Book

New York's Secret Subway

The Underground Genius of Alfred Beach and the Origins of Mass Transit

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The Atlas Obscura Podcast
Podcast
The Atlas Obscura Podcast

The Secret Subway Under Broadway

Decades before New York City’s subway system opened to the public, an eccentric inventor set about building his own underground system – IN SECRET – beneath Broadway. It wasn’t powered by steam engine…or electrical engine…or even horses. It was powered by pneumatic tube (yes, like those tubes you occasionally see at the bank, or at cannabis dispensaries.)