R E A L    E S TAT E

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Vol. CII.





NEW YORK, AUGUST 3, 1918





No. 5





New Subway Lines Will Make New York Greater

Openiiig of the Dual System Mai'ked by Predictions of Increased

Development of the Gity

WITH the opening of express service on the east
and west lines of the "H" subwa,y the Dual
Rapid Transit System may be said to be prac-
tically completed, although some of the outlying sec-
tions are not quite ready for operation and the tunnels
under the East River are not fĩnished. But whatever is
left to be accomplished will be ready and added to the
main system before the end of the year, and there will
not be any further ceremony when these units in the
general scheme of rapid transit for the whole city are
ready.

The lines of the system now completely operated by
the beginning of express service this week are:

The new Seventh avenue subway, comprising the sec-
tion of the original subway north of Times Square and
the new extension to the south, forming one side of a
huge "H" to which may be likened the Interborough's
part of the new dual system now in operation. The
old express and local tracks of the old subway between
the Grand Central Station and Times Square form the
crossbar of the "H" and the new Lexington avenue tube
comprises the opposite side of the letter.

The Lexington avenue line is a composite of that
part of the original subway south of Forty-second
street and a new tube which follows Lexington avenue
to and under the Harlem River, on the Bronx side of
which it branches into two three-track lines, one run-
ning eastward under Southern Boulevard and emerging
as an elevated road at Whitlock avenue, where it crosses
the Bronx River on a bridge and continues over West-
chester avenue to Pelham Bay Park. The second fork
runs under Mott and River avenues to 157th street,
where it comes out of the ground, and, as an elevated
road, continues up Jerome avenue to Woodlawn. From
this branch a connection is made at 148th street with
the old subway, so that some of the West Farms trains
may be diverted from the old route across Harlem to
Ninety-sixth street and Broadway, and be sent more
dîrectly to the lower east side of Manhattan by the new
Lexington avenue line.

The Jerome avenue branch of the new line is already
connected with the Ninth Avenue elevated line and a
connection is under construction between the Third
avenue elevated line and the White Plains Road ex-
tension of the old subway, now one of the northern
ends of the Seventh avenue subway. The Jerome av-,
enue line is in operation to its end and the White Plains
Road extension to within one station of its terminus,
but the eastern end of the Pelham Bay Park line has
been held back by lack of structural steel and cannot
be opened for perhaps a year or more.

New York has now the most extensive and most
elaborately equipped subway in the world and one
which has the greatest capacity. There are actually
about 150 miles of roadway in the whole system, with
something like 620 miies of trackage.   The cost of the





entire system, including the old subway and elevated
lines is approximately $600,000.00 of which about $160,-
000,000 remains to be expended.

As the backbone of the system are the two 4-track
Imes on the east and west sides of Manhattan, formed
partly by the old subway and partly by the new lines.
Then there is the new 4-track Broadway line to 57th
street, which forms the loop of the lines running into
Brooklyn. These three 4-track roads, with the McAdoo
and Queensboro tubes, come closest together at 42nd
street, at Broadway and Lexington avenues. The 4-
track roads branch ofif in almost every direction:so that
any part of the city can easily be reached. There is
only one fare of five cents with transfers at every
point, except that the Broadway line does not transfer
to the east and west side lines.   •                           '

Many points which will become important plaães. df
transfer have not been designated, nor can they b^ until
operation of the new system discloses the'need for
them.

Existing transfer points are maintained as they have
been operated, this, of course, including the Brooklyn
as well as the Manhattan stations of the old lines and
the new transfer stations of the B. R. T. Broadway line
at Fourteenth street and Canal street.

In addition to Times Square and the old junctions of
the original subway, the chief transfer station on the
Seventh avenue is at Park Place, where trains will
branch ofí for Brooklyn. There is a connection at the
Pennsylvania Station, by a passageway running under
the avenue, with the new Pennsylvania Hotel, and there
already is another at Cortlandt street with the Hudson
Terminal Building, so that it is possible to change from
the subway to the McAdoo tubes without mounting to
the street.

The most important transfer point on the new part
of the Lexington avenue subway is at 125th street.
which might be called the "Ninety-sixth street of the
East Side Line." There change may be made from or
to Jerome avenue, White Plains Road, or Pelham Bay
Park trains. The actual division of the tracks occurs
on the north side of the Harlem River at about 138th
street, but the 125th street Station has been so designed
that the trains will be sorted there and passengers
transferred from one to the other.

Ground was broken for the old subway at City Hall
on March 24, 1900, by Mayor Robert A. Van Wyck.
Previous to this the voters of the city, at a general
election on Nov. 6, 1894, had declared for municipal
construction by a vote of 132,647 to 42,916. Bids were
prepared by the new Rapid Transit Commission, which
had been created by thc Legislature in 1894 to take
the jtlace of the former board, and which was headed by
Alexander E. Orr, President of the New York Chamber
of Commerce.

Selection of a route was begun at once, but, after