New York's First Subway Ran on Air

New York's First Subway Ran on Air | Legacy of Innovation Ep. 4 On February 26, 1870, Alfred Ely Beach, the editor of Scientific American, opened a tunnel under Broadway. It ran about one block, from Warren Street to just south of Murray Street, and a single round car was blown along it by a giant rotary blower. His company's 1868 charter allowed pneumatic tubes "for the conveyance of letters and packages". What opened in 1870 carried people. This episode covers the fan-driven tube Beach built for the 1867 American Institute Fair, the tunneling shield that dug the Broadway tunnel, opening day, and the lawsuits and the Panic of 1873 that ended the project. It also covers the 1912 rediscovery of the tunnel, with the shield still inside, and what came after: New York's pneumatic mail tubes (1897–1953) and the Holland Tunnel. Chapters 0:00 A tunnel found under Broadway, 1912 0:54 Broadway's traffic problem 1:38 Alfred Ely Beach and the 1867 fair tube 2:48 A charter for "letters and packages" 4:00 Digging with Beach's shield 5:24 Opening day, February 26, 1870 7:04 Lawsuits, the Astor House and the Panic of 1873 8:18 The tunnel rediscovered 9:01 Mail tubes, the Holland Tunnel and Beach's legacy 9:49 Credits Sources The New York Times (8 and 29 Jan 1870, 1912, 1926, 1932 and 1940 via nycsubway.org transcriptions; 27 Feb 1870); Scientific American (5 Mar 1870, incl. the New York Herald as quoted there); London Transport Museum; USPS Historian, "The Pneumatic Mail Tubes"; Smithsonian; Library of Congress. Full image, music and source credits: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k... Credits Archival images (public domain): Library of Congress (incl. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Feb. 19, 1870); New York Public Library; The Metropolitan Museum of Art (CC0); Scientific American (5 Mar 1870); New-York Historical Society; La Nature; The Americana; Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911); an engraving signed "T. W.", 1864; "Illustrated Description of the Broadway Underground Railway" (1872), Columbia University Libraries via Internet Archive. The map, the charter card, the blower diagram and the timeline are original illustrations (schematic, not to scale). Music (public domain, Musopen via Internet Archive): Borodin, String Quartet No. 2, III. Notturno; Haydn, Op. 64 No. 5 "Lark", II. Adagio cantabile; Beethoven, Op. 18 No. 6, II. Adagio ma non troppo. Narration: Timmie Lee's ElevenLabs Professional Voice Clone (AI voice, used with consent; script written and checked by humans) #history #NYC #subway #inventions #LegacyOfInnovation