History of transportation in New York City
History of New York City |
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Lenape and New Netherland, to 1664 New Amsterdam British and Revolution, 1665–1783 Federal and early American, 1784–1854 Tammany and Consolidation, 1855–1897 (Civil War, 1861–1865) Early 20th century, 1898–1945 Post–World War II, 1946–1977 Modern and post-9/11, 1978–present |
See also |
Transportation Timelines: NYC • Bronx • Brooklyn • Queens • Staten Island Category |
Transportation in New York City has ranged from strong Dutch authority in the 17th century, expansionism during the industrial era in the 19th century and half of the 20th century, to cronyism during the Robert Moses era. The shape of New York City's transportation system changed as the city did, and the result is an expansive modern-day system of industrial-era infrastructure. New York City, being the most populous city in the United States, has a transportation system which includes one of the largest subway systems in the world; the world's first mechanically ventilated vehicular tunnel; and an aerial tramway.
Early days
Portions of
Lenape trail routes were not only in Manhattan.
The early Dutch city of Nieuw Amsterdam (New Amsterdam) took full advantage of the rivers which surrounded the city, foreshadowing the empire that New York's shipping industry would establish two centuries later. According to the Castello Plan, multiple canals and waterways were built, including a very early canal on the present-day Broad Street, which was called the Heere Gracht. According to Burrows, et al.,[1] a municipal pier was built on what is now Moore Street, on the East River. The first regional ground transportation that was built out of Nieuw Amsterdam was a "wagon-road" that linked to Nieuw Haarlem (Harlem). It was built in 1658 to encourage development of that town, by order of Petrus Stuyvesant, who saw that Nieuw Haarlem could provide an important measure of defense for Nieuw Amsterdam.
In 1661 the
19th century
The
As new streets were laid out beyond Wall Street, the grid became more regular. The river areas being more useful, their streets were first, with streets parallel and perpendicular to their particular river. Later 18th-century streets in the middle of the island were even more regular, with city blocks longer in the approximately north–south direction than east/west. By the early 19th century, inland urban growth had reached approximately the line of the modern Houston Street, and farther in Greenwich Village.[citation needed] Due to expanding world trade, growth was accelerating, and a commission created a more comprehensive street plan for the remainder of the island.
New York adopted a visionary proposal to develop Manhattan north of 14th Street with a regular street grid, according to the Commissioners' Plan of 1811. This would fundamentally alter the city aesthetically, economically, and geographically. The economic logic underlying the plan – which called for twelve numbered avenues running approximately north and south, and 155 orthogonal cross streets – was that the grid's regularity would provide an efficient means to develop new real estate property and would promote commerce.[4]
Into the midd-19th century, most streets remained unpaved, but tracks allowed smooth public transport by
Water transport
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Water transport grew rapidly in the new century, due in part to technical development under Robert Fulton's steamboat monopoly.[citation needed] Steamboats provided rapid, reliable connections from New York Harbor to other Hudson River and coastal ports, and later local steam ferries allowed commuters to live far from their workplaces.[5] The first steam ferry service in the world began in 1812 between Paulus Hook and Manhattan[6] and reduced the journey time to a then-remarkable 14 minutes.[7]
The completion in 1825 of the upstate
New York's ports continued to grow rapidly during and after the Second Industrial Revolution, making the city America's mouth, sucking in manufactured goods and immigrants and spewing forth grains and other raw materials to the developed countries. By the mid-19th century, thanks in part to the introduction of oceanic steamships, more passengers and products came through the Port of New York than all other harbors in the country combined.[citation needed] Conversion to steam brought a large fleet of distinctive New York tugboats.
Streetcars found steam power impractical, and more often progressed directly from horse power to electricity. Suburban electrification involved true trolley cars, but the required overhead wires were forbidden in New York (Manhattan). Traffic congestion and the high cost of conduit current collection impeded streetcar development there.
New York's waterways, so useful in establishing its commerce and power, became obstacles to railroads. Freight cars had to be carried across the harbor by car floats, contributing to harbor traffic already made heavy when many of the great new ocean steamships of the day must be served by lightering due to insufficient dock slips large enough to accommodate them despite the expensive Chelsea Piers.
The
The
Workaday purposes were not the only ones pursued on the waters. Mark Twain's
Brooklyn Bridge
Designed by
The Brooklyn Bridge was opened for use on May 24, 1883. The opening ceremony was attended by several thousand people and many ships were present in the East Bay for the occasion. President Chester A. Arthur and Mayor Franklin Edson crossed the bridge to celebratory cannon fire and were greeted by Brooklyn Mayor Seth Low when they reached the Brooklyn-side tower. Arthur shook hands with Washington Roebling at the latter's home, after the ceremony. Roebling was unable to attend the ceremony (and in fact rarely visited the site again), but held a celebratory banquet at his house on the day of the bridge opening. Further festivity included the performance of a band, gunfire from ships, and a fireworks display.[8]
On that first day, a total of 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed what was then the only land passage between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Emily Warren Roebling was the first to cross the bridge. The bridge's main span over the East River is 1,595 feet 6 inches (486.3 m). The bridge cost $15.5 million to build (in 1883 dollars) and an estimated number of 27 people died during its construction.[9]
Other East River bridges, which would be built soon after, included the Williamsburg Bridge (1903),[10][11] the Queensboro Bridge (1909),[12] and Manhattan Bridge (1909).[13]
Rails
New York was not the first to develop rapid transit in the United States, but soon caught up. Elevated trains, after a modest introduction on 9th Avenue, spread in the 1880s. Originally, elevated railways covered much of Manhattan and western Brooklyn.
The first elevated Manhattan (New York County) line was constructed in 1867-70 by Charles Harvey and his
In Brooklyn (Kings County), elevated railroads were also built by several companies, over
In 1898, New York, Kings and Richmond Counties, and parts of Queens and Westchester Counties and their constituent cities, towns, villages and hamlets were consolidated into the City of Greater New York. During this era the expanded City of New York resolved that it wanted the core of future rapid transit to be underground subways, but realized that no private company was willing to put up the enormous capital required to build beneath the streets.[14][15]
The City decided to issue rapid transit bonds outside of its regular bonded debt limit and build the subways itself, and contracted with the IRT (which by that time ran the elevated lines in Manhattan) to equip and operate the subways, sharing the profits with the city and guaranteeing a fixed five-cent fare later confirmed in the Dual Contracts.[16]
20th century
The first
Air transport
Mayor
Automotive transport
John D. Hertz started the Yellow Cab Company in 1915, which operated hireable vehicles in a number of cities including New York. Hertz painted his cabs yellow after he had read a study that identified yellow as being the most visible color from a long distance.
In the late 1910s, Mayor
The increased use of private
In 1967, New York City ordered all "
Water transport
Early in the 20th century the Department of Dock and Ferries built a series of piers south of 23rd Street to handle the ever-growing traffic of oceanic passenger steamships, which was later called Chelsea Piers.
Hudson River crossings were in the charge of the
During World War II, the New York Port of Embarkation handled about 44% of all personnel and 34% of all cargo shipped out to war.
Subways
Rapid transit expanded more quickly under the
Mayor
Construction of new subways came to a virtual standstill between the 1950s and the 2000s, with proposed expansions being first deferred and then scaled back.
The originally planned IND system was built to the completion of its original plans after World War II ended, but the system then entered an era of deferred maintenance in which infrastructure was allowed to deteriorate. In 1951 a half-billion dollar bond issue was passed to build the Second Avenue Subway, but money from this issue was used for other priorities and the building of short connector lines, namely a ramp extending the IND Culver Line over the ex-BMT Culver Line at Ditmas and McDonald Avenues in Brooklyn (1954), allowing IND subway service to operate to Coney Island for the first time, the 60th Street Tunnel Connection (1955), linking the BMT Broadway Line to the IND Queens Boulevard Line, and the Chrystie Street Connection (1967), linking the BMT line via the Manhattan Bridge to the IND Sixth Avenue Line.[21]
Soon after, the city entered a fiscal crisis. Construction (and even maintenance of existing lines) was deferred, and graffiti and crime were at all-time highs. Meanwhile, trains always broke down and were poorly maintained and often late, while ridership declined by the millions each year. Closures of elevated lines continued. These closures included the entire
Robert Moses era
Mayor La Guardia appointed a dynamic young
A catalyst for expressways and suburbs, but a nemesis for environmentalists and politicians alike,
Late 20th century
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In the 1960s the State took over two financially ailing suburban commuter railroads and merged them, along with the subways and various Moses-era agencies, into what was later named the
21st century
Since the early 2000s, many proposals for expanding or improving the New York City transit system have been in various stages of discussion, planning, or initial funding. As part of PlaNYC 2030, a long-term plan to manage New York City's environmental sustainability, Mayor Michael Bloomberg released several proposals to increase mass transit usage and improve overall transportation infrastructure.[25]
The two major airports in the city are being improved. LaGuardia Airport started a US$4 billion renovation in the spring of 2016,[26] with the entire redevelopment scheduled to be completed by 2024.[27] Terminals are being demolished, and others located so that they are connected to the main building via bridges over the taxiways.[28][29] John F. Kennedy International Airport is also undergoing a US$10.3 billion redevelopment, one of the largest airport reconstruction projects in the world. In recent years, Terminals 1,[30][31] 4,[32][33] 5,[34] and 8[35] have been reconstructed. In January 2007, the Port Authority approved plans for the $78.5 million purchase of a lease of Stewart Airport in Newburgh, New York with plans to use it to add capacity.[36]
The subway has also received several major
There have also been efforts to rebuild and improve commuter rail. The
Although New York City does not have
Bloomberg's other proposals included the implementation of bus rapid transit, the reopening of closed LIRR and Metro-North stations, new ferry routes, better access for cyclists, pedestrians and intermodal transfers, and a congestion pricing zone for Manhattan south of 86th Street.[25] The bus rapid transit system, Select Bus Service, started operating in 2008.[55] The city's cycling network was expanded[56] and Citi Bike, a citywide bike share, was opened in 2013.[57] NYC Ferry, a citywide ferry system, began running its first routes in May 2017.[58] Penn Station Access, which would reopen several Metro-North stations in Manhattan and the Bronx, was given consideration in the MTA's 2015–2019 Capital Program, but cannot be implemented until after East Side Access is completed.[59]
Although Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan was initially shot down in 2008,[60][61] Governor Andrew Cuomo gave the idea renewed consideration in 2017.[62] Cuomo appointed an advisory panel, which in January 2018 released recommendations for a congestion pricing plan.[63]
The
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