Interior New York Subway, 14th Street to 42nd Street (part 1)

Photographed May 21, 1905.
American Mutoscope and Biograph Co.
Camera: G.W. "Billy" Bitzer

The urban future is here in this two part film of western modernization. The subway, which opened on October 27th 1904, was barely seven months old when film maker Billy Bitzer mounted a camera on the front of a new electric subway train. The camera follows behind an Interboro Rapid Transit train (IRT), from the new 14th Street (Union Square) subway station, all the way up the east side to midtown at 42nd Street, pulling into the old Grand Central Terminal six minutes later. The scene is lit by a specially constructed work car running along side the star of this film. 'Modern Times' indeed.
When it was completed in 1871 Cornelius Vanderbilt's Grand Central Terminal was the largest rail facility in the world. By 1904 New York had become the city it was destined to be. Even Grand Central could no longer keep up, the expansion of the American railroad system combined with the city's own growth in rail transportation was too large. Despite the changes and additions to the terminal in 1898 major revisions would have to be made. 1904 would see the beginning of a major renovation project for GCT that would see completion in 1913. Unknown to most at the time, consolidation of the city in 1898 would put the notion of slowing down at night to rest. It would also give birth to something that would not be named for many decades...The New York Minute. -TR

There's a place at last to go spooning /
Where lovers can love with delight, /
In the future just cut out your mooning, /
And banish the stairs from your sight. /
Good-bye to the auto and trolley, /
A new lover's lane has been found. /
Where love-sick young Jimmie and Mollie, /
Can spoon day and night underground.
- 'Down in the Subway' by Jean Schwartz 1904

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUXVdxEzz8o

Recommended reading:
The New York Subway / Its Construction and Equipment (1904) - Fordham University Press (available online)
Grand Central Terminal / Railroads, Engineering, and Architecture in New York City
- Kurt C. Schlichting

Category:

Education

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[CreativeArtistsProd]

Hahahahahaha It`s called "The Sounds of Silence "

[gizmogal89]

Do you know where I might find sheet music or an mp3 of that song? :o