Alfred Beach's Subway Plan

The first effort to build a subway dates back to the 1850s with Alfred Ely Beach.  More

The first effort to build an experimental subway dates back to the 1850s when inventor Alfred Ely Beach argued that a horse-drawn subway, under Broadway, would put an end to congestion and the filth of New York City’s streets. By the 1860s, Beach had a different idea: a pneumatic subway, pulled by a rope of air. A giant fan would drive a train through a tunnel, as fast as 10 miles per hour.

AIR DATE 2/17/97