Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Discussion 20140302

A when i move to boston it was an experience. And as i started looking for a book idea i started looking at the boston subway knowing it was a point in america. One of the things that was interesting as we looked into the history of that and i discovered i had written a true story behind how the subway came to be. But then i was interested when i discovered the same time boston was debating and digging the subway new york was doing the exact same thing. At the same time in the late 1800s both cities were completely overrun by immigrants who had flooded into the city in the second half of the 19th century and really had sort of overrun the cities in the cities were at the time sort of just fingernails of what they are today. Everybody was crammed into just a tiny portion of the city because that was as thou art far out is you could go. If you wanted to get from Downtown Boston to brooklyn it would take you two hours by horse and carriage. Very few people lived out here except for the extremely wealthy and they had private carriages so that was the way life was back then. If you did not have a carriage and horse pulled cart for yourself then you lived downtown on one of those streets that was developed very early and that was it treated the same thing was true for new york. In new york city everybody lives in a further spout part of downtown crammed onto the island of manhattan. It was only when trolleys begin to speed up and the electric trolley came along and means of moving people around started to come along that then people were able to move out and move out of the city so at first it was a mild than two miles and then for miles and eventually six miles and the city started to expand and grow. That was critical to get people further out from the downtown area where they were living. That was sort of a big moment in the second half of the 19th century that happened with the expansion of cities. The book sort of developed from that Pivotal Moment when city started to expand and what happened was a couple of pivotal pivotal Pivotal Moments happen. It did blizzard, storm like nothing we have ever seen since then cripple the entire northeast. For at least 400 people but some estimate more than 1000 people were killed in this lizard. It just devastated the entire northeast. New york boston and everything in between ground to a standstill. When that happened new york especially took a look at the way they were moving people which was elevated trains and they said this has to change. We cant be at the mercy of the skies any longer. Boston at the time had already started to look at ways to move people underground and this is where the story to me became very interesting. There was a gentleman in boston by the name of Henry Whitney sophie think of the name whitney in American Culture for me anyway two things come to mind. One of them is the museum in new york city which is a Famous Museum founded by ancestors of the Whitney Family. The other one was e. Live whitney. I remember back in fifth grade and the cotton gin but eli was a cousin of the Whitney Family so this family is just one of the most important cultural families that made such an impact on American Life today. These two brothers from the Whitney Family grew up in massachusetts out by springfield pivotal roles in the two subways one in boston and one new york. Whitney lived in brookline and he is essentially singlehandedly responsible for what you see now on beacon st. He is the man who saw the vision of a constraint street becoming what it is today with tracks down the middle, trees lining those tracks boulevards on both sides of the street, of the tracks and he sort of saw saw that and develop that and made a fortune off of it. He is also the man who first imposed the idea of building a tunnel underneath boston. In 1887 he went before the state legislature and propose what at the time was a radical idea, a tunnel under boston common. The idea was met with jeers and a lot of people said the common is sacred ground, dont touch that. And he sort of pushed it and he became a critical figure in how the subway came to be today. At the same time he was doing that his brother William Whitney was getting involved in the Transit System in new york city and the interesting thing about these brothers is that they were polar opposites. He was a slacker dropped out of school bounce around the country trying to find a direction and a job until he was in his 40s and he married a woman 20 years younger than him and sort of just was directionless for a long time until he got involved in transit and real estate and that gave him a purpose in that direction and focused him. His brother was the exact opposite. His brother married, went to harvard and then to yale and married into one of the richest families in the country that paine family of ohio who made a fortune in oil and eventually William Whitney became an important lawyer in new york city who brought down boss tweet and was recruited to run for president. Had he wanted to be present he could have been. There were buttons with people Walking Around that said William Whitney for president but he didnt want to be president. He came back, and gave an interview at the time where worries that im not running for president and very emphatic about it. He helped get Grover Cleveland elected and he became a huge political figure in washington. He got involved in transit in new york and the two brothers became these critical figures in these projects so to me as i discover that and opens the life of the Whitney Family and the subway i became fascinated with it. These two cities boston and new york in these two brothers henry and william and this amazing project. The last reason i wrote this book and maybe in some ways the first reason i wrote this book is that i think all of us tend to take these things for granted we ride the subway. These massive things than other projects over the centuries that have been built. When we ride the subway today whether austin new york london paris wherever you are i think we tend to not think about how that tunnel came to be and in new york that tunnel came to be because of immigrants, irish workers and italians who came to this country with the sole purpose of digging a tunnel with pics shovels axes their bare hands horses pulling cartloads of dirt mat. There were no giant machines that you see today when we walk by a construction site. There were just men and their tools. That is what was fascinating and as i look at the donald i find myself having an appreciation for it. Its a remarkable feat and that was done 100 years ago because at the time they knew that was going to be a critical thing. People need to feel safe and secure that the air was clean. That was a huge obstacle for them to overcome. Centuries ago men did not want to go down. That was terrifying to mankind, the idea of going underground was terrifying and they had to overcome that and convince people that going down there was going to be safe. So that was one of the big achievements of these tunnels was convincing mankind that going underground was safe, secure not going to flood. Your tunnel will be light and airy and all those things. Although we sometimes joke about how light and airy the tunnels are in boston they really are. They are dry and its pretty amazing. When i write ride to the tunnels i have a special appreciation for how those tom wells came to be and the book tells the story of not just Henry Whitney and William Whitney and some of the others behind us but it tells a story of these immigrants. Patrick mclaughlin who was working on the job one day and a hammer came down and hit them on the head of hamas killed him. The projects back then were, they were sort of knew what they were doing. They were learning as they went. Dynamite if you think about it was something that was brandnew in the late 1800s. Dynamite was something they had never worked with in boston or new york and here they were blowing things up under the city streets and it was crazy. They didnt know how to harness the power of dynamite and yet they were doing it so the book tells the story of the big people in the Little People because i wanted it to reflect those of those things. So i hope when you read the book what you take away from it is especially the appreciation for how we get around the city of austin the city of new york how those tunnels came to be. Its a remarkable feat and there are still subways being built today including in new york the Second Avenue subway and the same Second Avenue subway which not only built the original subway but in boston so there are connections between boston and new york from this project that still exist to this day. So the look sort of tells a lot of those connections. There is a little background for you in terms of how the book came to be and why i was interested in it. I will read a few passages and i will assume that everyone in this room at some point may be in brookline or boston has written the subway. I will give you a little from boston and a little from new york to give you a flavor of what happened in the two cities. The first chapter of the book was probably my favorite chapter before the new york subway opened in the new york subway opened in 1904, before that subway opened 50 years earlier there was a gentleman by the name of alfred beach. He was a skinny opera loving inventor who invented things like the typewriter for the blind and lots of other quirky inventions. An amazing man and he had a dream in their early 1850s that new york needed a subway. This was 50 years before new york would actually get a subway that he had this dream to give new york a subway. There was an obstacle standing in this way so i will read a short portion from this chapter. Devlin Clothing Store was a fivestory commercial success. Brothers daniel and jeremiah opened a business in 1840 3a few blocks away from city hall. When business took off they needed more space for their racks of readymade frocks suits umbrellas ties and trousers paired one of the reasons the space works so well was the gigantic basement which went to levels deep underground. Alfred h. Needed a space for his new business. The beach pneumatic transit company. After scouting for real estate along broadway when he saw the basement of devlin and notice it could be accessed from the sidewalk he negotiated a deal with the brothers. For 4000 a year he would lease the basement for a period a five year starting in 1868. He spent the next are focused on a single piece of machinery he would need to dig his tunnel. The device he came up with was ingenious and resemble the hollowed out arrow to exert pressure that could lose and 16 inches of soil with each push. He designed a hood over the edge that would protect workers from falling debris or the catastrophic event of a collapse but before beach could start digging a different catastrophe nearly derailed his project creative pair of cronies scheme to drive up the price of gold by buying it in bulk. By late september the price of gold had risen to an astronomical 137 per ounce and by the morning of september 24 frenzy enveloped wall street and riots nearly broke out. The National Guard was put on notice. Gold kept rising to 160 is lunchtime pass. Brokers lives were destroyed and one even shot himself at home before the deal is over. They sold 4 million of gold and it was too late. Wall streets first black friday expose hatchet men acting alone could bring the country to the brink of financial ruin. Black ready touch everybody including beach lost a fortune but he was too far invested to stop in three months after black friday he was ready to start the tunnel. In december of 1869 beach and his son frederick and a small group of men arrived in devlins store after close for the night. They brought picks and shovels covered wagons works lanterns and tools and following beaches and instructions to the tunnel south under broadway from warren st. In curved to below murray st. The laborers worked quietly to avoid suspicion above. Night after night the six men would stand inside the shield while another half dozen performed the task to polis the shovel. Others lay bricks to line the tunnel and still others made the trek to carry a single car. The walls were painted white iron rods were installed throughout the roof to the pavement and gas lights and oxygen masks on. It was an efficient operation but it was scary. Claustrophobic for some workers who walked off the job or the rumbling from the street railways overhead created terrifying roar that made the late night work nerveracking. Thanks to the efficient tunneling shield the tunneling went well. Beach was relieved at how smoothly professed until it buckled in the ground should read the soft dirt came to an end and the workers stared at a wall in front of them. The beach faced a dilemma. Either the wall had to come down or the project was over. Nobody knew if moving the wall would cause broadway to buckle her collapse. Each told his men to chip away and take it down stone by stone. It took several nights in beach stood by as every stone was removed and pass from worker to worker and carted out. The ceiling held, the wall came down in the digging resumed. As hard as beach tried to keep his work is secret it was impossible. The operation required with scaffolding and enormous machinery that would arrive at the corner where would sit for hours or days before disappearing down the steps never to be seen again. New yorks mayor abraham haul one of ball wall streets loyalist grew suspicious of what the company was up to and then when a section of broadway sunk ever so slightly the mayor acted. On january 3, 1870 he sent a written order demanding to be let in. He got nowhere. Each his men had orders to let nobody in and remind anyone who tried that they would be chartered to complete their tunnel. The response from beach was simple, nonsense. The New York Times suggested that haul was not going to back away. As the Street Company commenced the paper wrote it is likely the mayor counseled him to remove them but beach was equally stubborn. On jenrry eight he released a statement. In reference to the ridiculous stories in the doors being closed to all persons theres no truth to them. The company promised to make repairs to the surface. The mayor backed off and each bought himself time and one month later and 58 days after the digging began the tumult was finished. It was a perfect 112 feet and all that was needed were the subway car and the fan to blow the car down the tracks. That is a little piece of history will wear alfred beach built a secret subway tunnel from the entire city of new york. It was just a great story and he was determined to not let boston get in his way. When he found out what he was doing he was not happy because he had a stake in the Transit System taking a nickel out of every fair and the idea of the subway new city angered him. Its a great story of this little guide taking down the big guy if you want to call a david and goliath its a fun way to look at it but the story of alfred beach was remarkable. Thats a piece from the new new york and but skipping ahead to boston, boston story has a lot of interesting angles. One that was the most interesting was when they first started taking on the subway site on the construction site downtown so im going to read you a piece of when that construction began. The contractor on and the job was a man named Michael Meehan. They called him the comments buildup with wagons loaded with dirt. Piles of picks and shovels were all over it every morning the sun came out there were dozens of men jostling for position to get noticed. The most important person is dead guard was not Michael Meehan but his son robert. The Contractors Office was asked desk and comfortable chairs and no one was allowed in. Meehan was the makeshift village for the duration of the project. Reshanties were erected with fresh coats of paint. For laborers to e their lands take a breath mend their hands and sore feet or wait for the next assignment. No smoking was allowed so that shanties became a place where pipe smoke filled the air. From the day but for shovel and to the ground me and was entrusted his father to take down the names and addresses of the workers who congregated every morning. It was the timekeeper on the job in the general utility man who answered all the questions. Each morning he would take the information of the men gathered and explain if and when their services were required they would receive a letter in the mail and be expected to arrive promptly at 7 00 in the morning. At first only 25 men came but that was expected to grow to 50, 100 possibly more than 1000 a day. As more equipment was brought in the trench got deeper and longer in the process of sealing it with concrete began. As soon as the project started neither meehan or joness partner whose faces appeared in the papers enough time to make them familiar to the average citizen could walk anywhere without being pressured for work they were celebrities and everyday letters begging for work were thrust into their hands. Meehan referred them to his son except in those instances when they were not in his there are no snaps around here and he laughs. Another man tried a different approach appealing to his softer side. If i dont get work today i will get hail columbia in reference to the popular patriotic american anthem. My wife told me not to come home without a job and she means business. It worked. A family man himself himself with a wife and two sons and four daughters. Take a shovel and get to work. His men showed up on schedule and put in an honest days work. In one instance an irishman on the job for several weeks top showing up responded frequently imbibing in a nearby tavern and was arrested at the construction site or it does incidences were rare as meehan and jones tried their best to higher mend it they trusted. Meehan made no secret the first was to be citizens of the country in the second was to come from the same neighborhood as meehan to make it plain. Meehan made no secret of his affection for the irish and his disdain for the italians who showed up at the site every morning. One morning he spotted a group of italian men sitting by themselves and speaking only in italian and he knew right away they would not make his list. The italians hold aloof from the others. I told him none of the voters would be employed. I never lost anything by standing by the men who supported me. That was not entirely true. He lost money. The italians would have work for lower wages that meehan didnt care. If i hired italians at 1. 20 you would work them for 10 i could make a good deal more money he said but im not doing business that way. The first 20 many picked nine were laborers that worked for him before. He kept true to his word about italians. As long as they spoke italian and isolated from others they would have to work for their opportunity until the demand for more bodies was greater. This is a glimpse into the world of the contractors. We like to think of ourselves is as today being so ethical and conscious of things in back then it was im going to hire my buddies and theres nothing you can do to stop me and he was right. They didnt stop him. Let me skip ahead briefly to the first day the boston subway opened. This was september 1, 1897. The project took two and a half years and as farfetched as this may be to believe it came under budget. It was expected to cost 5 million in came in at 4. 2 million so pretty remarkable when you think about what other projects around here might cost today and getting them under budget not so easy. This is an exciting glimpse of the first day and if you can imagine what it was like to sort of see a subway car for the first time. Imagine what that must have been like. Just a personal aside something that happened to me when i was in new york city two years ago with my family and two kids. We went down to the 79th st. St. Bridge and my two kids were with me and we walked down there and we have this moment where my wife and i were sitting on the bench and their kids were waiting for the subway to come. They kept running up to the yellow line and looking down the tracks to see if it was coming and then run back to us back and forth. It was one of these funny moments where they have kept wanting it to come. I finally snapped a picture of them on my phone the two of them looking down the tracks waiting. I mentioned in the end of the book because as i reflected on that moment it reminded me that their excitement and their anticipation must have been what it was like more than 100 years ago for new yorkers and bostonians who stared down the start mysterious tone most places they had never been before and to wait for this light that was going to come and the train that would emerge from the dark is and take them somewhere. For my kids i was all that mattered. So i thought that was sort of an interesting anecdote because it meant something to me and i could appreciate it. When jimmy reid walked into the shed looking madder than usual and trim fitting uniform single dark coat with seven gold buttons and a cap straight pfizer in two bands of gold he greeted his passengers and confessed with no hesitation he was tired after a night of restless sleep. One of the last passengers to arrive was the inspector for for the Railway Company fred stearns who took up a spot on the cars footboard so he could warn passengers to keep their hands and heads inside. After one final inspection to make sure the car was ready the doors to the grudge opened in the passengers let out a hearty cheer is the motor sent the trolley on its way. The nine rows of benches were not filled yet but they would be soon enough. Outside a small group shouted outwards of encouragement. Get there and dont let any of them get ahead of you one cried out. He broke to allow a dozen passengers on board. All aboard for the subway on park street he shouted and a voice shouted back you did that without a stutter. The bell rang and the car pulled away again. The journey from austin to cambridge to boston to 20 minutes most morning but then usual number of passengers delayed at each stop. By the time the car reached pearl st. In cambridge across the Charles River from boston and older gentleman found there were no seats left and he was told he would have to wait for the next car. Not a chance he shouted. He came all the way down from dickerson in somerville to endure this privilege and deserve to make history with the rest of them. In 1856 he had written on the first horse pulled car on the metropolitan and wanted to achieve another first today. The schedule called for a car every half hour in the he said in that was thought to be a fast way. Passengers on board could not refuse the charming mr. Davis and scurried for a place for him. When a photographer hollered to let the trolley sit so he could photograph it read reviews. Too nervous about falling behind schedule. As the car got those are the crowds grew with men and women and children waiting and waiting their hands high. They were being crushed more with each stop. The car by now was brimming with passengers standing on the foot order and dangling off the side with limbs visible out the windows despite stearns orders to keep all parts inside. Both sides of the street were lined with a sea of people and the roar became louder. Up ahead he could barely make out the entrance to the tunnel. The black hole surrounded by a sea of people. At the final stop before the tunnel entrance between arlington and charles st. When it seemed there was not a single place left inside to more people grabbed a hold of an arm held up by another arm and they were pulled on board and swallowed by the excitable mass. The spaces between the seats were filled with standees the boston record wrote. Each Running Board was too deep with humanity. While both vendors were loaded down until there was not enough room for a fly. The car with seats for 45 passengers and standing room for few dozen more had 140 passengers. Car number 1752 went to the subway tunnels downward slope. If there was a time to acknowledge a moment this was it. Maybe a speech from the mayor was in order or Henry Whitney art of in a walcott with the chief engineer henry carson. Anybody with a hand in bringing americas first subway to this day. Not only was a complete on time in two and a half years in came to 4. 2 million under the 5 million projected cost. Along with the 10 killed in the gas explosion for others died in the building the subway and it was constructed with less construction as had been anticipated. So its a glimpse of that first day in more detail comes after that when the subway goes underground and put on my favorite quotes as the first one underground which is the passengers in the front seat stood on her tip toes and leaned forward pairing ahead and from the rear and shout rang out, down in front. [laughter] everybody wanted to see what was ahead of them. What was interesting about the days the subways open boston being boston did it very understated. There was no huge speech. It was no big deal. The subways here in here we go. In new york the entire world was invited. The president was invited the governor was there. It was a big deal and new yorkers like to celebrate and they did. So it was very different how the two cities celebrated these momentous moments. So let me read the last last thing our reid is a piece from new yorks first day which was equally exciting but very different. Outside city hall city of more than 5000 people covered the steps fill the plaza and surrounded the kiosk of the city hall station. It was almost 2 30 when the profession of men came down the steps. They marched briskly on the quarter roped off by police who fought to keep the crowd back. As the general manager led the kiosk they were greeted by cheers and applause that drowned out the factory whistles. The and tugs were there in the harbor. The group with mayor mcclelland holding a mahogany case dissented to the platform. A shiny silver subway train set their and in seconds it was filled above its capacity with officials and a few stragglers who manage to sneak in behind them before the door close. In the front Barr Mcclellan opened a special case to reveal a silver key and slid it in 20 20 it doesnt fit very well he said that after tinkering he succeeded. The electric motor buzzed away. Headley moved over mcclelland with some lastminute instructions. Are we ready lacks all right he said while keeping his hand on the emergency brake. Slowly, remember . By the time he was 27 he was elected mayor in 1903 at the age of 38. His father had run against Abraham Lincoln and then the famous civil war general but mcclelland had no former role in the construction. He was savvy enough to realize his citizens were clamoring or it. His first day in office he took it to her in the tunnels to show his appreciation. Unlike his predecessors who were voted out of office in a year to mcclelland proved popular enough to last five years and his fondness for huge public works projects grew as he saw the construction of the queensboro and manhattan bridges. He made history when he pushed his hand forward and began the first subway ride in new yorks history. The car rounded the corner and the lights came into view. The car to a stop when the emergency brake was bumped causing everyone to lurch forward. The mayor got the hang of things and have the subway moving in no time picking up speed to warn track movers they were coming. As they pulled the mcclelland turned, shall i slow her down here . You are going slow enough but arent you tired of that . Dont you want the motor man to take hold . The mayor shop vac no sir im running this train. Zooming up 14 street along for the avenue which is now parked mcclelland push the train faster as passengers oblivious to how scared he was making headley. Into Grand Central they came and then was gone. A minute later the passengers spotted an electric sign for pete high and 12 feet high. Mcclellan shouted out times square station but instead of slowing he pushed the subway harder up to 43 Miles Per Hour far faster than headley anticipated on the was supposed to be a leisurely pleasurable trip. Slower here, easy for the kurds. The pastor worker and sidestep the train when he saw it coming and lighted towards the last express station where it slid over switch in the ground to the northbound track. The trap it was after 96 mcclelland took his hand off the control some of the motor man George Morrison takeover. Mcclelland taking out a sigar that he lived in puffed shook his tired wrist. That was a little tiresome. You have to keep pressing that thing down. The train continued north until without warning the passengers staring down the darkened tamils were looking out into the dusk. The subway train emerge from the ground onto a viaduct. It was the only place where new yorkers who knew the precise spot came to cheer it on shouting from the streets. In response morrison blew the train whistle before it disappeared out of sight. A little glimpse into the new yorks opening. [applause] so really it is the story of two cities, the story of two cities that had Close Relationships on one hand and tube or others who had Close Relationships but at the same time the cities and the brothers had a little bit of competition with each other. When boston opened first there was a great quote the ran in the New York Times. New york took great pride in the bold and inventive leading city in the country is not the world yet they had a scam by as lost in this tiny podunk town brought the first subway. The quote in the New York Times said that conservative city the first to open a subway in this country. This is a little bit galling to them that they had let boston be first. They would catch up in time but lawson certainly did get there first and its a fun story to tell. I hope that gives you a little bit of insight that the book is not just about the big players but its about the Little People who built the tone all and that is the lesson that comes away from it is a special appreciation for not only our subway but new york london and paris and all the great underground cities that exist today. London open the worlds first subway and new york and boston didnt calm until 30 years later so theres a big gap between the worlds first subway in americas first subway and the book explores why that was. I will stop there and im happy to talk about anything you want to talk about her questions you might have. One thing that comes up is people ask me does your book explored this or that . The purpose of the book is to stop in the subway opens. We know what happened after they open. This book is about the debating the construction that digging and eventually the opening but its not about what happens after that and i wanted it to be about sort of that process which is interesting to me. So i will there and questions, things you want to talk about . [inaudible] does the beach tunnel still exist . In 1912 workers for a Construction Company who are expanding the new york city subway the irt stumbled if you want to call it that. They were working down there and the New York Times knew of the beach tunnel and sort of suggested that in the course of building this extension they might bump into something down there and sure enough they did. They have broke zero wall and remarkably they found this car that had been the very first subway car that beach used. It was an amazing find and one of the saddest things of that find is that the response was that is sort of interesting. Moving on and they didnt save it or preserve it. They just kept going. Theres a great photo of a guy and you can see it at the car was in pristine condition. It was rotted but you could see it and it was a great project. They discovered it in 1812 and it was never preserved which is a shame because it was a great piece of history. You talked about how you researched it. Its pretty old and not wellwritten about. A couple ways. The research comes from a couple of great sources. First of all newspapers and a lot of publicity these days for what they were doing. The reporting back then in the newspapers was remarkable and going to the libraries in different cities and a lot of it is on line now fortunately that they were remarkable for how they covered the projects in such tremendous detail. When you hear quotes that i have given in the book those are quotes obviously that most likely came from the newspapers where they had reporters on the job to cover these things. Both cities had Transit Commissions that kept remarkably detailed reports of these projects and those reports are Still Available today. They were able to get access to those reports creating reports from 1891 through 1899 and they were three or 400 pages each time. They really explained the building of the tumult and how they were secured and built and if there was an accident on the job site they would have reported the accident and details about that. Lastly especially some of the bigger name people in the book fortunately left their papers behind. Wayne whitney for example a whitney brother left his papers behind at the library of congress in washington and that was great to have that. I went to the library and spent a couple of days at the library of congress poring through these letters and things like that. Theres a touching moment in the book where one of his children died so you could get inside of his mind about what was going through his head when that happens and how that was an emotional time for him. There was a lot of research through reports and papers and private papers. Another key character is William Steinway and when he sure steinway the thing that comes to mind is what . That guy that came from germany and was the piano manufacturing giant a huge figure in a transit projects. He fortunately left his diary to the smithsonian. There are great moments when you read his diary. The diary is such a arsenal thing. People write about their innermost thoughts in one night he wrote about, he went to bed with an anxious day coming up the next day and went to bed dreaming of her callers breaking into his house. As a reporter and a researcher you dream of those things. Inside of William Steinways head imagine what he is dreaming about. Any other questions . I like subways and things that go underground so i went to the New York Museum and they have old cars. What was interesting for me is that the tracks, the numerics and the office and the fact that through my head. See the lines that exist today in boston and new york were the early people asked me what was the first route that it did. The route was a combination of the a in the c lines. It crossed over the west side of central park and crossed over harlem. The east side at the time had a lot of opposition. They didnt want the subway and rather than let that get in the way they said fine we will just go around you. They avoided the whole entire east side of new york and looked at the tracks that go to the west side and avoids the entire east side and that didnt happen until years later. They actually built the two lines parallel. They had a local and express so that the same time which was a brilliant plan. Was a brilliant plan and it was conceived by the guy who i mentioned earlier the Engineering Firm that built the Second Avenue subway in new york he was the engineer behind the project project and wasnt sure mental and coming up with that idea for express and local trains. It was different for boston but in the big city like new york it was critical. I believe the first part of the subway there was a big trench. You were talking about tunneling. Is there a lot of tunnel and going on in boston or did they mostly open it up . Both cities used for the most part a method called the cut and cover method which is exactly what it sounds like. Cut a trench laid the tracks and covered over. For most of new york that is how was built. The difference is in new york there are a couple of parts of the city of new york in a manhattan subway where they have to take an elevator way down deep in the Washington Heights area or 180th st. If you think about what manhattan is, its a giant rock and they had to build the subway through this. In a lot of places they were able to cut and cover but there were places where they had to tunnel. They tunneled using dynamite and it was risky and dangerous and bad things happen and workers died and there were big explosions. They were unfamiliar with how to control dynamite so they would set up a blast under the city. They would wait 10 minutes because that gives time for loose rocks to fall. Sometimes what would happen is they would wait 10 minutes and go down and then the rock would fall. They were just learning how it worked for them so for the most part it was cut and cover but there were some parts that were tunneled. Did he live to see either one of these subway systems ask the beach died, he did not. Beach died in 1901. I take that back area he died before the new york subway opened so he did not live to see it that his story has certainly lived on. [inaudible] Cape Cod Canal is celebrating its 100th anniversary. [inaudible] question is can you talk a little bit about the finance . Who financed those . Thats a good question how these projects were finance. The new york story and i have a whole chapter when the bids were opened and boston was bit bid out to private contractors and they did on it and this guy Michael Meehan was awarded the contract. You would think the lowest bidder would get the job at the lowest bidder on the boston job was the brooklyn contractor. Mysteriously the brooklyn contractor didnt get the job. Michael meehan went to the Transit Commissioner and said, he was close to the second one and he went to the Transit Commissioner instead i dont want to give this to a new york contractor. It needs to go to a local contractor and mysteriously the bid was overruled and meehan got the job. The new york financing was one of the reasons why the new york job happened later than boston. For a lot of reasons new york shouldve beaten boston. They were ahead of the curve. They were ready to move that new york had a lot of problems arranging the financing. There was a big Pivotal Moment that have been in 1891 when new yorkers have essentially said we are ready for a subway lets do it and a big thing happened. The city hall where they invited these people to bid for the project and open process and nobody did. There was like this enormous huge highprofile moment where they thought they would get lots of people bidding and here it is and nobody did. Steinway, big moment for steinway and it was a big letdown for steinway. Its one of the moments when parsons thought for years he was going to be the guy to build the subway in new york and he said that said, im done, and going to leave and eventually he went to china to build a big project in china. He is in china working on a huge project their annie gets a cable grand that says come back, we are ready to build now. So he comes back. What else . Other questions . Was wondering how you got into the subway from the back bay . Was a huge obstacle they had to overcome. In one of the Transit Commission reports they were explicit in saying this time ill has to be all to vote on watt are. They had to make it so secure and watertight that they would not get any water because they knew the public was terrified of that. Water was going to come in. Theres a great anecdote in the book where the first time in boston the engineer and the chief contractor took a group of people like the mayor and the governor down into the tom and everyone was prepared for this to be dank and dark and and wet. That is what they expected it to be and at one point he flipped on a switch and you have to remember this is the time when light olds were new. Edison invented the light olds a decade earlier so it was a still a new thing. He flipped a switch and the entire time all was bathed in bright white light and everyone was just wow. It was clean, bright and airy and smelled like the air above and they were all shocked. They really did a remarkable job and the book explains in great detail how they did it how they sealed it and protected. There would be moments when they were digging and water would come from below and they would have to seal it off and put in another layer of concrete and steel. For the most part they did a remarkable job of sealing the tunnel off. I read it Public Policy log for a new transportation the hyperloop and would you recommend future transportation projects . Its funny you brought that up. Those of you that heard of elon musk. He is the guy who invented taz land has been in the news a lot for these big projects. I would like to to think up a guy like you on musk as todays alfred beach. If you think about what alfred beach did even though he did not build the first subway because it only went one block and didnt really become a subway but what alfred h. Did was set in motion a dream. He set in motion this idea that we can do something big. He made new yorkers believe that this could happen even though it didnt happen for another 40 years or so. Just the idea that he put out there that we can build a subway and we can do this was the deal. People like elon musk who put forth similar bold ideas that some people laughed at and mocked and he put this idea of building a supersonic electromagnetic train that would go between northern and southern california. A lot of people laughed and said it would never happen and its impossible. Its not going to happen probably in any of our lifetimes but those sort of people, people who put forth those ideas for big dreams and big ideas are critical today. Even if they dont achieve their dream someone else might take it up another generation behind them. The book in the end does address that. There was a guy at the rand corp. In california Robert Salter who wrote a paper proposing what elon musk has proposed today this electromagnetic tube that would run across the country and said we will go across the country and and a half an hour in a tube under the highway system essentially. Will it ever happen . Probably not but again someone like Robert Salter and someone like elon musk maybe someone else will eventually get it. I think its great to have those people who put forth those great bold ideas even though we may never see them. Once upon a time they propose having Something Like that between boston and new york. Right, and how great would it be to get to new york in 20 minutes . It would be great and again we might get there one day but you need those people to at least put forth those big ideas because they will never happen unless someone says it. [inaudible conversations] they opened one day earlier. Then they run the subway after that