Boston Oldest Subway In Us

[quote="Disney Guy"]...

Another example, the Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco with its Forest Hill (singular) station. I think the station was added years later, gotta go research and verify that. Not to become part of the first subway debate but rather to be part of the subway versus tunnel (outside of Massachusetts) debate.

Who wants to introduce the argument that a "subway" has to have at least two underground stations? [end quote]

Actually, the Twin Peaks Tunnel did have a second station: Eureka Valley (eliminated when the metro was built, I presume because it was so close to Castro).

MBTA3247 wrote:

BigUglyCat wrote:The old Attleboro station had a pedestrian "subway" for patrons to avoid crossing the tracks. Lengthy stairs on either side, and a long, dank passage between them. This is a memory from the mid to late 1950's.

Would that have been towards the north end of the station? There's a similar arrangement at the south end, except it's not a subway, just the sidewalk along the road that goes under the tracks.

I'll have to take your word on the directions. It was definitely the opposite end from the road going under the tracks. 50-55 years later, I'm lucky I remember that much.

New argument for first in America: Subway versus tunnel (outside Massachusetts)

A transit subway is built under existing streets for the purpose of expediting and/or increasing the capacity of travel along that route compared with surface only travel, and has one or more underground stations.

Using the pure and strict definition of the word, a subway can be for pedestrians only. The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World has a "subway system" of this type largely under the various major walkways; they call it "the utilidors" and guests can go on a behind the scenes tour that includes parts of it. I think they use battery-electric forklift-like vehicles pulling hampers of goods and also Segways in there from time to time.

Komsomolskaya wrote:New York's Park Avenue Tunnel (Murray Hill Tunnel) was used by streetcars from 1870, and even had an underground station at 38th St, as well as stations at the portals. On the other hand, the streetcars using it were initially horse-drawn; it was not electrified until 1898. This seems to have been the first tunnel in America used for local urban transit (as opposed to mainline trains), and as much of a subway as Tremont St aside from the electrification issue and somewhat shorter length. After 1935 it was converted to car use.

(The Beach Pneuamtic Tube was not used for anything like transportation. It was a demonstration tunnel with a single station in the basement of a building, a single track a bit under 300ft long, and a single car that could be pulled out and back by air pressure. It's fairer to compare it with something like the Meigs Elevated than with Tremont St.)

This is interesting, I hadn't heard of this tunnel having been used for trolleys. At any rate, it no longer is, so one thing we should be able to say with accuracy, is that the Tremont St. Subway is the oldest operating subway in America. That works regardless of how we address the various definitions questions.

125th birthday:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/09/01/ ... go-sept-1/

For a conventional heavy rail subway, first in North America would be the IRT main line (City Hall loop-145 Street)
in 1904.

Not a subway, but the Granite Railway bicentennial is in 2026, as is the US "Semiquincentennial"

Although it was temporary for about 8 or 9 years, the trolley subway was used by heavy rail subway trains on the Sullivan to Dudley route. That predates the IRT line in New York by about 3 years.