by Alex Marshall, Editor, Spotlight on the Region
Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and its Tunnels, by Jill Jonnes, Viking, 2007.
Contemplating the political, financial and engineering hurdles present when building something big like say, the 2nd Avenue Subway, it's comforting to realize that the construction of legendary past big projects involved similar if not greater obstacles.
Whether it's New York City's first subway, its first water system or its many big bridges, the construction of each was preceded by decades of false starts and jockeying for position by public and private actors who had something to lose or to gain. In almost every case, the engineering challenges were the least difficult.
Nowhere was this truer than in the construction of the train tunnels under the Hudson River to a beautiful new Pennsylvania Station. Detailed in wonderful readable prose in Conquering Gotham. A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and its Tunnels, the book essentially tells how this Herculean task was accomplished.
The book is mostly about the construction of the tunnels. So much attention has been paid over the years to the sad and tragic destruction of the old beaux-arts Penn Station at 33rd Street between 7th and 8th Avenue, that it is sometimes forgotten that the station was the easy part. What made the station necessary, where no station had been before, was the construction of the tunnels under the Hudson River, which until then had been uncrossed by any tunnel or bridge into Manhattan.
As Jonnes, a professional historian, explains so well, for decades in the 19th century the gargantuan Pennsylvania Railroad had dropped its passengers off in New Jersey at huge terminals and then ferried them into Manhattan. The company's leaders had dreamed of direct access into Manhattan, which was the monopoly of the Vanderbilts, who ran New York Central that ran into Grand Central Terminal.
The Vanderbilts, who in the past had used courts to block attempts to cross the Hudson, were just one of many obstacles necessary to overcome to build a new direct train link into Manhattan. The railroad also had to gain the cooperation or at least acquiescence of the Tammany Hall political machine that controlled New York City, as well as the support of the state legislatures of New York and New Jersey. And it had to amass the capital necessary to do such a project.
Then there were the engineering challenges. To construct a bridge or tunnel across the Hudson into Manhattan was comparable to building, say, the Suez Canal, engineers at the time said. Neither had ever been built. And the entire project was awesome in its scope. It would eventually include not only the two tunnels under the Hudson, but complete lines under Manhattan, four tunnels under the East River, the mammoth train yards in Sunnyside, Queens, and of course the fabulous Penn Station. Although spearheaded by the railroad company, the state helped out with low-interest bonds, franchises and other subsidies.
The book is in many respects a biography of Alexander Cassatt, the president of PRR at the time. An independently wealthy man who nevertheless rose up through the grimy world of railroads, Cassatt was lured out of an easy retirement of gentleman's farming to lead the charge to cross the Hudson.
The project essentially took 10 years, from 1900 to 1910 when the station opened. At first PRR backed a mammoth North River Bridge across the Hudson, an endeavor that had been sanctioned by the U.S. Congress provided it was open to all railroads. But the other railroads were not willing to back the bridge financially and the effort collapsed.
The idea of tunneling to Manhattan was conceived only when the bridge effort failed. It was interesting to learn that the tunnels and design of Penn Station were inspired by the Paris d'Orsay train station, now a legendary museum of impressionist art. Cassatt, in Europe to visit his now famous sister Mary Cassatt, one of the first impressionist painters, saw the Quai d'Orsay station shortly after it opened. He saw how electrification allowed smokeless trains to enter the d'Orsay station underground, thus freeing up space for passengers and the fitting of the station seamlessly into the city.
Before the tunnels and station could be built, enormous challenges remained but were eventually conquered. But not in the best of all possible ways. Things like subway access would have to wait a decade, since August Belmont, who controlled the first subway line, did not want any rivals and so blocked attempts to have subway access to the new Penn Station. American style capitalism is not always efficient.
To those contemplating new projects for the 21st century, such as, say, new tunnels under the Hudson or the new Moynihan Station, it is educational to read how this big project a century ago was done. It perhaps provides a compass during what are always stormy times. .
- Alex Marshall, Editor, Spotlight on the Region An Epic Struggle against More than Nature
Contemplating the political, financial and engineering hurdles present when building something big like say, the 2nd Avenue Subway, it's comforting to realize that the construction of legendary past big projects involved similar if not greater obstacles.
Whether it's New York City's first subway, its first water system or its many big bridges, the construction of each was preceded by decades of false starts and jockeying for position by public and private actors who had something to lose or to gain. In almost every case, the engineering challenges were the least difficult.
Nowhere was this truer than in the construction of the train tunnels under the Hudson River to a beautiful new Pennsylvania Station. Detailed in wonderful readable prose in Conquering Gotham. A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and its Tunnels, the book essentially tells how this Herculean task was accomplished.
The book is mostly about the construction of the tunnels. So much attention has been paid over the years to the sad and tragic destruction of the old beaux-arts Penn Station at 33rd Street between 7th and 8th Avenue, that it is sometimes forgotten that the station was the easy part. What made the station necessary, where no station had been before, was the construction of the tunnels under the Hudson River, which until then had been uncrossed by any tunnel or bridge into Manhattan.
As Jonnes, a professional historian, explains so well, for decades in the 19th century the gargantuan Pennsylvania Railroad had dropped its passengers off in New Jersey at huge terminals and then ferried them into Manhattan. The company's leaders had dreamed of direct access into Manhattan, which was the monopoly of the Vanderbilts, who ran New York Central that ran into Grand Central Terminal.
The Vanderbilts, who in the past had used courts to block attempts to cross the Hudson, were just one of many obstacles necessary to overcome to build a new direct train link into Manhattan. The railroad also had to gain the cooperation or at least acquiescence of the Tammany Hall political machine that controlled New York City, as well as the support of the state legislatures of New York and New Jersey. And it had to amass the capital necessary to do such a project.
Then there were the engineering challenges. To construct a bridge or tunnel across the Hudson into Manhattan was comparable to building, say, the Suez Canal, engineers at the time said. Neither had ever been built. And the entire project was awesome in its scope. It would eventually include not only the two tunnels under the Hudson, but complete lines under Manhattan, four tunnels under the East River, the mammoth train yards in Sunnyside, Queens, and of course the fabulous Penn Station. Although spearheaded by the railroad company, the state helped out with low-interest bonds, franchises and other subsidies.
The book is in many respects a biography of Alexander Cassatt, the president of PRR at the time. An independently wealthy man who nevertheless rose up through the grimy world of railroads, Cassatt was lured out of an easy retirement of gentleman's farming to lead the charge to cross the Hudson.
The project essentially took 10 years, from 1900 to 1910 when the station opened. At first PRR backed a mammoth North River Bridge across the Hudson, an endeavor that had been sanctioned by the U.S. Congress provided it was open to all railroads. But the other railroads were not willing to back the bridge financially and the effort collapsed.
The idea of tunneling to Manhattan was conceived only when the bridge effort failed. It was interesting to learn that the tunnels and design of Penn Station were inspired by the Paris d'Orsay train station, now a legendary museum of impressionist art. Cassatt, in Europe to visit his now famous sister Mary Cassatt, one of the first impressionist painters, saw the Quai d'Orsay station shortly after it opened. He saw how electrification allowed smokeless trains to enter the d'Orsay station underground, thus freeing up space for passengers and the fitting of the station seamlessly into the city.
Before the tunnels and station could be built, enormous challenges remained but were eventually conquered. But not in the best of all possible ways. Things like subway access would have to wait a decade, since August Belmont, who controlled the first subway line, did not want any rivals and so blocked attempts to have subway access to the new Penn Station. American style capitalism is not always efficient.
To those contemplating new projects for the 21st century, such as, say, new tunnels under the Hudson or the new Moynihan Station, it is educational to read how this big project a century ago was done. It perhaps provides a compass during what are always stormy times. .
Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and its Tunnels, by Jill Jonnes, Viking, 2007.
Contemplating the political, financial and engineering hurdles present when building something big like say, the 2nd Avenue Subway, it's comforting to realize that the construction of legendary past big projects involved similar if not greater obstacles.
Whether it's New York City's first subway, its first water system or its many big bridges, the construction of each was preceded by decades of false starts and jockeying for position by public and private actors who had something to lose or to gain. In almost every case, the engineering challenges were the least difficult.
Nowhere was this truer than in the construction of the train tunnels under the Hudson River to a beautiful new Pennsylvania Station. Detailed in wonderful readable prose in Conquering Gotham. A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and its Tunnels, the book essentially tells how this Herculean task was accomplished.
The book is mostly about the construction of the tunnels. So much attention has been paid over the years to the sad and tragic destruction of the old beaux-arts Penn Station at 33rd Street between 7th and 8th Avenue, that it is sometimes forgotten that the station was the easy part. What made the station necessary, where no station had been before, was the construction of the tunnels under the Hudson River, which until then had been uncrossed by any tunnel or bridge into Manhattan.
As Jonnes, a professional historian, explains so well, for decades in the 19th century the gargantuan Pennsylvania Railroad had dropped its passengers off in New Jersey at huge terminals and then ferried them into Manhattan. The company's leaders had dreamed of direct access into Manhattan, which was the monopoly of the Vanderbilts, who ran New York Central that ran into Grand Central Terminal.
The Vanderbilts, who in the past had used courts to block attempts to cross the Hudson, were just one of many obstacles necessary to overcome to build a new direct train link into Manhattan. The railroad also had to gain the cooperation or at least acquiescence of the Tammany Hall political machine that controlled New York City, as well as the support of the state legislatures of New York and New Jersey. And it had to amass the capital necessary to do such a project.
Then there were the engineering challenges. To construct a bridge or tunnel across the Hudson into Manhattan was comparable to building, say, the Suez Canal, engineers at the time said. Neither had ever been built. And the entire project was awesome in its scope. It would eventually include not only the two tunnels under the Hudson, but complete lines under Manhattan, four tunnels under the East River, the mammoth train yards in Sunnyside, Queens, and of course the fabulous Penn Station. Although spearheaded by the railroad company, the state helped out with low-interest bonds, franchises and other subsidies.
The book is in many respects a biography of Alexander Cassatt, the president of PRR at the time. An independently wealthy man who nevertheless rose up through the grimy world of railroads, Cassatt was lured out of an easy retirement of gentleman's farming to lead the charge to cross the Hudson.
The project essentially took 10 years, from 1900 to 1910 when the station opened. At first PRR backed a mammoth North River Bridge across the Hudson, an endeavor that had been sanctioned by the U.S. Congress provided it was open to all railroads. But the other railroads were not willing to back the bridge financially and the effort collapsed.
The idea of tunneling to Manhattan was conceived only when the bridge effort failed. It was interesting to learn that the tunnels and design of Penn Station were inspired by the Paris d'Orsay train station, now a legendary museum of impressionist art. Cassatt, in Europe to visit his now famous sister Mary Cassatt, one of the first impressionist painters, saw the Quai d'Orsay station shortly after it opened. He saw how electrification allowed smokeless trains to enter the d'Orsay station underground, thus freeing up space for passengers and the fitting of the station seamlessly into the city.
Before the tunnels and station could be built, enormous challenges remained but were eventually conquered. But not in the best of all possible ways. Things like subway access would have to wait a decade, since August Belmont, who controlled the first subway line, did not want any rivals and so blocked attempts to have subway access to the new Penn Station. American style capitalism is not always efficient.
To those contemplating new projects for the 21st century, such as, say, new tunnels under the Hudson or the new Moynihan Station, it is educational to read how this big project a century ago was done. It perhaps provides a compass during what are always stormy times. .
- Alex Marshall, Editor, Spotlight on the Region An Epic Struggle against More than Nature
Contemplating the political, financial and engineering hurdles present when building something big like say, the 2nd Avenue Subway, it's comforting to realize that the construction of legendary past big projects involved similar if not greater obstacles.
Whether it's New York City's first subway, its first water system or its many big bridges, the construction of each was preceded by decades of false starts and jockeying for position by public and private actors who had something to lose or to gain. In almost every case, the engineering challenges were the least difficult.
Nowhere was this truer than in the construction of the train tunnels under the Hudson River to a beautiful new Pennsylvania Station. Detailed in wonderful readable prose in Conquering Gotham. A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and its Tunnels, the book essentially tells how this Herculean task was accomplished.
The book is mostly about the construction of the tunnels. So much attention has been paid over the years to the sad and tragic destruction of the old beaux-arts Penn Station at 33rd Street between 7th and 8th Avenue, that it is sometimes forgotten that the station was the easy part. What made the station necessary, where no station had been before, was the construction of the tunnels under the Hudson River, which until then had been uncrossed by any tunnel or bridge into Manhattan.
As Jonnes, a professional historian, explains so well, for decades in the 19th century the gargantuan Pennsylvania Railroad had dropped its passengers off in New Jersey at huge terminals and then ferried them into Manhattan. The company's leaders had dreamed of direct access into Manhattan, which was the monopoly of the Vanderbilts, who ran New York Central that ran into Grand Central Terminal.
The Vanderbilts, who in the past had used courts to block attempts to cross the Hudson, were just one of many obstacles necessary to overcome to build a new direct train link into Manhattan. The railroad also had to gain the cooperation or at least acquiescence of the Tammany Hall political machine that controlled New York City, as well as the support of the state legislatures of New York and New Jersey. And it had to amass the capital necessary to do such a project.
Then there were the engineering challenges. To construct a bridge or tunnel across the Hudson into Manhattan was comparable to building, say, the Suez Canal, engineers at the time said. Neither had ever been built. And the entire project was awesome in its scope. It would eventually include not only the two tunnels under the Hudson, but complete lines under Manhattan, four tunnels under the East River, the mammoth train yards in Sunnyside, Queens, and of course the fabulous Penn Station. Although spearheaded by the railroad company, the state helped out with low-interest bonds, franchises and other subsidies.
The book is in many respects a biography of Alexander Cassatt, the president of PRR at the time. An independently wealthy man who nevertheless rose up through the grimy world of railroads, Cassatt was lured out of an easy retirement of gentleman's farming to lead the charge to cross the Hudson.
The project essentially took 10 years, from 1900 to 1910 when the station opened. At first PRR backed a mammoth North River Bridge across the Hudson, an endeavor that had been sanctioned by the U.S. Congress provided it was open to all railroads. But the other railroads were not willing to back the bridge financially and the effort collapsed.
The idea of tunneling to Manhattan was conceived only when the bridge effort failed. It was interesting to learn that the tunnels and design of Penn Station were inspired by the Paris d'Orsay train station, now a legendary museum of impressionist art. Cassatt, in Europe to visit his now famous sister Mary Cassatt, one of the first impressionist painters, saw the Quai d'Orsay station shortly after it opened. He saw how electrification allowed smokeless trains to enter the d'Orsay station underground, thus freeing up space for passengers and the fitting of the station seamlessly into the city.
Before the tunnels and station could be built, enormous challenges remained but were eventually conquered. But not in the best of all possible ways. Things like subway access would have to wait a decade, since August Belmont, who controlled the first subway line, did not want any rivals and so blocked attempts to have subway access to the new Penn Station. American style capitalism is not always efficient.
To those contemplating new projects for the 21st century, such as, say, new tunnels under the Hudson or the new Moynihan Station, it is educational to read how this big project a century ago was done. It perhaps provides a compass during what are always stormy times. .
@RegionalPlan
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