But what is status of the tunnel and car today??

>>> Shirley <[log in to unmask]> 11/05 2:24 AM >>>
Q.  When was the first New York subway opened?

A.  The first New York subway train was built in 1869-1870 by Alfred Ely Beach.
It ran for one block between Warren and Murray streets, and became a popular
attraction, ridden by 400,000 people in its first year of operation!

Beach was convinced that a pneumatic (air-pressure driven) subway train system
was the right answer to New York's overflowing traffic problems, but he was
unable to obtain funds for the project.  He resorted to building the subway
secretly, disguised (and funded) as a mail-delivery project.

Unfortunately, a stock market crash made it impossible to continue development
of the project, and it was 25 years before New York was to plan a practical
subway system.  Beach's pneumatic subway was bricked up and forgotten until
1912, when workers digging a new subway tunnel discovered the old system.

More about the secret New York subway project:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/amex/technology/nyunderground/secret.html 


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