Monday, October 25, 2004

Take The Subway!

Well, out here in Seattle, all I can say is "I Wish!"

I don't know exactly why our city does not have a subway. A few years ago an underground bus tunnel was built but it is short and has nothing to do with what I think of when I hear the word "subway" and think of a city like New York.

Since I grew up in an area where there were no such things as subways in our cities (everything out here in the Northwest must be too spread out and the populations too small), my first exposure to really good public transit, including subways, was when I took my jaunts to Europe. As is widely recognized, transit systems "over there" have routinely included a fantastic network of trains, trams, busses, and, yes, subways.

Some American cities, though, have intricate subway systems of their own. The most obvious example for those of us in the U.S. is New York.

This year the New York Subway is celebrating its centennial.

The official site for the centennial celebrations is here.

A more detailed historical look at the 100-year history of the New York Subway is available at:
nycsubway.org

I have traveled to New York and ridden on the subway in the Big Apple. What an amazing system and to think that it's celebrating its centennial. When we think that large-scale engineering feats generally occurred in the last 50 years or so, this is a reminder that there were very smart and hard-working people way farther back than that!