New York City opens their subway system,
which would quickly grow to be the world’s largest American underground train network and
the only system to operate 24/7, carrying an average of 4.5 million people per
day. The “Great Blizzard of 1888”, which saw 40-50” of snow and 30-40ft
snowdrifts, helped sell the advantages
of an underground system. The city hired
skilled miners to do the work. Only 16 deaths occurred during the 2 year
construction, with 10 of those taking place when a roof of one tunnel collapsed
in 1903.
Restrooms are a rarity in today’s subway system. There are only 129 restrooms spread out over
77 of the 468 stations have restrooms.
However, some of the restrooms were converted to retail space, as shown
in the attached photo. There are
approximately 350 retail businesses, selling newspapers and food, in the subway, generating over $70million in
rent to the transit authority.
Tokens to ride the subway were changed periodically as
prices increased.
In the 1980, the “Token War” began as people discovered the
Connecticut Toll Booth tokens, which cost about one-third the cost of subway
tokens, could be used in the subway. Connecticut initially agreed to change the
size of their tokens but changed their minds.
It remained a problem until 1985, when Connecticut discontinued charging
tolls on the turnpike. The New York
subway system had collected over 2 million tokens over a three year period,
which had a value of less than 18 cents each.
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