RAPID-TRAXSIT SUBWAYS TN MF/IKOPDTJTAN OF rrp:S.'' 



By MiLO R. Maltbie. 



The problem of urban transj)()rtation is largely one of rapid com- 

 munication between business and residential districts, and has grown 

 increasingly difficult as population has become more and more con- 

 centrated. Street-car companies have tried every conceivable kind of 

 motive power, but they have not been able to keep up with the rapid 

 growth. Steam railroads, which have proved so successful as inter- 

 urban means of communication, have been excluded from most centers 

 because of the noise, smoke, and ugliness of the trains. Horse traction 

 is not sufficiently rapid, and the cable for the same reason has given 

 way to electricity. 



However satisfactor}' surface lines may be for short-distance traffic, 

 their inadequacy to deal Avith suburban traffic became apparent almost 

 half a century ago in the larger urban centers. The steam roads 

 undertook to solve this question by lowering fares and b}'^ greatly 

 increasing the number of trains. London went a step further and 

 built underground roads connecting most of the depots in the metrop- 

 olis. Other cities, such as New York, Chicago, Boston. Liverpool, 

 and Berlin, have constructed elevated roads, but these are unsightly, 

 nnd within the last few years they also have proved or are proving 

 inadequate to deal with the vast throngs who daily leave their homes 

 to seek work in other portions of the cities in which they live. And 

 now, as the last resort, electric subways are proposed, and systems 

 have been or are being built in Paris, Budapest, Glasgow, London, 

 Boston, and New York,'' while other cities are considering the (Ques- 

 tion. 



a Reprinted, by permission, from Municipal Affairs, New Yorlc, Vol. IV, No. .3, 

 September, 1900, whole No. 15, pp. 4.58-480. 



6 Short sections of Berlin's elevated road are under^ronnd, hut it has not 

 been included in this article because so small a portion will be below the street 

 level. 



759 



