The Interborough Rapid Transit Company's subway line opened between City Hall and 145th Street, running 9.1 miles and completing the journey in 26 minutes, a trip that previously took over an hour above ground. Financed by August Belmont Jr. and built under engineer John B. McDonald's direction, the system used cut-and-cover construction and immediately reshaped how New Yorkers lived, worked, and expanded the city northward into Manhattan and beyond.
At 2:35 in the afternoon, Mayor George McClellan Jr. took the controls of the first train himself and, against the wishes of his handlers, refused to give up the controls for several stops, grinning as he piloted the train through the tunnels beneath Manhattan. That evening, the system opened to the public, and by midnight roughly 150,000 New Yorkers had ridden it, marveling at electric-lit tunnels and tiled station walls decorated with terra-cotta plaques.
The project had taken four years of grueling excavation, using dynamite and pickaxes to cut through Manhattan schist, and cost the lives of dozens of workers in tunnel collapses and explosions. The line ran from City Hall up through Union Square, Times Square, and into the Bronx, cutting travel times so dramatically that real estate development followed the tracks northward almost overnight.
Within its first year the subway carried over 106 million riders. It gave rise to the modern commuter city, letting workers live miles from their jobs, and set the template that Boston, Chicago, and cities worldwide would study. The five-cent fare became a fixture of New York life for decades, a small coin that unlocked an entire metropolis.
Key people: August Belmont Jr., John B. McDonald