The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America's First Subway (54 page)

“The mayor is too busy to attend the proceedings”: “Subway Begun,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 19, 1895.

“Mr. Crocker of the transit commission”: Ibid.

“I now proceed to take out the first shovelful of dirt”: Ibid.

11: MEEHANVILLE

They called it Meehanville: “Subway Work Starts Slowly, Laborers Register at Meehanville,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 30, 1895.

“Do you want to pick and shovel”: “Progress of the Subway,”
Boston Daily Globe,
April 3, 1895.

“The Italians, you see, they are not wanted”: “First Pile for the Subway,”
Boston Daily Globe,
May 3, 1895.

Carson came home on the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat in the 1890s: “Pride of City,”
Boston Daily Globe,
May 26, 1895.

“What’s the news in Boston?”: Ibid.

in Charlestown a
Globe
reporter knocked on the front door: “It’s a Humbug,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 31, 1895.

a young courier raced straight from the statehouse across the street to the Common: “Now for a Rush,”
Boston Daily Globe,
April 30, 1895.

“McCarthy was buried out of sight”: Ibid.

There were occasionally exciting moments: “Strange Finds on the Subway,”
Boston Daily Globe,
September 25, 1895.

The deeper the workers went, the greater the risk: “Could Not Stand the Gases,”
Boston Daily Globe,
June 2, 1895.

“What’s the matter”: Ibid.

Three plans were studied for the tunnel:
First Annual Report of the Boston Transit Commission,
39–43.

S. Homer Woodbridge, a heating and ventilating engineer: Ibid., 43.

In mid-April, the day arrived: Ibid., 65–68.

“buried-alive feeling”: Report to the Massachusetts Legislature, Massachusetts Commission to Promote Rapid Transit for the City of Boston and its Suburbs, April 5, 1892, 162.

“I would say that there would be no danger whatever to the workmen”: Annual Report of the Boston Transit Commission, Boston Transit Commission, 1895, 66.

“The dead are not allowed to rest quietly in their graves”: Puleo,
A City So Grand
, 227.

Lydia Kimball, died October 29, 1821: Annual Report of the Boston Transit Commission, 1895, 70.

A week into Green’s work in late April 1895: “Bones Identified,”
Boston Daily Globe,
April 25, 1895.

9,000 cubic yards were needed for the Public Garden:
First Annual Report of the Boston Transit Commission,
19.

“So rare an opportunity for making this important improvement”: Ibid., 62.

By early May, 130 elm trees: “Hills and Hollows,”
Boston Daily Globe,
May 9, 1895.

2,300-pound pile driver: “Last Tomb Demolished,”
Boston Daily Globe,
May 8, 1895.

David Keefe, a young worker from Charlestown: “Keefe’s Narrow Escape,”
Boston Daily Globe,
May 22, 1895.

Reverend Isaac J. Lansing, an odd-looking pastor with a small chin: “Infernal Hole,”
Boston Daily Globe,
November 25, 1895.

On March 28, 1896, a large party gathered at the Hotel Thorndike: “Were in a Hole,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 28, 1896.

“This subway is like a ship”: “Another Opening Made,”
Boston Daily Globe
, July 27, 1895.

“Now … we will ascend by this ladder”: “Inspecting the Subway,”
Boston Daily Globe
, April 23, 1896.

“the finest example of concrete work to be found anywhere on the American continent”: Ibid.

In February 1897, a gigantic new piece of equipment: “Labor and Time Saving Machine,”
Boston Daily Globe,
February 15, 1897.

“labor and time saving machine”: Ibid.

“I had hoped to go through with this job without injuring a man”: “Keefe’s Narrow Escape,”
Boston Daily Globe
, May 22, 1895.

He dropped forty-two feet to his death:
Annual Report to the Boston Transit Commission
(Rockwell and Churchill, 1897), 40.

12: BOOM!

James Groake took hold of a lantern with a candle burning:
Wolf Koplan v. Boston Gas Light Company,
Defendant’s Bill of Exceptions, Superior Court, Suffolk County, Massachusetts (Alfred Mudge and Son, 1900).

The biggest attraction besides the subway project: “Fall of Babylon,”
Boston Daily Globe,
February 9, 1897.

Just after eight o’clock:
Wolf Koplan v. Boston Gas Light Company
; “Court Admits It,”
Boston Daily Globe,
November 19, 1898.

two thousand leaks, or about twenty per day:
Wolf Koplan v. Boston Gas Light Company.

The leather badge: “Licenses to Boston Bootblacks and Newsboys,”
Boston Traveller,
March 5, 1868.

When Koplan got to his corner: “The Suit of Wolf Koplan, the Bootblack,”
Boston Journal,
October 19, 1900.

The smell had been getting worse for months: “Told by Eyewitnesses,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 5, 1897.

responsible for killing a cat: “Piling up Facts,”
Boston Daily Globe,
April 1, 1897.

“The subway people were to blame”: Ibid.

When the police officer Michael Whalen first detected the smell of gas: “Many Smelled the Gas,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 5, 1897.

“Do you smell that?”:
Wolf Koplan v. Boston Gas Light Company.

“Are you the Boston Gas Light Company?”: Ibid.

A few minutes before noon, three crowded streetcars rounded the corner: “Story of the Explosion,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 5, 1897.

As Wolf Koplan gave one last wipe: “The Suit of Wolf Koplan, the Bootblack,”
Boston Journal,
October 19, 1900.

He cut his right thumb badly: “Court Admits It,”
Boston Daily Globe,
November 19, 1898.

“The people didn’t have a chance for their lives”: “People in Car Had No Chance,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 5, 1897.

Reverend W. A. Start, the Tufts University bursar: “Six Killed, Others May Die,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 5, 1897.

“It certainly seems that this accident could not have occurred”: “Mayor Quincy’s Statement,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 5, 1897.

Carson wasted no time touring the tunnel: “Subway Is Not Injured,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 5, 1897.

“It isn’t often that home news outshadows the inauguration of a new president”: “Story of the Explosion,”
Boston Daily Globe,
March 5, 1897.

On July 3, 1897, Sam Little invited a dozen reporters: “Rapid Transit Insured,”
Boston Daily Globe,
July 4, 1897.

On August 25 the joyous mood of the city: “Derrick Toppled Over,”
Boston Daily Globe,
August 26, 1897.

“remarkable … so conservative an American town”: “Boston’s Subway Finished,”
New York Times,
August 15, 1897.

13: “FIRST CAR OFF THE EARTH!”

She must have been quite the sight: “First Car off the Earth!,”
Boston Daily Globe,
September 1, 1897.

“birds were bubbling with the exuberance of morning”: Ibid.

“It has more galleries, colonnades, piazzas, and passages than I can remember”: Charles Dickens Online: The Works and Life of Charles Dickens,
http://www.dickens-online.info/american-notes-page16.html.000
.

Strapping James Reed: “Reward for Faithfulness,”
Boston Daily Globe,
September 1, 1897.

“All aboard for the subway and Park Street”: “First Car Off the Earth,”
Boston Daily Globe
, September 2, 1897.

He announced that his name was C. W. Davis: “First Car off the Earth!”
Boston Daily Globe,
September 1, 1897.

A “horror of tunnels”: Fogelson,
Downtown
, 57.

“the roaring of the ocean after a storm”: Report to the Massachusetts Legislature, Massachusetts Commission to Promote Rapid Transit for the City of Boston and Its Suburbs, April 5, 1892, 155.

“Oh, dear, isn’t it delightful”: “First Car off the Earth!”
Boston Daily Globe,
September 1, 1897.

“What a difference there was in the ride this morning”: Ibid.

“O, Mister Captain, stop the ship!” Ibid.

“Bravo, bravo”: Ibid.

“Damn me if I’ll go through this again”: Ibid.

They were especially admiring of the subway employees: Ibid.

“hissed along like a brood of vipers”: Ibid.

The turnstile was a new contraption for the times: “Novelty Over,”
Boston Daily Globe,
September 3, 1897.

When one exceptionally overweight gentleman got stuck: “Every Car Crowded,”
Boston Daily Globe,
September 2, 1897.

By 11:15
A.M
., one office had sold 2,500 tickets: Ibid.

“Why can’t the conductors take cash fares on the cars as before”: Ibid.

“It’s a shame to have such incompetents doing such work”: “First Car off the Earth,”
Boston Daily Globe,
September 1, 1897.

“Nearly everything went as smooth”: Ibid.

“If a woman should fall”: Ibid.

“Hmmm”: Ibid.

“I think Boston is going to like it and like it a great deal”: Ibid.

14: THE BRAINS, THE BUILDER, AND THE BANKER

“In spite of these precautions, however, the air in the tunnel is extremely offensive … small, badly ventilated”: W. M. Barclay Parsons, “Report on Rapid Transit in Foreign Cities,” 1894, 10.

“decidedly novel features”: Ibid., 51.

“These motors are designed to attain a speed of fifty miles per hour”: Ibid., 52.

“This is due largely to the confusion”: Ibid., 57.

“the nervous and active temperament of the people”: Ibid.

“There is a wide-spread popular idea”: Ibid., 60.

“On [steam] locomotives”: Ibid., 10.

“the balance of economy is in favor of electricity”: Ibid., 63.

On March 12, 1895, fifty angry developers stampeded into a meeting: “Property Owners Object,”
New York Times,
March 13, 1895.

“I feel that an elevated railroad would be ruinous to this property”: Ibid.

“What character of construction other than a viaduct would you advise?”: Ibid.

“I am prepared to act understandingly”: “Great West Side Wins,”
New York Times,
March 20, 1895.

“More than 1,800 years ago”:
Report of the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners for the City of New York
(W. P. Mitchell and Sons, 1896), 114.

“It means the end”: “Decides Against Tunnel,”
New York Times
, May 23, 1896.

“You must excuse me”: “Mr. Parsons Not Communicative,”
New York Times,
May 23, 1896.

“exceedingly expensive … It is therefore not unlikely that within a couple of years”: “Boston’s Subway Finished,”
New York Times,
August 15, 1897.

“We have the worst”: New York Transit Museum with Heller,
City Beneath Us,
20.

“They are very similar to our Boston plans”: “Subway Plans Favored,”
New York Times,
October 7, 1897.

he drank a glass of pilsner at ten thirty before going off to bed: William Steinway Diary, entry for August 6, 1896,
http://americanhistory.si.edu/steinwaydiary/diary/?entry=12040&search=burglar
.

“I am not and will not be a presidential candidate”: “So says Ex Secretary of the Navy William C. Whitney: ‘I am not a candidate!’”
Boston Daily Globe,
June 10, 1895.

Her head slammed with a sickening thud: “Met with an Accident,”
Boston Daily Globe,
February 22, 1898.

The Times
projected that if the new route carried: “Profits of the Underground Road,”
New York Times,
November 29, 1899.

one of New York’s most famous lawyers, Wheeler H. Peckham: “Boston’s Subway Favored,”
New York Times,
October 7, 1897.

Even the steady rain and soggy snow falling: “Damp Day for Old New York,”
New York Times,
January 1, 1898.

Before leaving, Parsons penned a seven-page letter: Malcolm,
William Barclay Parsons,
19–20.

He offered to build the subway within three years: “All City Railways in One,”
New York Times,
March 30, 1899.

In a statement released by his company on April 17, 1899: “Subway Bid Withdrawn,”
New York Times,
April 18, 1899.

mountains of peanut shells, and random pieces of clothing: “City’s Greeting to 1900,”
New York Times,
January 2, 1900.

“Money is not so cheap now”: “Bids for Rapid Transit,”
New York Times,
January 12, 1900.

On Monday around eleven o’clock, January 15, 1900: “Two Rapid Transit Bids Are Received,”
New York Times,
January 16, 1900.

“I expect to get the contract”: Ibid.

“My Dear Mr. Orr”: “Mr. Whitney to Mr. Orr,”
New York Times,
January 18, 1900.

“Absurd!”: “Mr. M’Donald Gets Rapid Transit Work,”
New York Times,
January 17, 1900.

he enjoyed a quiet dinner and drinks at the Hotel Savoy: Ibid.

“Yes, I am Mr. McDonald’s financial agent”: “Rapid Transit Situation,”
New York Times,
January 30, 1900.

Three weeks later, on February 24, 1900: “The Rapid Transit Contract Is Signed,”
New York Times,
February 25, 1900.

“Here is the gentleman who gives me the privilege of signing this contract”: Ibid.

“I am a contractor, not a railroad man”: Brian Cudahy,
A Century of Subways: Celebrating 100 Years of New York’s Underground Railways
(Oxford University Press, 2009), 10.

“I found the door closed”: James Blaine Walker,
Fifty Years of Rapid Transit, 1864–1917
(Law Print, 1918), 169.