The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America's First Subway
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unions
United States Naval Academy
urban mass transit systems. See transit systems
U.S. Patent Office
utility lines
buried
overhead
vactrain
Van Brunt, Charles H.
Van Depoele, Charles
Vanderbilt, Cornelius II
Vanderbilt, Gertrude
Vanderbilt, Mrs. William K.
Van Wyck, Robert
Vathek (Gothic novel)
vaudeville in New York
ventilation of subways
Verne, Jules
Viaduct Plan (Tweed’s)
Vinal, William
Wade & Leverich
Wall Street, panics
Washburn and Washburn
Washington, D.C.
Washington Heights, New York
Washington Monument
waterproofing the subway tunnels
water pumped from subways
Watson, C. W.
Wearing Booth and Company
weather forecasts
Wellington, Duke of
Wells, H. G.
West End Street Railway Company (Boston)
electrification
founding of
ridership
West Side, New York City
Whalen, Michael
whaling industry
Whitman, Walt
Whitney, Elinor
Whitney, Harry
Whitney, Harry Payne
Whitney, Henry Melville
childhood
conflict with Matthews
consulted by William regarding transit
early career
and electrification
family background
inspects his company
last years
loses interest in a subway
marriage to Margaret Green
mentioned
popularity of, as boss
proposes a subway
real estate holdings
resigns from West End Street Railway Company presidency
rivalry with brother William
Whitney, James
Whitney, James Scollay
Whitney, John
Whitney, Josephine
Whitney, Josiah
Whitney, Laura
Whitney, Olive
Whitney, Pauline
Whitney, Ruth
Whitney, Susan
Whitney, William Collins
childhood
corporate counsel of New York City
death of
early career
enmity with Hewitt
estate
family background
interest in transportation
marriage to Flora Payne
mentioned
mourns Flora
Navy secretary
offer to build subway, rejected (1899)
personal life
political interests
presidential candidature, proposed
rivalry with brother Henry
second marriage to Edith Randolph
secretly aids building of subway
secretly undermines building of subway
takeover of New York City transit
Widener’s letter to
Whitney, William Payne “Willie”
Whitney family
Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney’s Pure Lemon Juice
Widener, Peter A. B.
Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Massachusetts
Willson, Hugh B.
Wilson, John W.
wires
overhead
underground
Wolcott, Roger
Woodbridge, S. Homer
Woodbury and Leighton
workers
pay of
See also Boston subway, construction workers; New York subway, construction workers
World (New York paper)
World’s Work
Worthen, William Ezra
Worthen plan
Wright, Orville and Wilbur
Yale University
Young Men’s Democratic Club of Massachusetts
Henry Melville Whitney, owner of the world’s largest streetcar company, proposed tunneling under Boston Common. (Courtesy of Lee Sylvester)
William Collins Whitney, New York transit king and Secretary of the Navy under President Cleveland. (Courtesy of Lee Sylvester)
Late in his life, Henry Whitney loved spending time with his children. (Courtesy of Lee Sylvester)
Alfred Ely Beach
New York mayor Abram S. Hewitt was in charge when the Blizzard of 1888 struck. (Library of Congress)
Marc Isambard Brunel, the engineer behind London’s Underground. (National Portrait Gallery, London)
William “Boss” Tweed used corruption to kill Beach’s tunnel. (National Archives)
Samuel Meredith Strong, the boy caught in the Blizzard of 1888. (U.S. National Library of Medicine)
Engineer Frank J. Sprague, whose electric motor was a critical development. (Courtesy of John Sprague)
William Barclay Parsons, the engineer behind New York’s subway. (Parsons Brinckerhoff )
New York subway contractor John B. McDonald.
Tufts engineer Frederick Stark Pearson was used by Henry and William Whitney. (Cyclopaedia of American Biography [artist unknown])
William Steinway ushered the piano into living rooms and the subway into New York City. (Courtesy of the Henry Z. Steinway archives)
New York subway financier August Belmont. (Library of Congress)
Frank Sprague in the New York alley where he tested his electric motor. (Courtesy of John Sprague)
The hill in Richmond, Virginia, that Sprague overcame with his 56electric motor. (Courtesy of John Sprague)
The unbearable congestion on Tremont Street in Boston. (State Transportation Library of Massachusetts)
Dangerous overhead wires and the Blizzard of 1888 triggered subway construction. (New-York Historical Society)
Wall Street during the Blizzard of 1888. (New-York Historical Society)
The cut-and-cover tunnel under way in Boston in 1896. (State Transportation Library of Massachusetts)
The steel work begins along Tremont Street. (State Transportation Library of Massachusetts)
Workers digging the tunnel under Boylston Street take a rest. (State Transportation Library of Massachusetts)
More than 900 graves were discovered during Boston’s construction. (State Transportation Library of Massachusetts)
It was up to horses to carry out the tons of dirt from the trench. (Historic New England)
On March 4, 1897, a gas line explosion in Boston killed pedestrians, passengers, and horses. (Print Department, Boston Public Library)
A dead horse was ignored as workers rushed to the injured after the explosion. (Print Department, Boston Public Library)
The Hotel Pelham suffered the most damage in the explosion. (State Transportation Library of Massachusetts)
Trolleys veered around the construction in Boston, but it was still a major disruption to businesses. (Print Department, Boston Public Library)
The trial run of Boston’s subway in August 1897. (Print Department, Boston Public Library)
Motorman James Reed steers out America’s first subway car. (State Transportation Library of Massachusetts)
The first subway trains emerge from beneath Boston on September 1, 1897. (State Transportation Library of Massachusetts)
William Parsons strikes the first pickax on March 26, 1900, to launch New York’s subway construction. (Parsons Brinckerhoff)
Early tunnel digging in lower Manhattan in 1900. (New York Transit Museum)
Subway construction on New York’s Park Row in November 1902. (New York Transit Museum)
The tunnel had to be dug deep beneath New York’s streets in the city’s northern half. (New York Transit Museum)
A rock slide in 1902 beneath Park Avenue at 38th Street nearly collapsed the tunnel and forced buildings to be supported. (New York Transit Museum)
Tunneling shields like this helped bore through the Manhattan schist. (New York Transit Museum)
New York celebrated its subway groundbreaking with great cheer on March 24, 1900, unlike Boston’s almost invisible ceremony. (New York Transit Museum)
When New York’s subway was ready to open, John McDonald was right in front and William Parsons was behind him. (New-York Historical Society)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Doug Most is the deputy managing editor for features at The Boston Globe. He is the author of Always in Our Hearts: The Story of Amy Grossberg, Brian Peterson, the Pregnancy They Hid, and the Child They Killed. He has written for Sports Illustrated, Runner’s World, and Parents, and his stories have appeared in Best American Crime Writing and Best American Sports Writing. He lives in Needham, Massachusetts.
THE RACE UNDERGROUND. Copyright © 2014 by Doug Most. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by The Book Designers
Cover photograph © Konmesa/Shutterstock.com
eISBN 9781466842007
First Edition: February 2014