Financial History Issue 128 (Winter 2019) | Page 13
CONNEC TING TO COLLEC TIONS
THE TICKER
Bringing the Subway to Columbus Circle
By Sarah Poole, Collections Manager
As a New York City institution, the
Museum’s collection contains a number
of historical images documenting the city’s
development. This photograph shows
Columbus Circle during subway construc-
tion in 1901. The Museum acquired the
print in 1994, and the original photograph is
in the collection of the Library of Congress.
Named for the landmarked monument
of Christopher Columbus at its center,
Columbus Circle is a busy traffic circle
located at the intersection of Eighth Ave-
nue, Broadway, Central Park South and
Central Park West at the southwest corner
of Central Park. The circle was constructed
from 1868–1870 as a part of the original
plan for Central Park and was known
simply as “the circle” or the “grand circle”
prior to the installation of the monument
in 1892. The monument, sculpted by Ital-
ian artist Gaetano Russo, was installed to
commemorate the 400th anniversary of
Columbus’ landing in the Americas and
was constructed with funds raised by the
Italian language newspaper, Il Progresso.
Columbus Circle was excavated in
1901 to accommodate construction of
New York City’s first subway line by the
Rapid Transit Construction Company. As
shown in the photograph, the column was
reinforced with trestles, and the streetcar
tracks running through the circle were sus-
pended on wooden bridges. Rock beneath
the column and circle was blasted away
to make room for what is now part of
the 59th Street–Columbus Circle station.
The changes made during the construc-
tion made an already busy and confusing
intersection even more chaotic for traf-
fic and pedestrians. The New York Times
described the process that would occur
every time dynamite was used at the site:
As soon as the dynamite has been
placed in the hole…the drillers and
blasters rush up to the street to get
out of the way. Then four or five men,
armed with brilliant red flags, take
their positions around the neighbor-
hood and wave at the cars and pedes-
trians. When the way is clear, every-
body having run as fast as they could
from the place indicated by the flags,
a short dull report is heard, and the
ground shakes a bit as though a mild
earthquake were on.
Work and life would then continue as
usual immediately after the explosion. The
Columbus Circle subway station was com-
pleted in February 1904, and service began
in October. The station only served local
trains on the Interborough Rapid Tran-
sit Company’s Broadway–Seventh Avenue
Line (now the 1 train). The Independent
Subway System’s Eighth Avenue Line (now
the A, B, C and D trains) expanded service
to Columbus Circle in 1932 with a new sta-
tion that was built underneath the original.
The present-day station still serves the
same lines, now operated by the Metro-
politan Transit Authority of New York
City. As of 2017, the 59th Street–Colum-
bus Circle station serves more than 73,000
subway passengers every weekday. It is
the eighth busiest subway station in New
York City.
www.MoAF.org | Winter 2019 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 11