Tuesday, December 20

Love Train, Love Train

A Brief History of the Evolution of New York's Public Transport System:

1827 -- Abraham Brower establishes New York's first public transportation route, a 12-seat stagecoach that runs along Broadway from the Battery to Bleecker Street. TKTS matinee prices balloon to $.03 per seat.

1870 -- The city's first regular elevated railway service runs along west side of Manhattan. Roasted peanut sales skyrocket.

1904 -- Opening of first official Manhattan subway system, the privately owned Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), consisting of 28 stations from City Hall to 145th Street and Broadway. The "Big Borough Dig" expanded to the Bronx in 1905, Brooklyn in 1908 and Queens in 1915.

1915 -- The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, later known as the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT), opens a subway between Brooklyn and Manhattan. This marks the last time the Brooklyn bound train was free of the nearly overwhelming stench of urine.

1940 -- New York City purchases the IRT and BMT and combines it with the city's own Independent (IND) line under the umbrella of the Board of Transportation and becomes sole owner and operator of all subway and elevated lines.

1970 -- Walls of "Subway" "restaurants" nationwide are outfitted with New York subway maps.

1989 - 2001 -- Over a dozen New Years Eve's and Fourth of July's ruined because Lysa is petrified of riding the rails and adamantly refuses to do so.

2001 -- Trains become Lysa's sole means of transit. Overnight. Yup, just like that.

December 20, 2005 -- Finally, the New York City and Washington DC transit systems have something in common.

Welcome to my world, guys.
Hey, at least while you're pounding the pavement on your way to work, you won' t have to walk in circles.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wait until this union meets the Taylor Law....should be quite a revelation!

Beakerz said...

Sorry NY. You are now closed.

Imagine that!?!

Anonymous said...

there's a transit strike - shit, know way my EA is coming in...

Scottie said...

"If you don't like your job, you don't strike. You just go in everyday and do it really half-assed. That's the American way"