Abstract
In 1825, virtually all of New York’s 160,000+ residents lived on lower Manhattan, beneath what is now Canal Street. The length and breadth of the city could be walked in under 30 minutes. The vast majority of the population traveled on foot, while some traveled on horseback. The rapid growth of the city over the rest of the century, however, would soon require some form of public transportation to allow people to live further away from their workplaces. In the early- to mid-1800s, if the city was to grow, it would have to grow northward, to the unpopulated portions of Manhattan, and eastward, to Brooklyn. The age of skyscrapers was in the future, so vertical growth was not a serious option.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Stratton, E.M.: The World on Wheels. Published by the author, New York (1878)
Hood, C.: 722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore (1993)
Bobrick, B.: Labyrinths of Iron: A History of the World’s Subways. Newsweek Books, New York (1981)
Greller, J., Watson, E.: Brooklyn Trolleys. N.J. International Inc., Newark (1995)
Walker, J.: Fifty Years of Rapid Transit (1918), http://www.nycsubway.org
Miller, J.: Fares Please. Dover Publications Inc., New York (1960)
Gould, P.: The Horse Bus,1662–1932, www.petergould.co.uk/localtransport-history/generalhistories/general/horsebus.html
The John Stephenson Car Co., www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/builders/stephenson1.html
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Roess, R.P., Sansone, G. (2013). The Beginnings of Public Transportation in New York: Omnibuses and Street Railways. In: The Wheels That Drove New York. Springer Tracts on Transportation and Traffic, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30484-2_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30484-2_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-30483-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-30484-2
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)