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722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York | 
 enlarge | Author: Clifton Hood
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy Used: $2.50
You Save: $16.45 (87%)
New (1) Used (38) from $2.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 395592
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1
ISBN: 0801852447
Dewey Decimal Number: 388.428097471
EAN: 9780801852442
ASIN: 0801852447
Publication Date: September 1, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Clifton Hood traces the complex and fascinating history of the New York City subway system. At its opening in 1904, the tracks covered the twenty-two miles from City Hall up to 145th Street and Broadway, the longest stretch ever built at one time. From that initial route through the completion of the IND, the Independent Subway, in the 1940s, the subway grew to cover 722 miles -- long enough to reach from New York to Chicago. "Clifton Hood's 722 Miles is the fullest and most authoritative account of the building and impact of the New York City subways, the most extensive system of urban transportation in the United States and perhaps the world." -- Nathan Glazer, Harvard University "A clear, perceptive and carefully researched study of this engineering feat and the ways in which the subway led to an expansion of the metropolitan area." -- Publishers Weekly
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Not A Tourist Guide? February 15, 2004
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
In response to other reviewers: this book is not MEANT to be a tourist guide, it IS, however, an academic study, and a very good one indeed. For those who did not enjoy the book, because of it's lack of pictures, perhaps the problems lie with the reader rather than the author?
 Wake me up! November 24, 2003
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
As a daily rider of the New York subway system, I find it dynamic and exciting piece of living history. This book, however, was not. It is a plodding academic treatment that focuses more on politics than the actual system. The pictures were too few. The maps were poorly realized and uninformative. As the system is still in place largely as it was decades ago, I would have liked references to the current line and station names instead of trying to guess or sit there with my own maps (something you can't do if reading while riding the subway). The subway system represents both a technological marvel and an instrument of great social change. Where is that book.
a good political history June 11, 2003
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
my only criticism of this book is that 1/3 of it is of footnotes. when the book ended, there was too much reference material here. the jackson heights subway line info is interesting as it is not common to focus on an area outsideof manhattan as much. a good read. the poltical machinisms to get the work done are a worthy read.
Doesn't cover everything, of course. March 12, 2002
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
As another reviewer mentioned, this isn't a tourist guide. There aren't that many maps, and the ones present do not show stops. Aside from the creation of new suburbs such as Jackson Heights, there isn't a whole lot of discussion of how the subways affected neighborhoods after they were built, especially after cars began to take over.The main point this book makes is how the combination of enforced low fares and the perception of rapid transit as a business rather than a public service caused the subways' decline. The beginning of the book describes some of the engineering problems involved in building subways in New York. I would have liked to have seen more of that, especially for later, non-IRT subways; diagrams of the terrain in question would have been interesting. Anyway, the book has to stop somewhere. For all that's left out, the discussion of people and politics, and of how things could have turned out differently, is fascinating.
Very nicely written. August 25, 2001
2 out of 12 found this review helpful
Hood demonstrates the power of doing ones Homework . Excellent reading.
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