Skip to main content

Authority

Boston Subway
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Roads & Rails Era: 1910-1919 DateCreated: 1897 Boston State: MA Zip: Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Boston-Subway/ Creator:

By the 1890s, the transportation infrastructure of downtown Boston - a maze of narrow, winding streets laid out, in some cases, along Colonial cow paths - proved completely inadequate for the needs of a modern, bustling metropolis. Tremont Street, the city's main thoroughfare, was regularly subject to gridlock from a convergence of foot traffic, horse-drawn conveyances, trolley lines, and electric streetcars. To rectify the problem, the Boston Transit Commission, with Howard A. Carson as chief engineer, was created in 1894 to study remedies. 

YearAdded:
1978
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Kan Wu (CC BY 2.0) Image Caption: Prudential Station of the Boston Subway Era_date_from: 1897
Subscribe to Authority
Boston Subway

By the 1890s, the transportation infrastructure of downtown Boston - a maze of narrow, winding streets laid out, in some cases, along Colonial cow paths - proved completely inadequate for the needs of a modern, bustling metropolis. Tremont Street, the city's main thoroughfare, was regularly…

Read More

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

Please support this 70-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Stay informed - subscribe to our newsletter.
The subscriber's email address.