by RailBus63
3rdrail wrote:Not to nit pick with you, R36, but I've been waiting for a Bostonian to pick you up on your use of the word "subway". The MBTA is correct in calling the Tremont Street Subway "the first subway in America", (although I wished that they had thrown in that the cars were motorized by electric propulsion). The real first subway in America was the Beach Pneumatic Tube in which a huge fan drove an air sealed car through a short tunnel in Manhattan. The reason that the T is correct is that streetcars ride in subways and trains ride in tunnels (a common distinction made). That isn't my opinion, that's a matter of law.Isn’t the ‘subway’ and ‘tunnel’ distinction unique to Massachusetts, though? New Yorkers had no issue with calling their underground heavy-rail operation the ‘subway’ right from the start.
Source - Massachusetts General Law; Acts of 1894, Chapter 584 and Acts of 1902, Chapter 534.