Boston Oldest Subway In Us

Why Boston got its first subway in the us before any other us city?

Maybe because there are so few parallel streets, and strong opposition to El's because the crowded street was alongside Boston Commom. Everything ran into Tremont Street and Washington St, and it got really crowded. NY had more streets and more traffic, but they were able to build several El's before Boston did El's or tunnels.

Construction of the original section of the Tremont Street Subway was remarkably short in length. It ran from a portal in the Boston Common up to Boylston Station and then over to Park Street. That was it. That two station stretch opened on September 1st, 1897. That was then added onto multiple times and in multiple layers (different lines) to give us the extensive system we have today.

While the MBTA proclaims the Green Line as "America's first subway", keep in mind that it was really a underground trolley line. New York and Chicago had heavy rail elevated lines for many years prior. Boston's first true heavy rail subway was the Cambridge-Dorchester Line (Red Line), with the first section in 1912 and with further extensions until 1928 (1971 including the Quincy spur). This was eight years after New York's IRT subway in 1904.

Scott10690 wrote:Construction of the original section of the Tremont Street Subway was remarkably short in length. It ran from a portal in the Boston Common up to Boylston Station and then over to Park Street. That was it. That two station stretch opened on September 1st, 1897. That was then added onto multiple times and in multiple layers (different lines) to give us the extensive system we have today.

Which is why it's true that Boston had the first subway, but NY had the first subway system. The IRT that opened seven years after the Tremont St subway was a full-fledged subway line.

I cringe whenever I hear people justifying maintenance problems on the T by saying that it's the "oldest subway in the country". Most of the Orange and Blue Lines and a good part of the Red Line date from the '50s or later. Only three of the Green Line stations date from before 1914; by that time the NY subway had well expanded beyond the sole original IRT line.

And the 1897 trolley tunnel was not even the first underground train tunnel in the country. Read about the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel in Brooklyn (which I have visited).

saulblum wrote:Which is why it's true that Boston had the first subway, but NY had the first subway system. The IRT that opened seven years after the Tremont St subway was a full-fledged subway line.

I cringe whenever I hear people justifying maintenance problems on the T by saying that it's the "oldest subway in the country". Most of the Orange and Blue Lines and a good part of the Red Line date from the '50s or later. Only three of the Green Line stations date from before 1914; by that time the NY subway had well expanded beyond the sole original IRT line

Of all MBTA heavy rail line's the oldest section is the Blue Line's East Boston Tunnel, which was built in 1904 as a trolley line and later converted into heavy rail service (a la the IRT Steinway/Queensboro Tunnel on the IRT Flushing #7 Line). And with the exception of the Washington Street Subway, the Orange Line dates from 1975 (northern section) and the Southwest Corridor subway in 1987.

So in a sense, Boston's heavy rail network has been heavily rebuilt, with few remaining original sections.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:So in a sense, Boston's heavy rail network has been heavily rebuilt, with few remaining original sections.

Exactly, which is why I am irked when reading quotes such as the following --

http://www.metro.us/boston/local/articl ... -all-night

If we didn’t do our upkeep it would shut down permanently. Being the oldest system in the nation it just requires more maintenance than the newer systems.” –Edward Nave, foreman

Which explains why that 10027-year-old tunnel north of Harvard is closed on weekends for the next few months.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:While the MBTA proclaims the Green Line as "America's first subway", keep in mind that it was really a underground trolley line. New York and Chicago had heavy rail elevated lines for many years prior. Boston's first true heavy rail subway was the Cambridge-Dorchester Line (Red Line), with the first section in 1912 and with further extensions until 1928 (1971 including the Quincy spur). This was eight years after New York's IRT subway in 1904.

Didn't the Orange Line tunnel in downtown Boston open before the Red Line?

Yup. The Washington Street Subway opened November 30, 1908.

Before that elevated cars ran through the Tremont Street Subway.

It's interesting to note that the Boston Transit Commission did consider building an elevated through downtown for steam-powered trains before settling on the plans for a trolley subway. Cudahy's 'Change at Park Street Under' mentions this but did not provide any additional detail about the proposed route.

rail10 wrote:Why Boston got its first subway in the us before any other us city?

The streetcar congestion on Tremont Street was so bad that Boston happened to solve the problem with a subway before any other U.S. city built a subway.

It was just one year later that the second portion, from Park St. to Haymarket, opened.

There was no race among cities to see who would build a subway first.

RailBus63 wrote:It's interesting to note that the Boston Transit Commission did consider building an elevated through downtown for steam-powered trains before settling on the plans for a trolley subway. Cudahy's 'Change at Park Street Under' mentions this but did not provide any additional detail about the proposed route.

A few years ago somewhere I saw a rendering from that era depicting a proposed elevated line going above Tremont Street along the Common. That was cancelled because of unacceptable impacts on the Common.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:While the MBTA proclaims the Green Line as "America's first subway", keep in mind that it was really a underground trolley line. New York and Chicago had heavy rail elevated lines for many years prior. Boston's first true heavy rail subway was the Cambridge-Dorchester Line (Red Line), with the first section in 1912 and with further extensions until 1928 (1971 including the Quincy spur). This was eight years after New York's IRT subway in 1904.

Not to nit pick with you, R36, but I've been waiting for a Bostonian to pick you up on your use of the word "subway". The MBTA is correct in calling the Tremont Street Subway "the first subway in America", (although I wished that they had thrown in that the cars were motorized by electric propulsion). The real first subway in America was the Beach Pneumatic Tube in which a huge fan drove an air sealed car through a short tunnel in Manhattan. The reason that the T is correct is that streetcars ride in subways and trains ride in tunnels (a common distinction made). That isn't my opinion, that's a matter of law.
Source - Massachusetts General Law; Acts of 1894, Chapter 584 and Acts of 1902, Chapter 534.

Or maybe we could say that the Tremont St. subway was the first practical subway or first mass transit subway in America.

The Beach pneumatic tube was a demonstration only, or you could say amusement ride as opposed to mass transit. It had just one station and people rode it about the length of a football field to a dead and and then rode back to the starting point.

I don't know how many amusement parks built underground attractions resembling subways. If any did and we excluded those rides from the definition of "subway" then the Beach pneumatic tube would also be eliminated.

By the way, the Earthquake ride at Universal Studios in Florida is also an out and back ride (in a mockup of a subway train).

Disney Guy wrote:
I don't know how many amusement parks built underground attractions resembling subways. If any did and we excluded those rides from the definition of "subway" then the Beach pneumatic tube would also be eliminated.

You bring up an interesting sideline to this topic DG, that of amusement park "dark" rides. To my knowledge, all that I can think of that were built around that time were enclosed at ground level, short of a shallow channel dug for a lagoon, and the ride didn't technically go under ground. Around my area, Revere Beach had the "Fatal Wedding" (electrified car), and Paragon Park had "The Jungle Ride" (small boat propelled by windmilled water channel) which were as I described. Does anyone know of a dark ride that was truely underground ?