December 28, 2004

Unearthing the legend of the 'secret subway'

By day, Joseph Brennan helps run the e-mail system for Columbia University. Afterhours, he's something of a history buff on the workings of the New York subway system, and has assembled great web resources about its abandoned stations and his own subway diagram.

Earlier this year he added a lengthy and beautifully illustrated section on the storied Beach Pneumatic subway -- the legendary "secret" subway built in the 1870 next to City Hall. While the station did indeed exist under Warren Street, Brennan learned a lot of the lore was suspect:

As I went through the newspaper reports and other documents, the story slowly fell apart. Half of Warren St was blocked with construction equipment and the newspapers wondered how far the tunnel ran— not exactly a secret. When I got to where ‘Boss’ Tweed tried to help Beach get a franchise, I knew I was on to something. The truth was out there and I started to wonder where the now-standard history came from. I found that too: from the inventor, entrepeneur and writer, Alfred E Beach himself.

December 28, 2004 01:45 PM in Downtown, History, Transportology

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