A HISTORICAL OUTLOOK ON ITS CONSTRUCTION
New York City was the second-largest city in the world in the advent of the 20th century, with the majority of its 3.4 million people living in Manhattan and much fewer people living in Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens. Public transportation of the time-electric omnibus, gasoline powered trolleys and elevated railways-was inadequate for getting people where they needed to go quickly and efficiently. It could take hours just to get from Wall Street to Harlem in the days when Greenwich Village was considered a suburb.
The idea of an underground subway system had been discussed by politicians for decades, and finally it was decided in 1900 that a subway would be built. Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) won the job after its bid of $35 million was accepted.
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