First Subway in Boston: Happy 113th Birthday

The nation's first subway line carried its first passengers in Boston on this day 113 years ago in 1897.  The view left, shows Park Station in approximately 1900. 

The Mass Moments website celebrates the moment on the web:

      "...in 1897, at 6 am, over 100 people crowded onto the first train to travel through a tunnel under downtown Boston. More than 100,000 people would take the three-and-a-half minute trip that day. They were riding on the first subway line in the United States. After considering various alternatives to ease congestion on Boston's streets, city officials decided to follow the example of London, Glasgow, and Budapest and build an underground system. Within a year, passengers could get on and off the subway at Boylston Street, Park Street, Scollay Square, Adams Square, and Haymarket. In time, the route would be connected to the Boston Elevated Railway, creating the public transportation system that was the precursor to today's "T."

The Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities (Mass Humanities) launched the Mass Moments project, an electronic almanac of Massachusetts history, in 2005.  Check out Mass Moments on the web.  An MBTA history is available on the T website here.

Comments

[boblothrope]

The subway was also inspired by the problems caused by the Blizzard of 1888. See http://www.massmoments.com/moment.cfm?mid=77 .

[replica hermes]

Glasgow, and Budapest and build an underground system. Within a year, passengers could get on and off the subway at Boylston Street, Park Street, Scollay Square.GLT10a09river07

[Crissa]

First commercially successful subway. Not the first-first.
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Thanks, general historical agreement that first subway in US was in Boston, 1897.

[Edward A. Jupin]

Happy Birthday "T" !!