They didn’t call it the New York City Subway at first.
When the city’s first underground rapid transit system opened on Oct. 27, 1904, it went by the name Interborough Rapid Transit. The 9.1-mile line spanned 28 stations from City Hall to Broadway and 145th Street.
The IRT was run by a private company and eventually joined by two competing underground subways. All three were taken over by the city in 1940, setting the stage for a subway that would become the world’s largest around-the-clock system, with 472 stations and more than 800 track miles.
Photo Almanac is an occasional series from The Washington Post, using photo archives to understand where we are today by examining where we’ve been.
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