: “High Praise for Henry M. Whitney,”
Boston Daily Globe,
October 8, 1905.

“You’ll have to step up on the platform”: Ibid.

4: HISTORY MADE IN RICHMOND

In the spring of 1882, a skinny young American naval officer: L. R. Hamersley,
First Citizens of the Republic, An Historical Work
(New York, 1895), 141.

Sprague was born on July 25, 1857: William D. Middleton and William D. Middleton III,
Frank Julian Sprague: Electrical Inventor and Engineer
(Indiana University Press, 2009), 3–6.

“A career afloat was far from my ambition”: Frank J. Sprague remarks,
Frank J. Sprague: Seventy Fifth Anniversary
(Frank J. Sprague Anniversary Committee, July 25, 1932), 29.

He wrote stories that he filed for
The Boston Herald
while in Asia: Middleton and Middleton,
Frank Julian Sprague,
24.

Two years later, Sprague filed his first patent: Frederick Dalzell,
Engineering Invention: Frank J. Sprague and the U.S. Electrical Industry
(Cambridge: MIT Press, 2010), 49.

It was there, while at London’s Crystal Palace, that Sprague had the meeting that would change the course of his life: Ibid., 53.

“I hear nothing from you as to young Sprague”: Thomas Edison Collection, Online Collection, Letter from Edward Johnson to Thomas Edison
,
April 11, 1883.

“I received your favor of the 11th”: Ibid., April 23, 1883.

“The electric light has long ceased to be a curiosity”: “Electric Railways,”
Electrical World,
May 5, 1883.

“visions of accidents, collisions and crumbling tunnels”: Fred T. Jane, “The Romance of Modern London,”
English Illustrated Magazine,
August 1893.

May 24, 1883, was a sunny day in New York City: David McCullough,
The Great Bridge
(Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 1972), 525–40.

He was thinking only about the job that was waiting for him across the Hudson River: Frank J. Sprague, “Digging in ‘The Mines of the Motors,’”
Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers,
vol. 53, no. 5 (May 1934), 697.

“since the president of the United States of America had walked dry shod to Brooklyn from New York”: McCullough,
The Great Bridge,
533.

To build the bridge: Ibid.

“I arrived home”: Sprague, “Digging in ‘The Mines of the Motors,’” 697.

“The executive department of my body was about to issue an order of ejectment”: Kruh,
Always Something Doing,
38.

Aside from feeling underpaid by Edison: Harold C. Passer,
The Electrical Manufacturers, 1875
–
1900
(Arno Press, 1972), 238–41; Middleton and Middleton,
Frank Julian Sprague,
39–40.

“You will surely understand me”: Sprague, letter to Edison, Papers of Frank J. Sprague
,
New York Public Library, April 24, 1884.

“Sprague, as we are about”: Edison, letter to Sprague, Ibid., April 25, 1884.

In November 1884, with a measly budget of $100,000: Passer,
Electrical Manufacturers,
238.

There, he met a younger, beautiful, dark-haired woman: Middleton and Middleton,
Frank Julian Sprague,
44.

“loveliest and most charming girls”: Ibid.

“The only true motor”:
The Philadelphia Press,
September 21, 1884.

“The peculiar device which ought to be adopted in New York and all other cities”: “Thomas A. Edison’s Plans,”
Boston Daily Globe,
January 27, 1886.

In early 1886, in a narrow alleyway between two brick buildings near the Durant Sugar Refinery: Middleton and Middleton,
Frank Julian Sprague,
53.

Nervous and determined to make sure his experiment: Passer,
Electrical Manufacturers,
242; Hammond,
Men and Volts
, 84.

“I have presented these facts about the present and future”: “Application of Electricity to Propulsion on Elevated Railroads,” By Frank J. Sprague, Read before the Society of Arts Boston, 1885, Papers of Frank J. Sprague, New York Public Library, December 10.

“Such roads can be built”: Ibid.

“Dust, smoke, cinders, oil and water will disappear”: Ibid.

The contract Richmond offered Sprague: Passer,
Electrical Manufacturers,
243–45.

“laid for profit, not for permanence.” Frank J. Sprague, “Lessons of the Richmond Electric Railway,”
Electrical Engineer
, September 7, 1894, 272.

“I was for a moment doubtful of the outcome”: Ibid.

“go to hell”: Middleton and Middleton,
Frank Julian Sprague
, 76–77.

“playing mule”: Thorburn Reid, “Some Early Traction History,”
Cassier’s Magazine
, vol. XVI, May–October 1899, 363.

Sprague’s $110,000 payment was cut to $90,000: Passer,
Electrical Manufacturers,
244.

“the pesky thing”: “Electric Street Car,”
Boston Daily Globe,
October 11, 1887.

“Yes, that bad portion we bought from the Cambridge railroad”: Ibid.

A month after Whitney’s successful test: Middleton and Middleton,
Frank Julian Sprague,
77; Frank Rowsome Jr.,
Trolley Car Treasury
(McGraw-Hill, 1956), 85–86.

“If you can get out of such a curve”: Sprague, “Lessons of the Richmond Electric Railway,” 273.

The car, after working so hard, had stalled: Allyn Tunis, “Father of the Trolley: Frank J. Sprague Made Richmond Cradle of Electric Transportation,”
Richmond Times-Dispatch,
December 29, 1935.

“My own reputation and future career”: “A Memorable Anniversary,”
Evening Post: New York
, February 3, 1898.

And two days after that, a passenger named William A. Boswell:
Richmond Dispatch,
January 10, 1888.

“Don’t pay a bill that you can help until after April 1st”: Letter from Frank J. Sprague to Dana Greene, Papers of Frank J. Sprague, New York Public Library, 1888.

“I am completely overwhelmed”: Dalzell,
Engineering Invention,
87.

But then one winter morning a new problem greeted Sprague: Sprague, speech to the American Electric Railway Association, “The Growth of Electric Railways,”
Proceedings of the American Electric Railway Association
, 1916.

“This is hell”: Frank J. Sprague, “Electric Traction in Space of Three Dimensions,” reprinted from the
Journal of American Academy of Sciences
, July 1932, 6.

which he would later call a “supreme moment”: Frank J. Sprague, “The Electric Railway,”
Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine
, May–October 1905, 519.

Sprague had lost more than $75,000: Middleton and Middleton,
Frank Julian Sprague,
83.

“We are ready to run commercially”: Letter from Sprague to Henry Whitney, Papers of Frank J. Sprague, New York Public Library, May 16, 1888.

“Lincoln set the negroes free! Sprague has set the mule free!”: American Electric Railway Association,
Proceedings of the American Electric Railway Association
(1916), 306.

On a warm night in early July 1888:
Richmond Dispatch
, July 10, 1888; Sprague, “Digging in ‘The Mines of Motors’”; Carlton Norris McKenney,
Rails in Richmond
(Interurban Press, 1986); Frank J. Sprague, “Growth of Electric Railways,”
Electrical Engineering
, October 10, 1916, 295–304.

“On receiving word about midnight”: Sprague, “Lessons of the Richmond Electric Railway,” 272.

“This was an experiment that had never before been made”: “Street Railway Success,”
Richmond Daily Times
, July 9, 1888.

In 1888, there were six thousand miles of street railway systems: William J. Clark, “Electric Railways in America, From a Business Standpoint,”
Cassier’s Magazine
, vol. 16, 1899, 519.

5: THE BLIZZARD THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

It was swallowing him up like white quicksand: Samuel Meredith Strong,
The Great Blizzard of 1888
(self-published, 1938), 83–84.

John Meisinger, the hardware buyer for E. Ridley and Sons: Jim Murphy,
Blizzard!
(Scholastic, 2000), 2, 12, 63–64.

That night, on the ninth floor of the Equitable Building: Tracee de Hahn,
The Blizzard of 1888
(Chelsea House Publishers, 2001), 11–21.

It started as a gentle and mild rain: Murphy,
Blizzard!
; de Hahn,
Blizzard of 1888
; Strong,
Great Blizzard of 1888
.

“I had the strangest of feelings”: Murphy,
Blizzard!,
9.

“Although I had fought the snow for more than four hours”: Strong,
Great Blizzard of 1888
, 84.

“Jump, for God’s sake, jump!”: Judd Caplovich,
Blizzard! The Great Storm of ’88
(Vero Publishing, 1987), 81.

At the New York Infant Asylum: Ibid., 118.

“The blizzard sale”: Ibid., 128.

“Who will be the Moses to lead us through this wilderness of uncertainty”: Allan Nevins,
Abram S. Hewitt
,
with Some Account of Peter Cooper
(Octagon Books, 1967), 497.

6: NEW YORK CITY’S MOSES

“The Father of Rapid Transit”: “Board Asks to See Subway Sign Contract,”
New York Times
, December 2, 1904.

“I won’t buy them, but I’ll give you materials to make them”: Polly Guerin,
The Cooper-Hewitt Dynasty of New York
(History Press, 2012), 31.

Abram Stevens Hewitt was born in a log house forty miles north of New York City: Nevins,
Abram S. Hewitt
, 15–30.

“nearly blind”: “Abram Stevens Hewitt,”
New York Times
, November 1, 1896.

“It taught me for the first time that I could stand in the face of death”: Ibid.

A cable dispatch on January 23, 1862, changed Hewitt’s life: Nevins,
Abram S. Hewitt,
201–06.

“I am told that you can do things which other men declare to be impossible”: Ibid., 201.

U.S. GRANT, CAIRO. NOT TO BE SWITCHED UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH
: Ibid., 204.

“If that is so”: Ibid.

“No effort has been spared”: Ibid.

“Are you Mr. Hewitt?”: “Abram S. Hewitt Dead,”
New York Times,
January 19, 1903.

“Do you suppose that if I should write on that bill”: Nevins,
Abram S. Hewitt,
205.

“O.K. A. Lincoln”: Ibid.

In 1874, Hewitt changed his residence: “Abram S. Hewitt Dead,”
New York Times,
January 19, 1903.

His first name was often misspelled in the newspapers as Abraham: Nevins,
Abram S. Hewitt,
294.

“I will make no promises or confessions”: Nevins,
Abram S. Hewitt,
469.

“This is the end of my political career”: Edmund Morris,
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
(Random House, 1979), 831.

It was a strange and unsettling time for the city: Nevins,
Abram S. Hewitt
, 480–83.

“Can they be closed up?”: Ibid., 473.

It is “an absolute solution of the problem of rapid transit”: Letter from Joe Meigs to Hewitt, Abram S. Hewitt Papers, Cooper Union Library, January 25, 1888.

“The time has come”: “The Mayor’s Big Scheme,”
New York Times,
February 1, 1888; “The Mayor’s Rapid Transit Plan,”
New York Times,
February 1, 1888.

“imperial destiny as the greatest city in the world”: “New York’s Imperial Destiny,”
New York Times
, February 5, 1888.

“Objections will be made by those who have not fully studied the subject”: “The Mayor’s Big Scheme,”
New York Times,
February 1, 1888.

7: WILLIAM WHITNEY’S MISSED OPPORTUNITY

Whenever William Whitney took one of his horses out for a ride: Swanberg,
Whitney Father, Whitney Heiress
, 82.

“Mr. Whitney,” Rainsford said: Ibid.

“Well,” Rainsford replied to Whitney’s pledge: Ibid., 83.