A few comments...
Trainlawyer wrote:It is hard to believe now but the Hudson and Manhattan, finally opened from Hoboken to 19th St Manhattan in 1908, From Hudson Terminal to Jersey City in 1909 and extended to 33rd St Manhattan and Park Place Newark in 1911, was not conceived as a rapid transit line as we now know it but as an interstate interurban electric passenger railroad which would connect all of the major rail terminals in the area with Manhattan and function as part of the general system of railroads.
As originally envisioned by Haskin and company, it was to be dual use for both freight and passenger traffic, at different times of day:
THE Hudson River, flowing between New York City and Jersey City, where seven great railroads carrying the bulk of freight from the West have their termini, has always most effectually delayed transportation, and rendered impossible the sure, and at the same time the quick, delivery of freight. The magnitude of the barrier thus presented may be conceived when we remember that New York City is not only the largest shipping port in the country, but is also the distributing point for freight between the South and West and the East, and from the East to centres West and South. We therefore find that the few hours lost in crossing the Hudson affect not only this immediate vicinity, but they also affect in a much more marked degree every point having business relations with New York, or through New York to points beyond.
The passenger side of this question is, perhaps, the more important, although the reduction by the use of a tunnel would amount to an average of but a few minutes ; but these short periods consumed by ferriage become worthy of most careful consideration in this age of quick travel and obstinate competition. -
"Tunneling Under the Hudson River", Burr, 1885
Further plans included extensions to Penn Station when built, Grand Central, the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal (Liberty State Park), and the Third Avenue Elevated at Astor Place (part of this line is still visible just beyond the 9th St station,[...]
That was a much later development under McAdoo. Connection plans were much more nebulous under the earlier companies.
...legend has it that the tunneling machine is still in there).
Ring segment erecting machine, but yes.
Jacobs' Drawing #5, 1896, which I have in
my collection shows the original brick-lined tunnel (still in use as the NJ side of tunnel "A") as 18' high x 16' wide, and proposes running special passenger coaches side-by-side in a single tunnel (since that was the only one with substantial completion at that time).
The IRT was not directly affiliated with the PRR, the Long Island or the H&M.
The IRT was, however, on reasonably good terms with the H&M (which was disputed by several historians previously). The H&M obtained the IRT's unusable tokens and melted them down to turn them into H&M tokens. The H&M and the IRT cooperated on a stairwell connection at Christopher St. to the IRT's elevated.
None of this detracts at all from the point that any sort of NJ Transit operation over the PATH system is utter lunacy.
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