722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York

When it first opened on October 27, 1904, the New York City subway ran twenty-two miles from City Hall to 145th Street and Lenox Avenue -- the longest stretch ever built at one time. From that initial route through the completion of the IND or Independent Subway line in the 1940s, the subway grew to cover 722 miles -- long enough to reach from New York to Chicago.

In this definitive history, Clifton Hood traces the complex and fascinating story of the New York City subway system, one of the urban engineering marvels of the twentieth century. For the subway's centennial the author supplies a new foreward explaining that now, after a century, "we can see more clearly than ever that this rapid transit system is among the twentieth century's greatest urban achievements."

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.