WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.439 Okay, I want you to close your eyes for a second. 00:00:02.980 --> 00:00:04.559 Unless you're driving. Right, yeah. Definitely 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:06.200 do not close your eyes if you are behind the 00:00:06.200 --> 00:00:11.160 wheel. But if you are somewhere safe, just visualize 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:14.900 this. You are standing on a subway platform in 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:18.339 New York City. Very specific vibe. Exactly. Let's 00:00:18.339 --> 00:00:21.199 say you're in Brooklyn. The air is cool, maybe 00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:23.820 a little damp. You've got that distinct smell 00:00:23.820 --> 00:00:26.940 of steel dust and ozone. The brakes. That smell 00:00:26.940 --> 00:00:29.539 is the brakes. Yeah, that metallic kind of friction 00:00:29.539 --> 00:00:31.820 smell. Yeah. And you look at the walls and there's 00:00:31.820 --> 00:00:34.619 that very specific clinical white rectangular 00:00:34.619 --> 00:00:38.619 tile. Classic 1930s institutional chic, I like 00:00:38.619 --> 00:00:40.520 to call it. With the colored bands near the ceiling. 00:00:40.740 --> 00:00:43.079 Right, maybe a deep maroon or a sharp cobalt 00:00:43.079 --> 00:00:45.159 blue, depending on the station. It feels very 00:00:45.159 --> 00:00:47.200 heavy down there, very permanent. You feel like 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:49.869 a bunker. So you get on the train, the door slides 00:00:49.869 --> 00:00:52.530 shut with that aggressive thud, and you are hurtling 00:00:52.530 --> 00:00:54.609 through the dark, deep underground. The ride 00:00:54.609 --> 00:00:57.789 is fast. The ton lights blur by. You are deep 00:00:57.789 --> 00:00:59.750 in the belly of the city. And you are almost 00:00:59.750 --> 00:01:02.229 certainly riding the A train. The famous A train. 00:01:02.409 --> 00:01:04.370 It has a real personality, doesn't it? I mean, 00:01:04.510 --> 00:01:06.150 it's the longest run in the system. And when 00:01:06.150 --> 00:01:08.689 it's in Brooklyn, it moves with a very serious 00:01:08.689 --> 00:01:10.829 sense of purpose. It really does. It's flying 00:01:10.829 --> 00:01:13.829 under Fulton Street. Yeah. But then 20, maybe 00:01:13.829 --> 00:01:16.049 30 minutes later, something shifts. The pitch 00:01:16.049 --> 00:01:17.909 of the engine changes. Yeah. It starts to whine 00:01:17.909 --> 00:01:20.629 a bit more. The train starts to climb. And the 00:01:20.629 --> 00:01:23.129 darkness outside the window starts to turn gray. 00:01:23.480 --> 00:01:26.040 and then bright it bursts out suddenly you burst 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:29.060 out of the tunnel blinding sunlight hits those 00:01:29.060 --> 00:01:32.579 dusty scratched windows and you are rattling 00:01:32.579 --> 00:01:37.189 along on an elevated track that feels uh Well, 00:01:37.230 --> 00:01:40.010 let's be honest, it feels fragile. It feels ancient 00:01:40.010 --> 00:01:42.290 compared to the tunnel. Totally. The steel looks 00:01:42.290 --> 00:01:44.129 different. The architecture is completely different. 00:01:44.450 --> 00:01:45.930 You're suddenly looking into people's second 00:01:45.930 --> 00:01:48.310 story apartment windows. It is a really jarring 00:01:48.310 --> 00:01:50.430 moment for a lot of writers because you have 00:01:50.430 --> 00:01:52.430 essentially just traveled through time. Right. 00:01:52.569 --> 00:01:54.790 You went from a Great Depression era tunnel built 00:01:54.790 --> 00:01:57.629 with federal might and massive amounts of concrete 00:01:57.629 --> 00:02:02.069 to a pre -World War I elevated structure built 00:02:02.069 --> 00:02:04.569 by a private company. And that all happens in 00:02:04.569 --> 00:02:07.709 the span of about 30 seconds. And that right 00:02:07.709 --> 00:02:10.189 there is why we are here today. We are doing 00:02:10.189 --> 00:02:13.530 a deep dive into the IND Fulton Street line. 00:02:13.710 --> 00:02:15.889 A fascinating piece of infrastructure. And look, 00:02:15.930 --> 00:02:18.129 I know what you are probably thinking out there. 00:02:18.169 --> 00:02:20.330 It's just a subway line. It's the A and the C. 00:02:20.409 --> 00:02:24.360 We ride it to work. But. Looking at the stack 00:02:24.360 --> 00:02:27.020 of documents we have here today. We have a lot 00:02:27.020 --> 00:02:29.500 of documents. We really do. We've got old engineering 00:02:29.500 --> 00:02:31.620 reports, Transit Commission maps from the 20s, 00:02:31.939 --> 00:02:34.479 construction photos from the 30s. Based on all 00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:37.099 of this, this isn't just a train. This is a physical 00:02:37.099 --> 00:02:39.620 timeline of the 20th century. I would argue it's 00:02:39.620 --> 00:02:41.520 the most Frankenstein line in the entire New 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:43.319 York City system. Frankenstein is the perfect 00:02:43.319 --> 00:02:46.199 word for it. It really is. It is a patchwork 00:02:46.199 --> 00:02:49.879 of dreams, dynamite political feuds, global wars, 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:53.430 and some honestly... baffling engineering compromises. 00:02:53.689 --> 00:02:55.590 It starts in the optimism of the Roaring Twenties, 00:02:55.870 --> 00:02:58.550 gets bogged down in the Depression, pauses for 00:02:58.550 --> 00:03:01.689 World War II, and ends up in the suburban sprawl 00:03:01.689 --> 00:03:03.870 of Queens. Which was never the original plan. 00:03:04.389 --> 00:03:07.030 Exactly. And it is the ghost of a future that 00:03:07.030 --> 00:03:09.210 never happened. We're going to get into the second 00:03:09.210 --> 00:03:12.830 system, which was this massive plan to turn Queens 00:03:12.830 --> 00:03:15.889 into a transit paradise that, well, didn't quite 00:03:15.889 --> 00:03:18.310 pan out. Not at all. So stick with us because 00:03:18.310 --> 00:03:20.590 by the end of this deep dive, you are never going 00:03:20.590 --> 00:03:23.430 to look at the A train the same way again. Our 00:03:23.430 --> 00:03:26.310 mission is to trace this route from the bottom 00:03:26.310 --> 00:03:28.689 of the East River all the way to the rooftops 00:03:28.689 --> 00:03:31.590 of Ozone Park. So let's start with the geography 00:03:31.590 --> 00:03:33.710 just so everyone is oriented. Yeah, lay it out 00:03:33.710 --> 00:03:36.930 for us. We are talking about the route that runs 00:03:36.930 --> 00:03:39.770 from the Cranberry Street tunnel that is deep 00:03:39.770 --> 00:03:42.129 under the East River connecting lower Manhattan 00:03:42.129 --> 00:03:45.099 to Brooklyn. Right near Brooklyn Heights. Correct. 00:03:45.379 --> 00:03:47.280 It runs through central Brooklyn, mostly under 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:49.879 Fulton Street, swinging out into East New York, 00:03:49.900 --> 00:03:52.680 and then terminating in Ozone Park, Queens. Okay, 00:03:52.680 --> 00:03:55.120 so let's unpack the anatomy of this beast. Yeah. 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:57.879 Because looking at these schematics, it is not 00:03:57.879 --> 00:04:00.599 just one long, simple tube, is it? Far from it. 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:03.719 It is a very specific setup designed for a very 00:04:03.719 --> 00:04:07.000 specific kind of efficiency. Yes. The main trunk 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:09.659 of the line, primarily under Fulton Street, Pitkin 00:04:09.659 --> 00:04:11.680 Avenue, and Liberty Avenue, is a four -track 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:14.300 system. Now, for those who aren't transit engineers, 00:04:14.500 --> 00:04:17.439 why is four tracks the magic number? Why not 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:19.540 two? Why not just build a really wide tunnel 00:04:19.540 --> 00:04:22.220 with six? Well, six is usually overkill and too 00:04:22.220 --> 00:04:25.660 expensive, but two is a massive bottleneck. It 00:04:25.660 --> 00:04:28.920 comes down to redundancy and speed. If you only 00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:31.660 have two tracks, one going north, one going south, 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:34.279 every train has to stop at every station. Like 00:04:34.279 --> 00:04:37.620 the L train. Exactly like the L. Or worse, if 00:04:37.620 --> 00:04:40.100 a train breaks down the entire line is dead, 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:42.779 you are stuck because there is no way around 00:04:42.779 --> 00:04:45.300 it. Which, as anyone who rides the subway knows, 00:04:45.459 --> 00:04:47.959 is a special kind of hell. being stuck behind 00:04:47.959 --> 00:04:50.139 a sick passenger or a broken signal on a two 00:04:50.139 --> 00:04:53.160 -track line. Precisely. But a four -track system 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:55.399 allows you to separate the service. You have 00:04:55.399 --> 00:04:57.779 two local tracks on the outside stopping everywhere 00:04:57.779 --> 00:04:59.600 to pick up the volume of passengers, and then 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:02.439 you have two express tracks in the middle bypassing 00:05:02.439 --> 00:05:04.939 the smaller stops carrying people long distances 00:05:04.939 --> 00:05:07.779 very quickly. It separates the commuter from 00:05:07.779 --> 00:05:09.959 the traveler, in a sense. That is a good way 00:05:09.959 --> 00:05:12.639 to put it. It allows for high capacity without 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:15.459 sacrificing velocity. Which gives us the dynamic 00:05:15.459 --> 00:05:18.379 duo of this line, the A and the C. Correct. The 00:05:18.379 --> 00:05:21.620 C is your local workhorse. The slow one. Well, 00:05:21.639 --> 00:05:23.500 it has to be. It stops everywhere in Brooklyn, 00:05:23.740 --> 00:05:25.980 picking up the volume. It is the train for the 00:05:25.980 --> 00:05:29.040 person going from, say, Clinton, Washington to 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:31.420 J Street. Right. Just hopping a few neighborhoods 00:05:31.420 --> 00:05:34.680 over. Meanwhile, the A is the express powerhouse. 00:05:35.149 --> 00:05:37.870 In Brooklyn, the A is incredibly fast because 00:05:37.870 --> 00:05:41.230 the stops are spaced widely apart. It is designed 00:05:41.230 --> 00:05:44.029 to get you from the deep burrows into Manhattan 00:05:44.029 --> 00:05:47.160 as fast as physically possible. But, and here's 00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:49.139 where it gets super interesting looking at the 00:05:49.139 --> 00:05:52.480 track maps. The A changes its identity the moment 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:55.319 it hits Queens. It does. It goes from being this 00:05:55.319 --> 00:05:59.040 aggressive type A express train to a local. It 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:01.019 does, and this is a direct result of the physical 00:06:01.019 --> 00:06:03.639 infrastructure. Once the A hits that elevated 00:06:03.639 --> 00:06:06.120 structure in Queens, the four tracks disappear. 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:07.959 Right, because the elevated structure isn't wide 00:06:07.959 --> 00:06:10.610 enough. Exactly. It becomes a two -track or three 00:06:10.610 --> 00:06:12.509 -track elevated line depending on the segment. 00:06:13.290 --> 00:06:15.790 There is no room for express service in the same 00:06:15.790 --> 00:06:19.389 way. So the A makes every single stop in Queens. 00:06:19.589 --> 00:06:22.470 It becomes a sleepy local train. And the C train, 00:06:22.589 --> 00:06:24.769 what happens to the C? The C never even makes 00:06:24.769 --> 00:06:27.310 it to Queens. It terminates at the border at 00:06:27.310 --> 00:06:30.629 Euclid Avenue. So the architecture literally 00:06:30.629 --> 00:06:33.680 dictates the service pattern. Yeah. You physically 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:37.319 cannot run four tracks of service in Queens because 00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:39.639 the concrete and steel structure does not exist 00:06:39.639 --> 00:06:42.040 to support it. Exactly. So if you are riding 00:06:42.040 --> 00:06:45.759 the A from 207th Street in Manhattan all the 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:48.800 way to Far Rockaway, you are experiencing three 00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:50.839 or four different types of railroad in one seat. 00:06:51.019 --> 00:06:53.360 You are on a local in Manhattan and express in 00:06:53.360 --> 00:06:56.879 Brooklyn, a local in Queens, then crossing a 00:06:56.879 --> 00:06:59.670 bay on a trestle. It is the ultimate tour of 00:06:59.670 --> 00:07:01.850 the system's varying standards. But before we 00:07:01.850 --> 00:07:04.170 get to Queens in that elevated section, we have 00:07:04.170 --> 00:07:06.149 to talk about the underground section in Brooklyn. 00:07:06.670 --> 00:07:08.370 Because there are some stations here that make 00:07:08.370 --> 00:07:10.230 absolutely no sense unless you understand the 00:07:10.230 --> 00:07:12.389 engineering constraints of the 1920s. I know 00:07:12.389 --> 00:07:14.269 exactly where you're going with this. We need 00:07:14.269 --> 00:07:17.089 to talk about No Strand Avenue. No Strand Avenue 00:07:17.089 --> 00:07:19.709 is a headache. An engineering headache, that 00:07:19.709 --> 00:07:22.670 is. It is a split -level station. Usually in 00:07:22.670 --> 00:07:24.670 New York, you stand on a platform and the express 00:07:24.670 --> 00:07:26.529 is on one side of you and the local is on the 00:07:26.529 --> 00:07:30.329 other. You just... Walk across it is seamless 00:07:30.329 --> 00:07:33.269 cross -platform transfer, right? But at no strand 00:07:33.269 --> 00:07:36.350 the express tracks are upstairs and the local 00:07:36.350 --> 00:07:39.069 tracks are downstairs It feels like a dungeon 00:07:39.069 --> 00:07:41.430 down there on the lower level. Why would they 00:07:41.430 --> 00:07:43.269 do that? Do they just want to confuse people? 00:07:43.490 --> 00:07:45.829 It wasn't an aesthetic choice. I promise you 00:07:45.829 --> 00:07:47.790 it was pure geometry You have to remember they 00:07:47.790 --> 00:07:50.029 were building this line directly under Fulton 00:07:50.029 --> 00:07:52.389 Street, which is a major commercial artery, right? 00:07:52.509 --> 00:07:56.649 but it isn't infinitely wide. To build a standard 00:07:56.649 --> 00:07:59.410 four -track station with two island platforms, 00:07:59.529 --> 00:08:03.029 you need a tunnel box that is about 100 to 120 00:08:03.029 --> 00:08:05.870 feet wide. OK. Now, if the street above is only 00:08:05.870 --> 00:08:07.970 80 feet wide from building line to building line, 00:08:08.089 --> 00:08:10.149 you have a massive problem. Because if you dig 00:08:10.149 --> 00:08:13.990 a 120 -foot hole under an 80 -foot street, you 00:08:13.990 --> 00:08:16.589 are digging into the basements of all those shops 00:08:16.589 --> 00:08:19.689 and brownstones. Or worse, you are undermining 00:08:19.689 --> 00:08:22.110 their foundations and causing the buildings to 00:08:22.110 --> 00:08:24.250 collapse into the cut. That would be bad. Very 00:08:24.250 --> 00:08:26.949 bad. So the engineers in the late 20s did the 00:08:26.949 --> 00:08:29.509 only thing they could do. They stacked the tracks. 00:08:29.810 --> 00:08:32.590 They put the express on top of the local. Yes. 00:08:32.870 --> 00:08:35.289 To keep the tunnel narrow enough to fit between 00:08:35.289 --> 00:08:37.889 the building lines of Fulton Street? It's a literal 00:08:37.889 --> 00:08:40.230 tight squeeze. They basically folded the subway 00:08:40.230 --> 00:08:43.360 in half to make it fit. It saved the buildings 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:46.200 on Fulton Street, but it created that unique, 00:08:46.539 --> 00:08:49.720 slightly claustrophobic split level station we 00:08:49.720 --> 00:08:52.559 have today. It is a compromise set in concrete. 00:08:52.980 --> 00:08:54.960 And then literally just a few stops later, you 00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:57.399 have the exact opposite problem. You have Hoyt 00:08:57.399 --> 00:09:00.240 -Shermerhorn. A massive complex. This station 00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:03.120 is huge. It feels like an airport hangar buried 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:05.879 underground. The ceilings are high. The station 00:09:05.879 --> 00:09:09.039 is incredibly wide. Hoyt -Shermerhorn is a fascinating 00:09:09.039 --> 00:09:12.450 case of what we call overbuilding. It is a six 00:09:12.450 --> 00:09:15.330 -track station. Six tracks. Six. You have the 00:09:15.330 --> 00:09:17.169 Fulton Street trains, the A and C, and then you 00:09:17.169 --> 00:09:19.610 have the Crosstown trains, the G, running perpendicular 00:09:19.610 --> 00:09:22.350 but sharing the same level. But if you stand 00:09:22.350 --> 00:09:25.570 on that platform right now and look across the 00:09:25.570 --> 00:09:29.070 tracks, you see nothing. You see dead platforms. 00:09:29.149 --> 00:09:32.370 You see these wide... dusty platforms that are 00:09:32.370 --> 00:09:36.309 completely dark. No passengers, no signs. Maybe 00:09:36.309 --> 00:09:39.149 a stray rat or two. It is incredibly creepy. 00:09:39.269 --> 00:09:41.009 It is. I've looked at them while waiting for 00:09:41.009 --> 00:09:44.830 the UA. A late at night. It looks like a movie 00:09:44.830 --> 00:09:47.409 set for a post -apocalyptic film. It often is 00:09:47.409 --> 00:09:49.250 used for that actually. Hoyt Schirmerhorn is 00:09:49.250 --> 00:09:51.490 a favorite for film crews because they can use 00:09:51.490 --> 00:09:54.279 those abandoned platforms without stopping regular 00:09:54.279 --> 00:09:56.399 service. Michael Jackson filmed the bad music 00:09:56.399 --> 00:09:58.379 video there. Really? I didn't know that. But 00:09:58.379 --> 00:10:00.879 those platforms, they tell a story of a massive 00:10:00.879 --> 00:10:02.980 failure, don't they? They do. Those are the platforms 00:10:02.980 --> 00:10:04.919 for the Court Street shuttle. Let's unpack the 00:10:04.919 --> 00:10:07.159 Court Street saga, because this is the go station 00:10:07.159 --> 00:10:09.820 of the line. What was the plan here based on 00:10:09.820 --> 00:10:12.200 the documents? The planners in the 20s thought 00:10:12.200 --> 00:10:14.659 they needed a dedicated local train to terminate 00:10:14.659 --> 00:10:17.279 in downtown Brooklyn. They looked at the projected 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:19.639 numbers and believed that there would be so much 00:10:19.639 --> 00:10:22.080 demand for a local service that just went from 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:25.059 residential Brooklyn neighborhoods to the downtown 00:10:25.059 --> 00:10:27.299 Civic Center. Meaning City Hall, the courts, 00:10:27.720 --> 00:10:30.120 the business district there. Exactly. So they 00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:32.779 built a spur line. So a train would peel off 00:10:32.779 --> 00:10:35.179 from the main line and go to this dead -end station 00:10:35.179 --> 00:10:39.259 called Court Street. Yes. It opened in 1936 along 00:10:39.259 --> 00:10:41.080 with the rest of the main line. How did it do? 00:10:41.500 --> 00:10:44.740 Absolute silence. Nobody used it. Why not though? 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:48.259 Downtown Brooklyn was and is incredibly busy. 00:10:48.460 --> 00:10:51.039 It was a logistical failure of human behavior. 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:53.899 Court Street Station was built geographically 00:10:53.899 --> 00:10:56.539 very close to the Hoyt -Shermerhorn and J Street 00:10:56.539 --> 00:10:59.159 stations. Oh, I see. If you were a commuter, 00:10:59.399 --> 00:11:01.519 why would you get off your train, wait for a 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:03.580 special shuttle to take you to a station that 00:11:03.580 --> 00:11:06.120 is only a three -block walk from where you already 00:11:06.120 --> 00:11:08.059 are? You wouldn't. You would just walk the three 00:11:08.059 --> 00:11:10.220 blocks. Plus, the transfer itself at Hoyt -Shermerhorn 00:11:10.220 --> 00:11:13.059 was clumsy. People hate transferring. So they 00:11:13.059 --> 00:11:15.740 spent millions of dollars. They built an entire 00:11:15.740 --> 00:11:19.370 station. Tunnels tracks signaling for absolutely 00:11:19.370 --> 00:11:22.929 nothing. Essentially, yes. Ridership was abysmal 00:11:22.929 --> 00:11:26.210 from day one. It bled money for 10 years. Finally, 00:11:26.309 --> 00:11:28.090 the Board of Transportation looked at the numbers 00:11:28.090 --> 00:11:31.110 and killed it in 1946. But they didn't fill it 00:11:31.110 --> 00:11:33.129 in with concrete. Yeah. They didn't demolish 00:11:33.129 --> 00:11:35.470 it to save money on upkeep. No, they just locked 00:11:35.470 --> 00:11:38.409 the doors. And this is the beautiful irony of 00:11:38.409 --> 00:11:40.889 the Fulton Street line. The biggest failure of 00:11:40.889 --> 00:11:43.409 the line became its greatest cultural asset today. 00:11:43.659 --> 00:11:46.659 because that abandoned station Court Street is 00:11:46.659 --> 00:11:49.539 now the New York Transit Museum. Exactly. I love 00:11:49.539 --> 00:11:51.340 that place. If you are listening to this and 00:11:51.340 --> 00:11:54.059 you haven't been, you have to go. The entrance 00:11:54.059 --> 00:11:56.620 is literally just a subway entrance on a sidewalk 00:11:56.620 --> 00:12:00.080 in Brooklyn. You go down the stairs and you are 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:03.919 in a 1936 station frozen in time. And if you 00:12:03.919 --> 00:12:06.700 visit the museum, you are physically walking 00:12:06.700 --> 00:12:08.639 through the ghost of the Fulton Street line. 00:12:09.059 --> 00:12:11.000 The vintage cars they keep there, the ones with 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:12.860 the wicker seats and the ceiling fans, they're 00:12:12.860 --> 00:12:14.720 sitting on the actual tracks that were built 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:17.620 for that failed shuttle. The failure is what 00:12:17.620 --> 00:12:20.440 preserved the history. That's amazing. OK, so 00:12:20.440 --> 00:12:23.139 we have a tight squeeze at Nostrand, the massive 00:12:23.139 --> 00:12:25.860 ghost town at Hoyt. Now let's move back to the 00:12:25.860 --> 00:12:28.200 construction itself. Because looking at these 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:31.460 reports from 1929, the actual act of building 00:12:31.460 --> 00:12:33.740 this thing sounds like a nightmare. Nightmare 00:12:33.740 --> 00:12:36.600 is the exact right word. You really have to remember 00:12:36.600 --> 00:12:39.399 the historical context here. Groundbreaking for 00:12:39.399 --> 00:12:44.720 the line was April 16th, 1929. 1929, the year 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:47.379 everything changed. The stock market crash happened 00:12:47.379 --> 00:12:50.220 six months later. So this line was built almost 00:12:50.220 --> 00:12:52.820 entirely during the Great Depression. The city 00:12:52.820 --> 00:12:56.039 was broke. The country was broke. People were 00:12:56.039 --> 00:12:58.860 desperate for work. So labor was incredibly cheap, 00:12:59.220 --> 00:13:01.799 but money for machines was tight. Labor was certainly 00:13:01.799 --> 00:13:04.840 available, yes, but the conditions described 00:13:04.840 --> 00:13:08.220 in the reports, the documents detail a hand shovel 00:13:08.220 --> 00:13:11.100 method for large sections of the line. A hand 00:13:11.100 --> 00:13:14.159 shovel method for a subway tunnel? Yes. We are 00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:16.519 talking about moving millions of tons of earth. 00:13:16.679 --> 00:13:18.659 We're talking about digging a trench 40 feet 00:13:18.659 --> 00:13:22.379 deep and 100 feet wide down a major avenue. Why 00:13:22.379 --> 00:13:24.340 weren't they using steam shovels? They had machines 00:13:24.340 --> 00:13:26.679 in the 30s. They had them, but they couldn't 00:13:26.679 --> 00:13:28.980 use them. The subsurface of Fulton Street was 00:13:28.980 --> 00:13:31.519 a spaghetti bowl of utilities. A spaghetti bowl. 00:13:31.720 --> 00:13:35.019 Imagine a century of infrastructure buried haphazardly 00:13:35.019 --> 00:13:39.240 under the dirt. Gas mains, water lines, fragile 00:13:39.240 --> 00:13:43.039 vitrified clay sewer pipes, early telephone ducts, 00:13:43.159 --> 00:13:46.220 telegraph wires, pneumatic tubes. This is a mess. 00:13:46.460 --> 00:13:49.159 It was so dense and so poorly mapped that if 00:13:49.159 --> 00:13:51.919 you stuck a giant steam shovel bucket into the 00:13:51.919 --> 00:13:54.580 ground, you would blindly sever the nervous system 00:13:54.580 --> 00:13:57.059 of Brooklyn. And probably blow up a city block 00:13:57.059 --> 00:13:59.700 if you hit a high pressure gas main. Precisely. 00:13:59.879 --> 00:14:02.679 The gas mains were the biggest danger. One spark 00:14:02.679 --> 00:14:05.340 from a steel shovel hitting a subterranean rock 00:14:05.340 --> 00:14:07.720 combined with a leaking gas main, you have a 00:14:07.720 --> 00:14:10.259 catastrophe. So they mandated that they had to 00:14:10.259 --> 00:14:12.940 dig it by hand. I want to picture this. Thousands 00:14:12.940 --> 00:14:16.220 of men. Thousands of men down in the dirt. pickaxes, 00:14:16.220 --> 00:14:18.799 shovels, wheelbarrows. They would expose the 00:14:18.799 --> 00:14:21.419 pikes by hand, carefully hang them from the temporary 00:14:21.419 --> 00:14:23.919 timber decking above with chains, and then dig 00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:26.100 around them. It was surgical excavation on a 00:14:26.100 --> 00:14:28.980 massive scale. Surgical and incredibly dangerous. 00:14:29.220 --> 00:14:31.600 That gives a whole new meaning to the word infrastructure. 00:14:32.039 --> 00:14:33.820 It wasn't just pouring concrete. It was urban 00:14:33.820 --> 00:14:36.179 archaeology. They were unearthing the city's 00:14:36.179 --> 00:14:38.720 old guts while trying to build a brand new organ 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:41.840 underneath. And they had to be incredibly patient. 00:14:42.029 --> 00:14:44.529 There is a detail in the Board of Transportation 00:14:44.529 --> 00:14:46.730 specifications that really struck me when reviewing 00:14:46.730 --> 00:14:48.629 the sources. Oh, I saw that in the notes. The 00:14:48.629 --> 00:14:51.110 four -month rule. Yes, the soil settlement clause. 00:14:51.490 --> 00:14:53.690 After they built the concrete tunnel box down 00:14:53.690 --> 00:14:56.230 in the trench and backfilled the dirt on top 00:14:56.230 --> 00:14:58.450 of it to bring the street level back up, they 00:14:58.450 --> 00:15:00.210 weren't allowed to pave the street immediately. 00:15:00.470 --> 00:15:02.350 Why not just throw some asphalt down and get 00:15:02.350 --> 00:15:04.980 the cars back on the road? Gravity. They had 00:15:04.980 --> 00:15:08.179 to wait four months. They left Fulton Street 00:15:08.179 --> 00:15:10.960 a major commercial thoroughfare as a dirt road 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:14.620 for four solid months just to let the rain and 00:15:14.620 --> 00:15:17.259 gravity naturally compress the soil. Because 00:15:17.259 --> 00:15:19.320 if they didn't... If they paved it immediately, 00:15:19.659 --> 00:15:21.539 the road would have buckled and cracked within 00:15:21.539 --> 00:15:23.860 weeks as the hidden air pockets settled out and 00:15:23.860 --> 00:15:25.820 the dirt compacted under the weight of traffic. 00:15:26.100 --> 00:15:28.840 So imagine that. Fulton Street just being a mud 00:15:28.840 --> 00:15:31.600 pit for a third of a year. The business owners 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:33.820 must have absolutely loved that. Oh, they hated 00:15:33.820 --> 00:15:37.120 it. The documents show there were lawsuits. Constant 00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:39.659 complaints businesses went under. The construction 00:15:39.659 --> 00:15:42.019 of the subway decimated the street life above 00:15:42.019 --> 00:15:44.580 it for years. But that was the price of progress. 00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:47.320 The city was betting that the subway would bring 00:15:47.320 --> 00:15:49.899 more value in the long run than the disruption 00:15:49.899 --> 00:15:52.279 cost in the short run. And eventually it did. 00:15:52.940 --> 00:15:58.179 Opening day finally comes. April 9th, 1936. The 00:15:58.179 --> 00:16:01.110 line opens from J Street. to Rockaway Avenue. 00:16:01.330 --> 00:16:04.820 It was a huge moment for Brooklyn. A quiet, fast 00:16:04.820 --> 00:16:07.779 subway replacing the noisy, dark, elevated train 00:16:07.779 --> 00:16:09.759 that used to run above the street. Right, because 00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:11.620 before the subway, there was an actual L train 00:16:11.620 --> 00:16:14.179 on Fulton Street, too. Yes, the old Fulton Street 00:16:14.179 --> 00:16:16.960 elevated, and it was universally despised by 00:16:16.960 --> 00:16:20.639 the 1930s. It was incredibly loud. It blocked 00:16:20.639 --> 00:16:23.200 the sun from the storefronts. It dripped oil 00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:25.840 and grease onto pedestrians. Taking it down and 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:28.679 putting the train underground was seen as civilizing 00:16:28.679 --> 00:16:31.419 the neighborhood. It was a massive civic upgrade. 00:16:31.639 --> 00:16:33.960 But then history intervenes again. We get to 00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:35.960 what I call the interrupted line phase in the 00:16:35.960 --> 00:16:39.000 documents. The war. World War II. Right. So construction 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:41.720 is moving east. They are pouring concrete past 00:16:41.720 --> 00:16:44.200 Rockaway Avenue. They are heading toward East 00:16:44.200 --> 00:16:48.399 New York. It is 1941. And then Pearl Harbor happens. 00:16:48.659 --> 00:16:52.259 December 1941. Suddenly building a subway in 00:16:52.259 --> 00:16:55.779 Brooklyn is not a national priority. The priority 00:16:55.779 --> 00:16:59.340 is tanks, battleships, and bombers. What specifically 00:16:59.340 --> 00:17:01.500 stopped the subway, though? Was it just a lack 00:17:01.500 --> 00:17:04.809 of municipal funds? Or was it manpower since 00:17:04.809 --> 00:17:07.470 everyone was drafted? It was actually materials, 00:17:08.170 --> 00:17:11.430 specifically copper and steel. A subway needs 00:17:11.430 --> 00:17:14.529 miles and miles of copper for the third rail 00:17:14.529 --> 00:17:17.410 for the signaling relays for the power substations. 00:17:17.869 --> 00:17:20.990 It needs thousands of tons of steel for the tracks 00:17:20.990 --> 00:17:23.109 and the reinforcement bars inside the concrete. 00:17:23.410 --> 00:17:25.109 And the Federal War Production Board stepped 00:17:25.109 --> 00:17:27.230 in and said no. They said, we need that copper 00:17:27.230 --> 00:17:29.670 for bullet casings and communication wire. We 00:17:29.670 --> 00:17:31.869 need that steel for Liberty ships and Sherman 00:17:31.869 --> 00:17:35.390 tanks. You could not buy copper in 1942 for a 00:17:35.390 --> 00:17:37.410 civilian project. It was all strictly rationed 00:17:37.410 --> 00:17:39.150 for the war effort. So the city just stopped? 00:17:39.369 --> 00:17:42.069 Cold stop. December 1942, the Board of Transportation 00:17:42.069 --> 00:17:44.569 literally walked away from the active construction 00:17:44.569 --> 00:17:46.309 sites. What happened to the tunnels they had 00:17:46.309 --> 00:17:48.150 already dug? They just sat there in the dark. 00:17:48.490 --> 00:17:51.069 There were stations like Broadway East New York, 00:17:51.250 --> 00:17:52.990 which is what we now call Broadway Junction, 00:17:53.150 --> 00:17:55.289 that were physically finished. Finished like 00:17:55.289 --> 00:17:57.609 you could walk into them. Yes. The tile was on 00:17:57.609 --> 00:18:00.650 the wall. The concrete stairs were poured. The 00:18:00.650 --> 00:18:03.329 wooden ticket booths were built. But there were 00:18:03.329 --> 00:18:07.470 no signals and no steel tracks. Just dark, empty 00:18:07.470 --> 00:18:10.289 concrete shells echoing under the street. That 00:18:10.289 --> 00:18:13.089 is incredibly eerie. It is a ghost tunnel scenario. 00:18:13.470 --> 00:18:16.029 Imagine being a kid living in East New York in 00:18:16.029 --> 00:18:20.150 1943 knowing there is a massive beautifully tiled 00:18:20.150 --> 00:18:22.750 cavern right under your street that goes absolutely 00:18:22.750 --> 00:18:25.450 nowhere. It wasn't until the war ended and the 00:18:25.450 --> 00:18:27.990 global supply chains normalized that they could 00:18:27.990 --> 00:18:30.410 resume work. And even then it took quite a while 00:18:30.410 --> 00:18:32.910 to spin the massive gears of construction back 00:18:32.910 --> 00:18:35.210 up. The documents show the extension to Broadway 00:18:35.210 --> 00:18:39.289 Junction didn't open until late 1946. And the 00:18:39.289 --> 00:18:42.250 push to Euclid Avenue took until 1948. And you 00:18:42.250 --> 00:18:44.089 can actually see the difference, right? If you 00:18:44.089 --> 00:18:46.029 look closely at the architecture of the stations. 00:18:46.529 --> 00:18:48.910 Oh, absolutely. This is one of my favorite details 00:18:48.910 --> 00:18:51.289 to look out for. If you get off at a station 00:18:51.289 --> 00:18:54.069 like Ralph Avenue or Rockaway Avenue, which were 00:18:54.069 --> 00:18:56.690 built in the mid -30s, the tiles are a certain 00:18:56.690 --> 00:18:59.289 style. The name tablets are very intricate. But 00:18:59.289 --> 00:19:01.670 if you go out to Euclid Avenue or Shepherd Avenue, 00:19:01.710 --> 00:19:05.170 which were built post -war, the feel is completely 00:19:05.170 --> 00:19:07.990 different. How so? What changed in 10 years? 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:11.660 It is the lighting and the finish. The 1936 stations 00:19:11.660 --> 00:19:14.200 were designed for incandescent bulbs. They produce 00:19:14.200 --> 00:19:17.059 a softer, yellower light. There are more shadows. 00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:20.420 The 1948 stations introduced fluorescent lighting. 00:19:20.900 --> 00:19:23.119 The harsh, buzzing, blue -white light of the 00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:25.579 future. Exactly. The Atomic Age aesthetic. It 00:19:25.579 --> 00:19:27.480 was brighter, it was cleaner, and it felt much 00:19:27.480 --> 00:19:29.880 more modern for 1948. They wanted to banish the 00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:32.759 shadows of the Depression and the war. So as 00:19:32.759 --> 00:19:35.099 you ride the line from downtown Brooklyn out 00:19:35.099 --> 00:19:38.019 to East New York, You are literally riding from 00:19:38.019 --> 00:19:40.480 the incandescent 30s into the fluorescent late 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:44.480 40s. OK, so we finally reach Euclid Avenue. We 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:47.319 are at the physical edge of the city, basically. 00:19:47.319 --> 00:19:51.099 We are right near the Queens border. But we still 00:19:51.099 --> 00:19:53.720 need to get the train to Ozone Park. And this 00:19:53.720 --> 00:19:55.640 is where the Frankenstein surgery happens. The 00:19:55.640 --> 00:19:58.299 takeover. This is one of the most impressive 00:19:58.299 --> 00:20:01.279 feats of engineering on the entire line and also, 00:20:01.500 --> 00:20:03.759 frankly, the most bizarre. Set the scene for 00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:06.380 us based on the historical record. You have a 00:20:06.380 --> 00:20:09.740 brand new concrete tunnel deep underground at 00:20:09.740 --> 00:20:13.420 Euclid and you have an old rickety elevated train 00:20:13.420 --> 00:20:16.019 line running high above Liberty Avenue in Queens. 00:20:16.220 --> 00:20:18.289 The Liberty Avenue L. It was originally built 00:20:18.289 --> 00:20:20.930 by the BMT, the Brooklyn Manhattan Transit Corporation, 00:20:21.109 --> 00:20:22.990 which was the private competitor to the city 00:20:22.990 --> 00:20:26.470 owned IND system back in 1915. So it was already 00:20:26.470 --> 00:20:28.329 40 years old by the time the subway tunnel reached 00:20:28.329 --> 00:20:31.130 it. Yes, it was part of the dual contracts expansion 00:20:31.130 --> 00:20:34.009 era. It was serving Ozone Park for decades before 00:20:34.009 --> 00:20:36.230 the underground subway even arrived at the border. 00:20:36.569 --> 00:20:38.890 So the IND decides we are not going to spend 00:20:38.890 --> 00:20:41.210 millions to dig a tunnel to Ozone Park. We're 00:20:41.210 --> 00:20:43.750 just going to steal the BMT's elevated track. 00:20:43.900 --> 00:20:46.740 Recapture was the polite legal term, but yes, 00:20:47.539 --> 00:20:50.799 the city had unified the subway system in 1940, 00:20:51.079 --> 00:20:53.339 buying out all the private companies. So they 00:20:53.339 --> 00:20:56.720 own the L now anyway. They wanted to connect 00:20:56.720 --> 00:21:00.299 their new deep subway tunnel to these old elevated 00:21:00.299 --> 00:21:04.220 tracks to create one long continuous line. But 00:21:04.220 --> 00:21:07.200 the problem is the L was already running. Thousands 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:09.619 of people in Queens used it every single day 00:21:09.619 --> 00:21:11.819 to commute. You cannot just shut it down for 00:21:11.819 --> 00:21:14.000 six months to build a massive concrete ramp. 00:21:14.279 --> 00:21:16.279 Exactly. You have to keep the city moving. So 00:21:16.279 --> 00:21:18.779 how do you connect a deep tunnel to a sky -high 00:21:18.779 --> 00:21:20.900 bridge without stopping the trains? It sounds 00:21:20.900 --> 00:21:22.619 like open -heart surgery on a living patient. 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:25.359 It really was. They built everything around the 00:21:25.359 --> 00:21:27.599 active line first. They built the ramp, the incline 00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:30.000 coming up from the tunnel at Grant Avenue. They 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:32.359 built the entirely new station at Grant Avenue, 00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:34.359 which sits right at the portal where the train 00:21:34.359 --> 00:21:36.980 comes out of the ground. And then they planned 00:21:36.980 --> 00:21:39.200 what they called The Cutover. The Cutover. It 00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:42.539 sounds like a 1950s heist movie. It was a military 00:21:42.539 --> 00:21:46.339 -style operation. April 1956. They chose a single 00:21:46.339 --> 00:21:49.180 weekend. On a Friday, the old elevated trains 00:21:49.180 --> 00:21:51.180 were running to their old terminus in Brooklyn. 00:21:52.049 --> 00:21:54.589 Crews went in with oxy acetylene torches and 00:21:54.589 --> 00:21:58.029 massive cranes. They physically severed the steel 00:21:58.029 --> 00:22:00.369 tracks of the old L. They just cut them in half. 00:22:00.569 --> 00:22:02.490 Cut them in half, slewed them over, literally 00:22:02.490 --> 00:22:05.210 bent the steel structures to align with the new 00:22:05.210 --> 00:22:07.329 ramp coming up from the ground and connected 00:22:07.329 --> 00:22:09.730 the high voltage power. In one single weekend. 00:22:09.990 --> 00:22:13.369 Three days. By Monday morning, April 29th, the 00:22:13.369 --> 00:22:15.910 A train came roaring out of the underground tunnel. 00:22:16.160 --> 00:22:19.519 up the new ramp and smoothly onto the old elevated 00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:22.240 structure. That is wild. Imagine the absolute 00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:24.619 confusion for the commuters that Monday. We go 00:22:24.619 --> 00:22:26.640 underground now. It changed the commute forever. 00:22:26.759 --> 00:22:29.180 Suddenly you had a one seat ride from Ozone Park, 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:31.680 Queens, all the way to Midtown Manhattan, no 00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:33.960 more transferring to a slow elevated train in 00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:35.920 Brooklyn and then another train to cross the 00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:38.940 river. It integrated Queens into the economic 00:22:38.940 --> 00:22:41.259 heart of the city in a way it never had been 00:22:41.259 --> 00:22:44.420 before. But there is a catch here, right? The 00:22:44.420 --> 00:22:48.660 BMT -L was built in 1915. Was it actually strong 00:22:48.660 --> 00:22:50.940 enough? I mean, IND subway cars, the A train, 00:22:51.880 --> 00:22:54.400 they are heavy steel beasts. They're built like 00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:57.240 tanks. Old elevated trains from the teens were 00:22:57.240 --> 00:22:59.799 mostly wooden and very light. That is the lucky 00:22:59.799 --> 00:23:03.319 break of history right there. In 1915, for reasons 00:23:03.319 --> 00:23:05.940 that transit historians still debate, Maybe it 00:23:05.940 --> 00:23:08.920 was incredible foresight. Maybe it was just accidental 00:23:08.920 --> 00:23:12.279 overengineering. The BMT built that specific 00:23:12.279 --> 00:23:14.799 section of the Liberty Avenue L to heavy subway 00:23:14.799 --> 00:23:17.119 standards. What does that mean, practically speaking? 00:23:17.319 --> 00:23:19.420 It means the steel girders were twice as thick 00:23:19.420 --> 00:23:21.779 as they strictly needed to be for the light wooden 00:23:21.779 --> 00:23:24.420 trains of the era. The concrete foundations for 00:23:24.420 --> 00:23:26.480 the pillars went much deeper into the ground. 00:23:26.819 --> 00:23:29.769 So it was accidentally. future -proofed. Or intentionally. 00:23:30.009 --> 00:23:31.990 Yeah. The BMT leadership might have suspected 00:23:31.990 --> 00:23:34.109 that one day heavy steel trains would need to 00:23:34.109 --> 00:23:36.029 run out there. Because of that specific decision 00:23:36.029 --> 00:23:39.869 made in 1915, the IND engineers in 1956 could 00:23:39.869 --> 00:23:42.369 just drive their massive trains right onto it. 00:23:42.789 --> 00:23:45.650 If that steel had been lighter, the A train could 00:23:45.650 --> 00:23:47.710 not run there today. The city would have had 00:23:47.710 --> 00:23:49.630 to tear it down and rebuild the entire structure. 00:23:49.730 --> 00:23:51.029 Which they probably wouldn't have had the money 00:23:51.029 --> 00:23:53.680 to do. Incredible. So we have the line as we 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:56.240 know it today. A tunnel from the 30s forcefully 00:23:56.240 --> 00:23:59.660 connected to an L from the teens. But now, based 00:23:59.660 --> 00:24:01.900 on these planning documents, we have to talk 00:24:01.900 --> 00:24:04.819 about the line we don't know. The ghost map. 00:24:05.960 --> 00:24:08.359 The second system. This is the part of the deep 00:24:08.359 --> 00:24:12.700 dive that makes transit nerds weep. The IND Fulton 00:24:12.700 --> 00:24:15.299 Street line was never supposed to end at Ozone 00:24:15.299 --> 00:24:17.920 Park. It was never supposed to just be a feeder 00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:20.180 line hooking up to an old L. It was supposed 00:24:20.180 --> 00:24:22.779 to be the launch pad for a massive futuristic 00:24:22.779 --> 00:24:26.299 expansion deep into Queens. We're talking about 00:24:26.299 --> 00:24:29.500 the ambitious second system plans of 1929 and 00:24:29.500 --> 00:24:32.420 1939. This is a comprehensive plan to cover the 00:24:32.420 --> 00:24:34.859 transit deserts of Queens and subways. And when 00:24:34.859 --> 00:24:36.859 we say evidence in the documents, we mean stuff 00:24:36.859 --> 00:24:38.759 you can physically see today while riding the 00:24:38.759 --> 00:24:41.480 train. Tell us about the bell mounts. Okay. This 00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:43.420 is a bit of a treasure hunt for the listeners. 00:24:44.119 --> 00:24:47.599 Next time you are on the A train leaving Broadway 00:24:47.599 --> 00:24:51.579 Junction heading east toward Euclid Avenue, look 00:24:51.579 --> 00:24:54.599 out the right -hand window into the tunnel. Just 00:24:54.599 --> 00:24:56.859 as the train leaves the station and enters the 00:24:56.859 --> 00:24:59.920 dark, watch the concrete wall. What exactly am 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:02.519 I looking for? You will see the tunnel wall suddenly 00:25:02.519 --> 00:25:04.880 flare out. It curves away into the darkness, 00:25:05.240 --> 00:25:07.920 creating a wide empty cavern, and then a few 00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:10.400 seconds later it curves back in. Like the shape 00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:12.640 of a bell opening up. Exactly. It's called a 00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:15.299 bell mouth. That is a structural provision for 00:25:15.299 --> 00:25:17.839 a future turnout. The original engineers built 00:25:17.839 --> 00:25:19.920 the tunnel wall that way so that in the future 00:25:19.920 --> 00:25:22.279 they could easily bore a new tunnel branching 00:25:22.279 --> 00:25:24.599 off without having to dynamite the walls and 00:25:24.599 --> 00:25:26.859 disrupt service on the main line. They were leaving 00:25:26.859 --> 00:25:29.740 a door open for the future. Where was that specific 00:25:29.740 --> 00:25:32.079 branch supposed to go? That one was supposed 00:25:32.079 --> 00:25:34.599 to recapture the Jamaica line. It would have 00:25:34.599 --> 00:25:37.240 created a massive loop service through Queens 00:25:37.240 --> 00:25:39.259 connecting different residential neighborhoods 00:25:39.259 --> 00:25:41.640 that are currently totally isolated from each 00:25:41.640 --> 00:25:44.460 other. And then there's Euclid Avenue. We mentioned 00:25:44.460 --> 00:25:47.140 earlier that the C train terminates there. Yeah. 00:25:47.259 --> 00:25:50.160 But the physical tracks keep going. Yes. If you 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:52.460 stand at the very end of the platform at Euclid 00:25:52.460 --> 00:25:55.259 and look straight into the tunnel, you see four 00:25:55.259 --> 00:25:58.109 tracks heading into the dark. The outer two tracks 00:25:58.109 --> 00:26:00.170 go up the ramp to the elevated line. We just 00:26:00.170 --> 00:26:02.390 talked about heading to Lefferts Boulevard and 00:26:02.390 --> 00:26:06.670 the Rockaways But the center two tracks the express 00:26:06.670 --> 00:26:09.289 tracks they continue straight and then they just 00:26:09.289 --> 00:26:11.259 hit a brick wall They go straight under Pitkin 00:26:11.259 --> 00:26:13.059 Avenue for a few blocks, essentially running 00:26:13.059 --> 00:26:14.579 under the neighborhood, and then they just end 00:26:14.579 --> 00:26:17.440 in concrete bumpers. They are used as storage 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:20.680 tracks now to park out of service trains. But 00:26:20.680 --> 00:26:22.940 originally they were pointing like a loaded arrow 00:26:22.940 --> 00:26:25.940 toward Cambria Heights. Cambria Heights. That 00:26:25.940 --> 00:26:28.220 is way out there. That is near the Nassau County 00:26:28.220 --> 00:26:31.980 border. It is deep Queens. The 1939 transit plan 00:26:31.980 --> 00:26:34.160 envisioned extending the subway along Pitkin 00:26:34.160 --> 00:26:36.319 Avenue all the way to Cross Bay Boulevard and 00:26:36.319 --> 00:26:38.220 then running along Linden Boulevard straight 00:26:38.220 --> 00:26:41.160 to Cambria Heights. We are talking about an area 00:26:41.160 --> 00:26:44.339 that is a massive transit desert today. If you 00:26:44.339 --> 00:26:46.819 live in Cabria Heights right now, you are taking 00:26:46.819 --> 00:26:49.519 a bus to another bus just to get to a train. 00:26:49.980 --> 00:26:52.759 It is easily an hour and a half commute to Manhattan. 00:26:53.700 --> 00:26:55.460 Under the second system, it would have been a 00:26:55.460 --> 00:26:58.000 fast one -seat ride to Wall Street, and the plans 00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:00.059 were incredibly detailed. They didn't just draw 00:27:00.059 --> 00:27:03.099 a theoretical line on a map. They designed complex 00:27:03.099 --> 00:27:06.279 flying junctions at Cross Bay Boulevard. Pause 00:27:06.279 --> 00:27:08.940 on flying junction for a second. What does that 00:27:08.940 --> 00:27:10.980 mean technically compared to a regular track 00:27:10.980 --> 00:27:14.240 intersection? In a normal flat junction, if a 00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:16.740 train wants to turn left to go onto a branch 00:27:16.740 --> 00:27:19.240 line, it has to physically cross over the oncoming 00:27:19.240 --> 00:27:21.980 tracks in the opposite direction. It is exactly 00:27:21.980 --> 00:27:24.200 like a car turning left at a busy intersection 00:27:24.200 --> 00:27:26.960 that blocks all oncoming traffic. You have to 00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:29.380 wait for a gap. Which causes massive delays. 00:27:29.609 --> 00:27:32.410 because one late train messes up the timing for 00:27:32.410 --> 00:27:34.829 everything else. Right, cascading delays. A flying 00:27:34.829 --> 00:27:37.309 junction, however, is like a modern highway interchange. 00:27:37.829 --> 00:27:40.269 The tracks physically ramp up and fly over or 00:27:40.269 --> 00:27:42.130 dive under the opposing tracks through separate 00:27:42.130 --> 00:27:44.609 tunnels so that trains can merge and diverge 00:27:44.609 --> 00:27:46.490 without ever stopping or waiting for oncoming 00:27:46.490 --> 00:27:48.690 traffic. It allows for incredibly high speed, 00:27:48.789 --> 00:27:50.809 high frequency service. So they weren't just 00:27:50.809 --> 00:27:52.809 planning a simple subway extension. They were 00:27:52.809 --> 00:27:55.410 planning a super highway for trains. They were 00:27:55.410 --> 00:27:57.609 planning for a future where Queens was going 00:27:57.609 --> 00:28:00.829 to be as dense and bustling as Manhattan. Yes. 00:28:01.109 --> 00:28:03.049 They were planning for a metropolis that never 00:28:03.049 --> 00:28:05.210 quite materialized in that way. And the plan 00:28:05.210 --> 00:28:08.210 died. Why did it die? Why didn't we get the Super 00:28:08.210 --> 00:28:11.690 A train to Cabria Heights? Money politics and 00:28:11.690 --> 00:28:15.250 timing. As we discussed, the war completely drained 00:28:15.250 --> 00:28:17.769 the public coffers. And then after the war, the 00:28:17.769 --> 00:28:20.450 entire philosophy of American city planning changed 00:28:20.450 --> 00:28:23.730 fundamentally. The rise of the personal automobile. 00:28:24.350 --> 00:28:27.930 and specifically the rise of Robert Mersus. The 00:28:27.930 --> 00:28:30.089 power breaker himself. He shifted the city's 00:28:30.089 --> 00:28:32.730 focus entirely to highways and bridges. Building 00:28:32.730 --> 00:28:35.130 the Van Wick Expressway took absolute priority 00:28:35.130 --> 00:28:37.450 over extending the subway. The public money that 00:28:37.450 --> 00:28:39.069 could have built the Cambria Heights line went 00:28:39.069 --> 00:28:42.430 into pouring asphalt for cars. The second system 00:28:42.430 --> 00:28:45.029 remained a paper dream. And those express tracks 00:28:45.029 --> 00:28:46.849 at Euclid are just sitting there waiting? Waiting 00:28:46.849 --> 00:28:49.150 for a train that will likely never come. They 00:28:49.150 --> 00:28:51.569 are essentially the longest, most expensive storage 00:28:51.569 --> 00:28:54.970 closet in New York. So let's flash forward. We 00:28:54.970 --> 00:28:58.390 are in the present day 2026. The line is 90 years 00:28:58.390 --> 00:29:01.589 old. It is a survivor, but it is also creaking 00:29:01.589 --> 00:29:04.349 under the weight of its own age. What is happening 00:29:04.349 --> 00:29:07.809 now based on the recent documentation? Is it 00:29:07.809 --> 00:29:10.549 just rotting away or is there hope for modernization? 00:29:11.289 --> 00:29:13.710 Modernization is finally happening and the big 00:29:13.710 --> 00:29:16.349 story, the expensive story, is the signals. The 00:29:16.349 --> 00:29:18.390 traffic lights of the subway system. For almost 00:29:18.390 --> 00:29:21.509 90 years, this line ran on what is called fixed 00:29:21.509 --> 00:29:24.569 block signaling. Imagine the physical track is 00:29:24.569 --> 00:29:27.529 divided into invisible zones or blocks. If a 00:29:27.529 --> 00:29:29.730 train is in zone A, the signal light in zone 00:29:29.730 --> 00:29:32.980 B turns red. No one can enter. It is safe, but 00:29:32.980 --> 00:29:35.200 it is incredibly inefficient. You have to keep 00:29:35.200 --> 00:29:37.619 huge physical gaps between trains to ensure they 00:29:37.619 --> 00:29:39.480 don't rear end each other. And if a physical 00:29:39.480 --> 00:29:41.400 signal breaks, which happens all the time with 00:29:41.400 --> 00:29:44.039 1930s technology down in a damn tunnel, the whole 00:29:44.039 --> 00:29:46.380 line stops. We've all heard the conductor say 00:29:46.380 --> 00:29:48.660 on the loudspeaker, we are being held by a signal 00:29:48.660 --> 00:29:51.359 trouble ahead. Exactly. That usually means a 00:29:51.359 --> 00:29:53.779 literal piece of copper from 1936 is finally 00:29:53.779 --> 00:29:57.220 corroded. But recently, in December 2025, the 00:29:57.220 --> 00:30:01.039 MTA awarded a massive contract. One point three 00:30:01.039 --> 00:30:04.890 billion to a company called LK Comstock to install 00:30:04.890 --> 00:30:09.710 CBTC on the Fulton Street line. CBTC. Communications 00:30:09.710 --> 00:30:12.720 -based train control. Explain that to a five 00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:15.359 -year -old. Well, explain it to me. Okay. Instead 00:30:15.359 --> 00:30:17.339 of fixed rigid zones on the track, the train 00:30:17.339 --> 00:30:19.680 itself tells a central computer exactly where 00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:22.319 it is down to the inch. It uses radio transponders. 00:30:22.660 --> 00:30:24.759 The computer then calculates the train's speed 00:30:24.759 --> 00:30:26.940 and braking distance and creates a moving bubble 00:30:26.940 --> 00:30:29.500 of safety around the train. As the train moves, 00:30:29.740 --> 00:30:31.859 the bubble moves with it. So the train behind 00:30:31.859 --> 00:30:34.160 it doesn't have to wait for a fixed zone to clear. 00:30:34.579 --> 00:30:36.740 It can get much closer as long as it stays outside 00:30:36.740 --> 00:30:39.609 that moving digital bubble. Exactly. This allows 00:30:39.609 --> 00:30:42.170 trains to run much closer together safely. It 00:30:42.170 --> 00:30:44.349 drastically increases the capacity of the line. 00:30:44.670 --> 00:30:46.809 You can run more trains per hour through the 00:30:46.809 --> 00:30:49.529 same tunnel. So fewer delays, less crowding on 00:30:49.529 --> 00:30:52.180 the platforms. That is the goal. It is the standard 00:30:52.180 --> 00:30:55.380 for modern rapid transit worldwide. London has 00:30:55.380 --> 00:30:57.880 it. Paris has it. New York is finally catching 00:30:57.880 --> 00:31:00.119 up on the Fulton Street line. But the really 00:31:00.119 --> 00:31:02.640 interesting thing in these documents is where 00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:06.059 the money came from to pay for this billion dollar 00:31:06.059 --> 00:31:08.940 upgrade. Do tell. The documents mention a very 00:31:08.940 --> 00:31:11.720 specific funding source. The reports explicitly 00:31:11.720 --> 00:31:14.799 state this is funded by congestion pricing. Ah, 00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:18.230 the toll. The controversial fee for driving into 00:31:18.230 --> 00:31:20.869 Manhattan below 16th Street. However you feel 00:31:20.869 --> 00:31:23.509 about the toll, the mechanics of it are a direct 00:31:23.509 --> 00:31:26.349 wealth transfer. The money paid by drivers and 00:31:26.349 --> 00:31:28.509 their personal cars to enter the central business 00:31:28.509 --> 00:31:31.309 district is literally paying for the new digital 00:31:31.309 --> 00:31:33.670 signals under Fulton Street in Brooklyn. That 00:31:33.670 --> 00:31:36.390 is a powerful historical connection. The car 00:31:36.390 --> 00:31:38.690 is finally paying for the train. It is almost 00:31:38.690 --> 00:31:41.230 poetic justice for the Robert Moses era. It is 00:31:41.230 --> 00:31:43.910 a complete reversal of the 1950s logic where 00:31:43.910 --> 00:31:47.009 highway money starved the subway. Finally, the 00:31:47.009 --> 00:31:49.660 transit system is getting the capital. But unfortunately, 00:31:49.819 --> 00:31:51.599 it is not all good news. We also have to talk 00:31:51.599 --> 00:31:54.200 about the stations themselves. The Enhanced Station 00:31:54.200 --> 00:31:56.380 Initiative. I was reading about this in the 2015 00:31:56.380 --> 00:31:59.099 reports. This was the grand plan a few years 00:31:59.099 --> 00:32:01.579 ago. The state wanted to make the stations look 00:32:01.579 --> 00:32:04.880 and feel modern. They promised Wi -Fi USB charging 00:32:04.880 --> 00:32:07.579 ports at the benches, new artwork, better lighting, 00:32:07.839 --> 00:32:10.480 digital countdown screens. Stations like Clinton, 00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:12.740 Washington and Kingston Throop on the Fulton 00:32:12.740 --> 00:32:15.819 line were on the priority list for a major structural 00:32:15.819 --> 00:32:18.559 overhaul. And did it happen? Did we get the USB 00:32:18.559 --> 00:32:22.119 ports in Ben Stovey? Budget cuts. The costs ballooned 00:32:22.119 --> 00:32:25.220 way beyond projections. In 2018, they quietly 00:32:25.220 --> 00:32:27.720 dropped those specific stations from the program. 00:32:27.940 --> 00:32:30.240 They got pushed to the next capital plan cycle. 00:32:30.380 --> 00:32:32.259 It is the exact same old story, isn't it? From 00:32:32.259 --> 00:32:35.440 1929 to 2026. We have a great plan. Oh, wait, 00:32:35.440 --> 00:32:38.079 we ran out of money. We will do it later. It 00:32:38.079 --> 00:32:40.480 is the recurring theme of the Fulton Street line. 00:32:40.940 --> 00:32:43.279 It is a line of deferred dreams. It was supposed 00:32:43.279 --> 00:32:46.509 to be part of a massive second system. Deferred. 00:32:46.609 --> 00:32:50.109 It was supposed to open fully in 1942. Deferred 00:32:50.109 --> 00:32:52.869 by war. The stations were supposed to be completely 00:32:52.869 --> 00:32:56.170 renovated in the 2010s. Deferred by budget. And 00:32:56.170 --> 00:32:59.980 yet it moves over 200 ,000 people a day. every 00:32:59.980 --> 00:33:02.259 single day. It works. It's not always pretty. 00:33:02.380 --> 00:33:05.039 It's ugly in places. It's loud. It's a Frankenstein 00:33:05.039 --> 00:33:07.200 patchwork of different eras and technologies. 00:33:07.480 --> 00:33:10.559 But it is the absolute spine of Brooklyn. It 00:33:10.559 --> 00:33:13.019 connects the Bed Study brownstones, the East 00:33:13.019 --> 00:33:15.779 New York housing projects, the Liberty Avenue 00:33:15.779 --> 00:33:18.160 roti shops and the international travelers heading 00:33:18.160 --> 00:33:21.259 to JFK. It is the great equalizer of the city. 00:33:21.500 --> 00:33:24.380 You see absolutely everyone on the A train. So 00:33:24.380 --> 00:33:26.400 what is the ultimate takeaway here? When we look 00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:29.460 at this line with all its history? What are we 00:33:29.460 --> 00:33:33.079 really seeing as a society? I think we are seeing 00:33:33.079 --> 00:33:35.720 the incredible resilience of imperfect systems. 00:33:36.099 --> 00:33:38.640 The Fulton Street line isn't the perfect symmetrical 00:33:38.640 --> 00:33:41.440 subway the planners drew on paper in 1929. It 00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:43.099 doesn't go to Cambria Heights. It doesn't have 00:33:43.099 --> 00:33:46.180 the grand flying junctions. But it adapted to 00:33:46.180 --> 00:33:48.900 reality. It forcefully connected to the old L. 00:33:49.019 --> 00:33:51.599 It survived the fiscal crises of the 70s. It 00:33:51.599 --> 00:33:54.039 is surviving the modern budget cuts today. It 00:33:54.039 --> 00:33:56.119 is a scrapper. It is a survivor. It is a scrapper. 00:33:56.240 --> 00:33:58.240 And for the everyday writer, my advice is to 00:33:58.240 --> 00:34:00.440 just look up from your phone sometimes. And look 00:34:00.440 --> 00:34:02.640 out the window. Look for the bell mouths. Yes. 00:34:03.079 --> 00:34:06.099 Look for the flared concrete tunnels near Broadway 00:34:06.099 --> 00:34:09.019 Junction. Look for the dead silent platforms 00:34:09.019 --> 00:34:11.679 at Hoyt Schirmerhorn. Those aren't just weird 00:34:11.679 --> 00:34:14.320 construction quirks. They are the physical scars 00:34:14.320 --> 00:34:16.820 of the system. They show you exactly where we 00:34:16.820 --> 00:34:18.539 tried to go, even if we didn't quite make it. 00:34:18.780 --> 00:34:20.639 The ghosts of the city they could have been. 00:34:20.860 --> 00:34:22.780 And speaking of the future, I have to wonder. 00:34:23.150 --> 00:34:26.269 As climate change gets worse and sea levels rise, 00:34:26.750 --> 00:34:28.889 we might be looking at a future where these hand 00:34:28.889 --> 00:34:32.110 dug depression era tunnels need another massive 00:34:32.110 --> 00:34:34.610 reinvention. Maybe we'll need a third system 00:34:34.610 --> 00:34:37.610 just to keep the water out. That is a terrifying 00:34:37.610 --> 00:34:40.349 and entirely plausible thought. The infrastructure 00:34:40.349 --> 00:34:42.849 is always fighting a battle against nature and 00:34:42.849 --> 00:34:45.610 time. Well, I think that is a perfect, somewhat 00:34:45.610 --> 00:34:47.849 provocative place to leave it. Next time you 00:34:47.849 --> 00:34:49.590 swipe your card or tap your phone and get on 00:34:49.590 --> 00:34:51.960 that A train. Remember, you are riding through 00:34:51.960 --> 00:34:54.739 a living museum of dreams, dynamite, and compromise. 00:34:54.980 --> 00:34:57.059 And hold on tight, because the A -train runs 00:34:57.059 --> 00:34:59.659 very fast. That it does. Thanks for listening 00:34:59.659 --> 00:35:01.539 to this deep dive. We will see you on the next 00:35:01.539 --> 00:35:01.679 one.