Something I've been working on for a bit, that hopefully should interest you guys
1
The New York City Subway, ever since it had first started operating in 1904, had been in a period of constant expansion between the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT), starting with the construction of the first subway all the way to the Dual Contracts. The election of Mayor John Hylan in 1918, would bring a change to the nature of construction by both the IRT and BMT, with his motivations for a city-operated and controlled subway. While initially pushing for a grandiose plan of subways to be built, the Board of Transportation would scale down those plans to eventually be left with a total of five lines to be built, two trunk lines in Manhattan running under 8th and 6th Avenue respectively, one trunk line in Queens running from 53rd Street (with connections to the Eighth and Sixth Avenue trunk lines) across the East River through Long Island City and continuing under the Queens Boulevard and Hillside Avenues, a Brooklyn-Queens crosstown with connections through the lines in Brooklyn and in Queens, and a line in the Bronx splitting from the 8th Avenue at 145th Street and Saint Nicholas Avenue proceeding under the Grand Concourse. The five separate lines represented the Independent's 'First System' for service throughout New York City, and the ground for future expansion of the system.
In 1929, the Board of Transportation would move forward with plans to further expand the Independent Subway System with the release of the 'Second System'. The proposed Second System represented a massive development of the Independent Subway, with over a hundred miles of new services, and lines through every borough but Staten Island, but the 'heart' of the Second System was the Second Avenue Subway, which had been designed to accommodate much of the new traffic that would 'open' up as a result of it. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 would rapidly derail the proposed Second System, however the Board of Transportation would consistently work on newer 'Second System' proposals for expanding the Independent Subway and increasing subway service to more residents of New York City. No matter the revised plan, each plan was consistent of having the focal point around the Second Avenue Subway, with a variety of different plans and routes for it to take, both creating new lines and connecting to existing ones. The Independent Subway System would start to rapidly take up shape around New York City as construction began to finish and lines opened up for service. The Eighth Avenue Subway would open first from 207th Street to Chambers Street-Hudson Terminal on September 10th, 1932, with the Cranberry Street Tunnel opening up service on February 1st, 1933 with service to Broadway/Nassau Street (in Manhattan) and Jay Street-Metrotech Borough Hall (in Brooklyn) (High Street-Brooklyn Bridge would not open until June 24th, 1933). The South Brooklyn Line would first open up with Bergen Street on March 20th, 1933, but not be fully completed until October 3rd, 1933, with the opening of Church Avenue. The Concourse Line would open on July 1st, allowing trains to run from 145th Street (from the Eighth Avenue Subway) to 205th Street (in the Bronx), further expanding the 'reach' of the Independent. The Crosstown/Queens Boulevard would be first opened, with Nassau Avenue (on the Crosstown) through Roosevelt Avenue (on the Queens Boulevard) opened up on August 19th, 1933. By this point, a total of five separate services ran on the Independent, the A train running 207th Street to Church Avenue, the C train running 205th Street to Hudson Terminal, the CC train running from Bedford Park Boulevard to Hudson Terminal, the E train running from Roosevelt Terminal to Hudson Terminal, and the GG train running from Queens Plaza to Nassau Avenue as a shuttle.
Whether it was merely good timing, or 'intervention' from some higher power, the 1935 Second System proposed by the Board of Transportation would find itself taken up for notice by the Works Progress Administration, with significant delays miring the construction of the Triborough Bridge. The 1935 Second System proposal, once more found itself centered around the Second Avenue Subway, but unlike the previous proposals was focused solely on the Independent and at a much 'smaller' size than before. In part, the proposals for certain components had also been shaped by the ongoing talks for the purchase of the IRT's Sixth Avenue Elevated, and rumored financial aspects from the BMT. In Manhattan, the Second Avenue Subway was the focal point of the expansion, running from the Harlem River all the way to the East River and Brooklyn. The line would run as a two-track line from Court Street Station in Brooklyn to Houston Street, where it would then turn into a four track line all the way up to the Harlem River. The express tracks of the Second Avenue Subway south of Houston Street were to head east along Stanton Street and across the East River into Brooklyn, where it would arrive at South 4th Street alongside that of the Worth Street Line (which had emerged from bellmouths just north of Hudson Terminal).
Two of the more interesting components of the Second Avenue Subway were that of two proposed stations and interchange points, Grand Street and 60th Street. Grand Street Station sat along both Grand Street and Chrystie Street, and was designed as a station for where both the Sixth Avenue express tracks and the Second Avenue local tracks would meet (the Sixth Avenue express tracks would diverge between Broadway-Lafayette Station and Second Avenue Station). From the proposed interchange at Grand Street Station emerged the 'Chrystie Street Connection', which was intended to tie in the BMT and ISS together if the BMT was to ever suffer bankruptcy or be purchased by the city to take control. The Chrystie Street Connection proposed a major rerouting of traffic from the Manhattan Bridge, with the southern tracks of the Manhattan Bridge being disconnected from the Nassau Street Loop and reconnected to the Broadway Line express tracks, while the northern tracks of the Manhattan Bridge which had formerly connected to the Broadway Line express tracks would be connected to the Sixth Avenue express tracks at Grand Street Station. In part due to the width of Grand Street, the station would be built as a bilevel station, with the Second Avenue tracks on the lower level and the Sixth Avenue express tracks on the upper level preventing any kind of traffic interchange between them.
The other station and interchange point, 60th Street Station, had been designed in a similar method to West 4th Street, but of a radically different approach. While the upper level would facilitate the Second Avenue Subway in its entirety, the lower level was intended as the interchange point for traffic connecting to and from Queens, but also that of trains heading to or from the Sixth Avenue tracks or even those of the Broadway tracks (as advocated for in the similar approach of the Chrystie Street Connection). As part of such a connection, a two-track tunnel running along 57th Street between the Sixth Avenue and Second Avenue line would be built, with provisions for an additional extension to the BMT Broadway Line. The proposed connection to the BMT Broadway Line, would involve one of two approaches planned; the first approach would see the 57th Street Connection connect just south of 57th Street-Seventh Avenue along the local tracks, while the second approach would see a rebuilding of both the local and express tracks in between 49th Street and 57th Street-Seventh Avenue, to allow the 57th Street Connection to connect to the express tracks of the Broadway Line.
Extending into Brooklyn, both the Stanton and Worth Street Lines converged meeting at Marcy Avenue Station (along South 4th Street), at a bilevel station. Both lines continued east arriving at South 4th Street junction, where both the Stanton and the Worth Street Lines 'terminated'. Continuing on from South 4th Street junction was the Utica Avenue Line, which would proceed southeast on a newly built street extended from Bushwick Avenue, before proceeding down Stuvyesant Avenue and then Utica Avenue (with a transfer available to the Fulton Street Line), before making a final turn at Flatbush Avenue and terminating at Avenue U. From South 4th Street to Kings Highway, the Utica Avenue Line would run four tracks, and at Kings Highway, the line would convert to being a two-track line with the express tracks continuing down to Avenue U where they would end. A hefty debate emerged in the Board of Transportation if provisions should be built as to allow the construction of an
additional line along the new street and Bushwick Avenue before the Utica Avenue Line turned south onto Stuyvesant Avenue. The eventual determination was that the provisions should not be included due to cost, and the city would take the costs of needing to underpin the existing Utica Avenue Line if so needed.
In Queens, much of the work would be in extending the existing lines under construction, intended to stretch the reach of the Independent to the outer reaches of Queens. The Fulton Street Line (from the original planned terminal of Euclid Avenue), would be extended eastwards along Pitkin Avenue before turning onto Linden Boulevard just before the Cross Bay Boulevard. Bellmouths for a proposed connection with the Rockaway Branch (if/once bought under the Independent) would be in place along Linden Boulevard just east of the Cross Bay Boulevard. The Fulton Street Line continued along Linden Boulevard, and at Merrick Boulevard, the line would be brought down to two-tracks and continue just before reaching the end of Queens where it would terminate. In the north, the Queens Boulevard would be extended as a two-track line from the proposed terminus at Jamaica-179th Street, running along Hillside Avenue before terminating at Springfield Boulevard. Provisions would be made for a further extension of the Queens Boulevard line from the terminal at Springfield Boulevard. Finally, the bellmouths on the Queens Boulevard just past Briarwood-Van Wyck Boulevard would be exercised for the construction of the Van Wyck Boulevard line. Running as a two-track subway, it would run from the bellmouths to Rockaway Boulevard where it would terminate. While having originally being proposed as an elevated, significant community opposition was one of the key factors in having been a shift in it from an elevated to a subway.
The Bronx like Queens was expected to see significant improvement in terms of the general area covered by the Independent Subway, along with those who had yet to be connected to any kind of general mass-transit. The Second Avenue Subway would continue north as a four-track line crossing under the Harlem River under Lincoln Avenue and continue north along Morris Avenue and Park Avenue before cutting east to 163rd Street and 'terminating' at Prospect Avenue. From Prospect Avenue, two lines would emerge, both as two-track lines. In the south, the Lafayette Avenue Line would continue east along 163rd Street, turning south along Hunts Point Avenue before heading east along Seneca Avenue where it would emerge as an elevated line to cross the Bronx River; the line would continue as an elevated line along Lafayette Avenue before reaching the neighborhood of Throgs Neck where it ran southeast along East 177th Street and terminate at East Tremont Avenue. The northern branch would primarily be the former New York, Westchester & Boston Railway, to be bought by the city between Westchester Avenue Station (which met with the IRT's Pelham Line) and East Kingsbridge Road, while 'beyond' Westchester Avenue Station. The line would begin descending after it reached the surface, and continue as a subway along Westchester Avenue before reaching East 163rd Street. Finally as the last component in the Bronx, would be the Concourse Extension, which would emerge on an elevated viaduct over Bronx Park from 205th Street and return as a subway under Bronx Boulevard and continuing under Burke Avenue; the Concourse Extension would eventually connect with the ex-NYW&B tracks which would be operated by Second Avenue trains.
The construction of the Independent Subway System by the Works Progress Administration was seen as rather an oddity, considering the practicality of roads being built in several other places and also in New York City as well. Significant delays to the construction of the Triborough Bridge, impacts to development of parkways within New York City, and several other issues had impacted the development, bringing an attitude change to the construction and development of roads within New York City, and a better look at development of public transit by the WPA within NYC. Several discussions between Interior Secretary Harold Ickes and Mayor Fiorella H. La Guardia, would eventually result in the release of WPA funds directed towards components of the Independent Subway System for construction. As part of the First System, WPA funds would be brought in to assist the completion up to Broadway Junction for the Fulton Street Line, 71 Av-Continental Ave for the Queens Boulevard Line, and the completion of the Crosstown Line, while the rest of the First System (including the Sixth Avenue Line) would be left to the City. The Second System would be a much more different affair in part because the Second Avenue Subway would require the underpinning of the IRT's Second Avenue Elevated line, before construction could begin north of 23rd Street. A construction plan would eventually be worked on and agreed between the WPA, Board of Transportation, and the City of New York for the work responsible on the Independent's 'Second System'. Due to the large costs required in underpinning the Second Avenue Elevated before construction of the Subway could be built, a temporary terminal for the Second Avenue Subway would be built at 42nd Street and continue construction southbound. The Second Avenue Subway would run as before, as a four-track subway to Houston Street-2nd Avenue Station, where the express tracks would head east under Stanton Street to the Utica Avenue Line, while the local tracks proceeded south to the Pierrepont Street Tunnel, where they would connect to Court Street Station. The Second Avenue Subway (from Court Street to 42nd Street), the Stanton Street Line, Worth Street Line, and Utica Avenue Line would all be built with major assistance from the WPA, and it was hoped that by 1942, construction would be completed on the lines agreed upon between the WPA and the Board of Transportation.
(Map
here for what the Second System should look like overlayed a modern map of NYC)