title: Alan King

text: Alan King (born Irwin Alan Kniberg; December 26, 1927 – May 9, 2004) was an American actor and comedian known for his biting wit and often angry humorous rants. King became well known as a Jewish comedian and satirist. He was also a serious actor who appeared in a number of films and television shows. King wrote several books, produced films, and appeared in plays. In later years he helped many philanthropic causes.


title: Alan King

text: King was born in New York City, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants Minnie (née Solomon) and Bernard Kniberg, a handbag cutter. He had one older sister, Anita Kniberg. He spent his first years on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Later, King's family moved to Brooklyn. King used humor to survive the tough neighborhoods. King performed impersonations on street corners for pennies.


title: Alan King

text: When he was fourteen, King performed "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" on the radio program "Major Bowes Amateur Hour". He lost first prize but was invited to join a nationwide tour. At fifteen, King dropped out of high school to perform comedy at the Hotel Gradus in the Catskill Mountains. After one joke that made fun of the hotel's owner, he was fired; however, he spent the remainder of that summer and the one that followed as emcee at Forman's New Prospect Hotel in Mountaindale, New York. He later worked in Canada in a burlesque house while also fighting as a professional boxer: he won twenty straight bouts . Nursing a broken nose, King decided to quit boxing and focus on comedy. He worked as a doorman at the popular nightclub Leon and Eddie's while performing comedy under the last name of the boxer who beat him, King.


title: Alan King

text: King began his comedy career with one-liner routines and other material concerning mothers-in-law and Jews. His style of comedy changed when he saw Danny Thomas in the early 1950s. King realized that Thomas was speaking to his audience, not at them, and was getting a better response. King changed his own style from one-liners to a more conversational style that used everyday life for humor.


title: Alan King

text: His wife had persuaded the New Yorker to forsake Manhattan for suburban Forest Hills, Queens. In the 1950's he and his family lived in Rockville Centre, New York, and later in Kings Point, Long Island, where he lived for the rest of his life. There, he developed comedy revolving around life in suburbia. With many Americans moving to the suburbs, King's humor took hold.


title: Alan King

text: He was soon opening for Judy Garland, Patti Page, Nat King Cole, Billy Eckstine, Lena Horne, and Tony Martin. When Martin was cast in the movie "Hit the Deck", he got King his first movie role.


title: Alan King

text: He played small roles in movies in the 1950s, but disliked stereotypical roles that he described as "always the sergeant from Brooklyn named Kowalski." Typical of this was his role as Sgt Buzzer in the WW2 film On the Fiddle (1961).


title: Alan King

text: His career took off after appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show", "The Perry Como Show," and "The Garry Moore Show".


title: Alan King

text: Living just outside New York City, King was frequently available when Ed Sullivan needed a short-notice fill-in. He became a regular guest host for "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson".


title: Alan King

text: He headlined two unsold television pilots on CBS, both titled "The Alan King Show". The first aired on September 8, 1961; the second aired on July 12, 1986.


title: Alan King

text: King eventually expanded his range and made a name for himself in a wide variety of films. He frequently worked for director Sidney Lumet, beginning with "Bye Bye Braverman" (1968) and "The Anderson Tapes" (1971). Lumet later cast him in a starring role in "Just Tell Me What You Want" (1980), a provocative comedy about a ruthless business mogul and his TV-producer mistress (Ali MacGraw). He also played in an uncredited cameo in Lumet's "Prince of the City" (1981).


title: Alan King

text: He often portrayed gangsters, as in "I, the Jury" (1982) and "Cat's Eye" (1985). He had another major role in "Memories of Me" (1988) as the so-called "king of the Hollywood extras," portraying Billy Crystal's terminally ill father. King played the role of corrupt union official Andy Stone in Martin Scorsese's 1995 film "Casino". "Night and the City" (1992), also starring Robert De Niro.


title: Alan King

text: King was the long-standing host of the New York Friars Club celebrity roasts and served as the club's historian.


title: Alan King

text: King was the first recipient (1988) of the award for American Jewish humor from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. The award was ultimately named in his honor.


title: Alan King

text: He inspired other comedians including Joan Rivers, Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Billy Crystal, Robert Klein, and Bill Cosby.


title: Alan King

text: King married Jeanette Sprung in 1947. They had three children: Andrew, Robert, and Elainie Ray. His wife persuaded him to move to Forest Hills, Queens for their children. In the 1950's he and his family lived in Rockville Centre, New York, and later in Kings Point, Long Island, where he lived for the rest of his life.


title: Alan King

text: Throughout his life, King was deeply involved in charity work. He founded the Alan King Medical Center in Jerusalem, raised funds for the Nassau Center for Emotionally Disturbed Children (near his home in Kings Point, New York), and established a chair in dramatic arts at Brandeis University. He also created the Laugh Well program, which sends comedians to hospitals to perform for patients. In the 1970s, King turned his passion for tennis into a pro tournament at Caesars Palace Las Vegas called the Alan King Tennis Classic, which was aired nationally on the TVS Television Network. He also created the Toyota Comedy Festival.


title: Alan King

text: King, who smoked cigars heavily (a fact that came up in his routines from time to time), died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan on May 9, 2004, from lung cancer. He was buried in Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens. The film "Christmas with the Kranks" was dedicated to his memory. He is also recognized in the end credits of "Rush Hour 3".


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: He was born into a family of scholars, who bore the hereditary title of which predated the Ritsuryō System and its ranking of members of the Court. His grandfather, Sugawara no Kiyotomo, served the court, teaching history in the national school for future bureaucrats and even attained the third rank. His father, Sugawara no Koreyoshi, began a private school in his mansion and taught students who prepared for the entrance examination to the national school or who had ambitions to be officers of the court, including his own son Michizane.


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: Michizane passed the entrance examination, and entered Daigaku, as the national academy was called at the time. After graduation he began his career in the court as a scholar as a relatively prestigious senior sixth rank upper in 870. His rank coincided with his role initially as a minor official in the Court bureaucracy under the Ministry of Civil Affairs. By 874 Michizane had reached the fifth rank (his father the fourth rank), and served briefly under the Ministry of War before being transferred to a more desirable role in the Ministry of Popular Affairs. His training and skill with Classical Chinese language and literature afforded him many opportunities to draft edicts and correspondences for officials in the Court in addition to his menial duties. Records show at this time he composed three petitions for Fujiwara no Yoshifusa as well as the Emperor. Michizane also took part in receiving delegations from the Kingdom of Parhae, where Michizane's skill with Chinese again proved useful in diplomatic exchanges and poetry exchange. In 877, he was assigned to the Ministry of the Ceremonial, which allowed him to manage educational and intellectual matters more than before.


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: In addition to his offices at the court he ran the school his father founded, the . In 877, he was also promoted to professor of literature at the academy, Later, he was also appointed the highest professorial office at Daigaku. This office was considered to be the highest honor a historian could achieve.


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: In 886, Sugawara was appointed to be governor of Sanuki Province. Modern research shows that many bureaucrats in the Court, if they lacked sufficient clout, were assigned at least one term in a remote province, and Michizane was no exception. During his four-year tenure in the province, Michizane's informal poetry increased, and up to 26% of his poetry still extant was composed in this narrow time. Among his duties, based on limited records, was to tour the province, recommend outstanding individuals to the Court, and to punish as needed. In 887, Michizane had to petition the Buddhas and the Shinto kami to help relieve a drought at the time. Records of the time imply that Michizane's time as governor had met with only middling success.


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: While serving as governor, a political conflict arose between Emperor Uda and Fujiwara no Mototsune called the in 888 over Mototsune's unclear role in the Court after Emperor Uda's ascension. Michizane, defending the court scholars sent a letter of censure to Mototsune, and gained the favor of Emperor Uda. With his term as governor completed in 890, Michizane returned to the Court in Kyoto. In Emperor Uda's struggles to restore power to the Imperial Family, away from the Fujiwara, a number of officials from non-Fujiwara families were promoted to key positions, including Imperial offshoots in the Minamoto family and Sugawara no Michizane. In a rapid series of promotions beginning in 891, Michizane rose to the senior third rank in 897. According to one document signed by Michizane in 894, he already held the following posts in the Court:


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: He was appointed ambassador to China in the 890s, but instead came out in support of abolition of the imperial embassies to China in 894, theoretically in consideration for the decline of the Tang Dynasty. A potential ulterior motive may have lain in Michizane's almost complete ignorance of spoken Chinese; most literate Japanese at the time only read Chinese, and knew little to nothing about the spoken language. Michizane, as the nominated ambassador to China, would have been presented with a potential loss of face had he been forced to depend on an interpreter. Thus, Emperor Uda stopped the practice of sending ambassadors as informed by what he understood as persuasive counsel from Sugawara Michizane.


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: Within the abdication of Emperor Uda, Michizane's position became increasingly vulnerable. In 901, through the political maneuverings of his rival, Fujiwara no Tokihira, who accused him of favouring Prince Tokiyo over the crown prince as the main successor to the emperor's throne, Michizane was demoted from his aristocratic rank of junior second to a minor official post at Dazaifu, in Kyūshū's Chikuzen Province where he and his entire family was banished. He died in exile in 903.


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: After Michizane's death, plague and drought spread and sons of Emperor Daigo died in succession. The Imperial Palace's Great Audience Hall ("shishinden") was struck repeatedly by lightning, and the city experienced weeks of rainstorms and floods. Attributing this to the angry spirit of the exiled Sugawara, the imperial court built a Shinto shrine called Kitano Tenman-gū in Kyoto, and dedicated it to him. They posthumously restored his title and office, and struck from the record any mention of his exile. Even this was not enough, and 70 years later Sugawara was deified as Tenjin-sama, a god of sky and storms. Eventually Tenjin evolved into a benign "kami" of scholarship.


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: He became the most notable example of an interesting spiritual transformation: a vengeful Japanese spirit, onryō, is a violent ghost, usually a former aristocrat who was wrongfully killed, and consequently seeking revenge. When well supplicated, however, onryō spirits may willingly convert to goryō, benevolent spirits who can be powerful allies.


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: Michizane had an exceptional talent in poetry both for "kanshi" (poetry in Chinese) and "waka" (poetry in Japanese).


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: His primary interest was "kanshi", because in those days the immersion in the Chinese culture was regarded as a proof of refinement and scholarship. Since his excellence in "kanshi" was well known throughout the Court, Emperor Daigo suggested him to compile his Chinese poems, and therefore he published and dedicated it to the emperor in 900. After his exile he continued to work on "kanshi" and compiled them into the . The work contained 46 "kanshi", was completed sometime before his death in 903. He sent it to right before his death.


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: Another of his famous waka is a poem written in 901 just before he left Kyoto for Daizaifu by demotion. He felt deep sorrow that he would never see his precious plum tree in his residence in Kyoto again, so he talked endearingly to it:


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: "Nioi okose yo" can be interpreted as "spread your scent" rather than "flourish in full bloom", although such a usage of the word "nioi" as "scent" or "smell" is relatively modern and rare in the classical period. The above is from the 1006th poem of the "Shūi Wakashū"; although this is the original form of this poem, when re-collected later in "Hōbutsushū", the last phrase was modified into "haru na wasure so" (meaning remains unchanged), which became its popular variation.


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: A romantic legend says the plum tree was so fond of its master that it finally flew to Dazaifu, and that tree became known as at Dazaifu Tenman-gū (a shrine dedicated to its master). A more realistic legend says Michizane or his friend transplanted its seedling to Dazaifu.


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: Michizane is traditionally credited with the "Shinsen Man'yōshū", but the attribution has been challenged.


title: Sugawara no Michizane

text: The lineage of the Sugawara clan was divided into six families by the 18th century. Aside from these noble families, there are several (often self-proclaimed) branches in the samurai caste, including Maeda and Yagyū.


title: Socialist Party of Albania

text: The Socialist Party of Albania (, PS or PSSh) is a centre-left social-democratic political party in Albania. It was founded on 13 June 1991. The PS is an associate of the Party of European Socialists and a member of the Socialist International, and holds pro-European views.


title: Socialist Party of Albania

text: The PS' predecessor, the Party of Labour of Albania ("Partia e Punës së Shqipërisë - PPSH"), was formed in November 1941, and has been known as the Socialist Party ("Partia Socialiste - PSSH") since 1991, when it survived in the wake of the dramatic changes that had taken place in Albania since 1989. PPSH was the Albanian Communist party under its founder and longtime leader Enver Hoxha and the only ruling party in the country since the end of World War II. Hoxha's successor Ramiz Alia was forced to introduce limited reforms in the late 1980s. On 11 December 1990, Alia announced that the PPSh had given up its monopoly of power. The PPSh won the 1991 Albanian Constitutional Assembly election, the first free elections held in the country in almost 80 years. By this time, it was no longer a Marxist–Leninist party. At an extraordinary congress on 10–13 June 1991, the PPSh voted to change its name to the PS in an effort to survive in the new system.


title: Socialist Party of Albania

text: Fatos Nano, a man from the intelligentsia, was elected the new chairman. Nano helped to reform the old Communist party and made it a member of the Socialist International. A faction of the party, led by Ilir Meta, split away from the PS in 2004 and formed the Socialist Movement for Integration ("Lëvizja Socialiste për Integrim", LSI).


title: Socialist Party of Albania

text: On 10 October 2005, Nano resigned as the chairman of the PS after losing the 2005 Albanian parliamentary election, and was succeeded by Edi Rama. Under Rama's lead, the PS formed the "Alliance for a European Albania", which united several centre-left to left-wing political parties, including PS, LSI, the Social Democratic Party of Albania (PSD), the Social Democracy Party of Albania (PDS), the Communist Party of Albania (PKSh), the Communist Party of Albania 8 November (PKSh 8 Nëntori), the Green Party of Albania (PGJ), the Reorganised Party of Labour of Albania (PPShR) and many other movements: the alliance won the 2013 Albanian parliamentary election, thus returning the Socialists to the government after 8 years.


title: Socialist Party of Albania

text: The Socialist Party, now running alone, again won the 2017 election and the 2021 election, winning 74 seats in both of them and is thus currently able to rule Albania alone, although it is externally supported by the Social Democratic Party in parliament.


title: Socialist Party of Albania

text: In its 2013 party platform, the party has pledged to replace the flat tax with a progressive tax, and also supports universal health care. Party leader Edi Rama has indicated that he supports LGBT rights in Albania. The party is also pro-European, supports the accession of Albania to the European Union, NATO membership, and considers Kosovo "Albania's main strategic partner and ally".


title: Socialist Party of Albania

text: The current logo is based on the fist and rose logo in the version created by José María Cruz Novillo for the Spanish Socialist Workers Party in 1977.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The Second Avenue Subway (internally referred to as the IND Second Avenue Line by the MTA and abbreviated to SAS) is a New York City Subway line that runs under Second Avenue on the East Side of Manhattan. The first phase of this new line, with three new stations on Manhattan's Upper East Side, opened on January 1, 2017. The full Second Avenue Line, if and when it will be funded, will be built in three more phases to eventually connect Harlem–125th Street in Harlem to Hanover Square in Lower Manhattan. The proposed full line would be and 16 stations long, serve a projected 560,000 daily riders, and cost more than $17 billion.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The line was originally proposed in 1920 as part of a massive expansion of what would become the Independent Subway System (IND). In anticipation of the Second Avenue Subway being built to replace them, parallel elevated lines along Second Avenue and Third Avenue were demolished in 1942 and 1955, respectively, despite several factors causing plans for the Second Avenue Subway to be cancelled. Construction on the line finally began in 1972 as part of the Program for Action, but was halted in 1975 because of the city's fiscal crisis, leaving only a few short segments of tunnels completed. Work on the line restarted in April 2007 following the development of a financially secure construction plan. The first phase of the line, consisting of the 96th Street, 86th Street and 72nd Street stations, as well as of tunnel, cost $4.45 billion. A , $6 billion second phase from 96th to 125th Streets is in planning .


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Phase 1 is served by the Q train at all times and limited rush-hour N and R trains. Phase 2 will extend the line's northern terminus from 96th Street to Harlem–125th Street, and both the Q and limited N services will be extended to 125th Street. Phase 3 will extend the line south from 72nd Street to Houston Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side; upon completion, a new T train will serve the entire line from Harlem to Houston Street. Phase 4 will again extend the line south from Houston Street to Hanover Square, maintaining the T designation for the entire line. The T will be colored since it will use the Second Avenue Line through Midtown Manhattan.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Services that use the Second Avenue Line through Midtown Manhattan are to be colored . The following services use part or all of the Second Avenue Line:


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Phase 1 of the Second Avenue Line opened in January 2017 and runs under Manhattan's Second Avenue from 65th Street to 105th Street, with stations at 72nd Street, 86th Street, and 96th Street. It is double-tracked along its entire length, with tracks in parallel tubes bored by tunnel boring machines, and central island platforms at all stations. North of 96th Street, both tracks continue as storage tracks until they end at 105th Street.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: As part of Phase 1, the Second Avenue Subway connects to the BMT Broadway Line using an existing connection via the 63rd Street Line. The Q, as well as limited rush-hour N and R, operates northward from 57th Street–Seventh Avenue on the Broadway Line, curving east under Central Park on the 63rd Street Line. Broadway Line trains then stop at Lexington Avenue–63rd Street with a cross-platform interchange to the train before merging with the Second Avenue Line near 65th Street; this connection also connects to the Sixth Avenue Line allowing for trains from the Sixth Avenue line to access the Second Avenue Subway, though this connection has been unused in regular service . The northbound 63rd Street Connector track dips below the level of Phase 3's planned tunnels, providing for a future flying junction between the connector and the rest of the Second Avenue Line.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The long-term plans for the Second Avenue Subway involve digging of new tunnels north to Harlem–125th Street in Harlem and south to Hanover Square in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The entire line would also be double-tracked, except for a tentatively four-tracked segment between 21st and 9th Streets, including the 14th Street station, with the outer two tracks used to store trains. After Phase 4 is completed, the residents of East Harlem and the Upper East Side will have mass transit service down both Second Avenue and Broadway to the Financial District (the latter via transfer to Broadway local trains), as well as across the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn via the Q train.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: An additional two-track connection is planned at around 63rd Street that will connect the Lower Manhattan-bound tracks on the Second Avenue Line with the Queens-bound tracks on the IND 63rd Street Line, using existing bellmouths at 63rd Street and First Avenue. Current plans do not call for it to be used by regular service; instead, it would be used for moving out-of-service trains. The connection would allow for trains to run from the Financial District to Queens if the capacity of the IND Queens Boulevard Line were increased, or if the Queens Bypass were built. Service from Queens via the 63rd Street Tunnel would allow for the full capacity of the line south of 63rd Street to be used. The whole line will be designed to accommodate 30 trains per hour, with the exception of the terminal at Hanover Square, which will only be able to handle 26 trains per hour (TPH). The portion north of 63rd Street is planned to have 14 TPH on the Q and 14 TPH on the T, for a combined 28 trains per hour on both routes. South of there, only 14 TPH on the T are planned, although 12 additional TPH could be provided in the future via the 63rd Street Tunnel. The 2004 plans for the Second Avenue Subway include the construction of short track segments to allow a future extension north under Second Avenue past 125th Street to the Bronx, as well as an extension south to Brooklyn.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: In order to store the 330 additional subway cars needed for the operation of the line, storage tracks would be built between 21st Street and 9th Street along the main alignment. The 36th–38th Street Yard in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, would also be reconfigured.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The Second Avenue Subway is chained as "S". The track map in the 2004 FEIS showed that all stations, except for 125th Street, would have two tracks and one island platform. 72nd Street and 125th Street were conceived as three-track, two-platform stations. 72nd Street was eventually scaled down to a two-track, center island platform station in order to reduce costs, A three-tracked 72nd Street station would have allowed trains from the Broadway Line to short-turn (reverse) without interfering with mainline service on Second Avenue, as well as provided additional operational flexibility for construction work and non-revenue moves. In July 2018, the 125th Street station was also scaled down to a two-track, one-platform station because the MTA had ascertained that two-tracked terminals would be sufficient to handle train capacities, and that building a third track would have caused unnecessary impacts to surrounding buildings.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: After World War I, the New York City Subway experienced a surge in ridership. By 1920, 1.3 billion annual passengers were riding the subway, compared to 523 million annual riders just seven years before the war. In 1919, the New York Public Service Commission launched a study at the behest of engineer Daniel L. Turner to determine what improvements were needed in the city's public transport system. Turner's final paper, titled "Proposed Comprehensive Rapid Transit System", was a massive plan calling for new routes under almost every north-south Manhattan avenue, extensions to lines in Brooklyn and Queens, and several crossings of the Narrows to Staten Island. Among the plans was a massive trunk line under Second Avenue consisting of at least six tracks and numerous branches throughout Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx; in turn, the Second and Third Avenue elevated lines were to be knocked down to make room for the 6-track subway. The paper was revised in January 1927.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: On September 15, 1929, the Board of Transportation of the City of New York (BOT) tentatively approved the expansion, which included a Second Avenue Line with a projected construction cost of $98.9 million (equivalent to $ in ), not counting land acquisition. In the north, several spur lines in the Bronx would merge into a four-track trunk line, crossing the Harlem River south to 125th Street. There would be six tracks from 125th Street to a link with the IND Sixth Avenue Line at 61st Street, then four tracks from 61st Street to Chambers Street, and finally two tracks from Chambers Street to Pine Street. But the Great Depression began that year and the soaring costs of the expansion became unmanageable. Construction on the first phase of the IND was already behind schedule, and the city and state were no longer able to provide funding. By 1930, the line was scaled down, with the line from 125th to Houston Streets to be complete by 1940, as well as a spur along 34th Street to be done by 1948. This scaled-down plan was postponed in 1931. By 1932, the Board of Transportation had modified the plan to further reduce costs, omitting a branch in the Bronx, and truncating the line's southern terminus to the Nassau Street Loop.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Further revision of the plan and more studies followed. By 1939, construction had been postponed indefinitely, with only a short length being completed above the Second Avenue station. The Second Avenue Line was relegated to "proposed" status, and was number 14 on the Board of Transportation's list of important transportation projects. The line was cut to two tracks with single northern branch through Throggs Neck, Bronx, a connection to the BMT Broadway Line in Manhattan, and a continuation south onto the IND Fulton Street Line in Brooklyn via that line's Court Street station. The subway's projected cost went up to US$249 million (equivalent to $ in ). The United States' entry into World War II in 1941 halted all but the most urgent public works projects, delaying the Second Avenue Line once again.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: As part of the unification of the three subway companies that comprised the New York City Subway in 1940, elevated lines were being shut down all over the city and replaced by subways. The northern half of the Second Avenue Elevated, serving the Upper East Side and East Harlem, closed on June 11, 1940; the southern half, running through Lower Manhattan, East Midtown and across the Queensboro Bridge to Queens, closed on June 13, 1942. The demolition of the Second Avenue elevated caused overcrowding on the Astoria and Flushing Lines in Queens, which no longer had direct service to Manhattan's far East Side. The elevated line's closure, as well as a corresponding increase in the East Side's population, increased the need for a Second Avenue subway.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: In 1944, BOT superintendent Philip E. Pheifer put forth a proposal for Second Avenue Subway services, which would branch extensively off to B Division. The subway was originally to be opened by 1951, but by 1945, plans for the Second Avenue Subway were again revised. Another plan was put forth in 1947 by Colonel Sidney H. Bingham, a city planner and former Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) engineer. O'Dwyer and Gross believed that construction of a Second Avenue subway line would be vital to both increasing capacity on existing lines and allowing new branch lines to be built. Bingham's proposal involved more branch lines and track connections than did Phiefer's, and similar to the 1960s and 1990s phased proposals, was to be built in sections. However, by the next year, New York City was short $145 million that was needed for an $800 million program for rehabilitation and proposed capital improvements. The City petitioned the New York State Legislature to exceed its $655 million debt ceiling so that the city could spend $500 million on subway construction, but this request was denied.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The BOT then ordered ten new prototype subway cars made of stainless steel from the Budd Company. These R11 cars, so called because of their contract number, were delivered in 1949 and specifically intended for the Second Avenue Subway. They cost US$100,000 (equivalent to $ in ) each; the train became known as the "million dollar train". The cars featured porthole style round windows and a new public address system. Reflecting public health concerns of the day, especially regarding polio, the R11 cars were equipped with electrostatic air filters and ultraviolet lamps in their ventilation systems to kill germs.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: In 1949, Queens and Lower Manhattan residents complained that the Second Avenue Subway would not create better transit options for them. A year later, a revised plan was devised that involved connections from Queens. New York voters approved a bond measure for its construction in 1951, and the city was barely able to raise the requisite $559 million for the construction effort. However, the onset of the Korean War caused soaring prices for construction materials and saw the beginning of massive inflation. Money from the 1951 bond measure was diverted to buy new cars, lengthen platforms, and maintain other parts of the aging New York City Subway system. Out of a half-billion-dollar bond measure, only $112 million (equivalent to $ in ), or 22% of the original amount, went toward the Second Avenue Subway. By then, construction was due to start by either 1952 or 1957, with estimated completion by 1958 at the earliest.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The Third Avenue Elevated, the only other elevated line in the area, closed on May 13, 1955, and was demolished in 1956. The Lexington Avenue Line was now the only subway transportation option on the East Side, leading to overcrowding. By 1957, the 1951 bond issue had been almost entirely used for other projects, and "The New York Times" despaired of the line's ever being built. "It certainly will cost more than $500 million and will require a new bond issue", wrote one reporter.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: As the early 1960s progressed, the East Side experienced an increase in development, and the Lexington Avenue Line became overcrowded. In 1962, construction began on a connection between the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges and the Sixth Avenue Line. This segment, the Chrystie Street Connection, was first proposed in the 1947 plan as the southern end of the Second Avenue line, which would feed into the two bridges. When opened in November 1967, the connection included the new Grand Street station on the Sixth Avenue Line (another station, 57th Street, opened in July 1968), and introduced the most significant service changes ever carried out in the subway's history. Grand Street, located under Chrystie Street (the southern end of Second Avenue) was designed to include cross-platform transfers between the Sixth Avenue and Second Avenue Lines.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Separately, in 1967, voters approved a $ (worth about $ in current dollars) Transportation Bond Issue, which provided over $ (worth $ today) for New York City projects, including for a 1968 Program for Action. The City secured a $25 million Urban Mass Transportation Act (UMTA) grant for initial construction. The Program for Action proposed a Second Avenue line to be built in two phases: a first phase north of 34th Street and a second phase south of there. The Second Avenue project, for a line from 34th Street to the Bronx, was given top priority. However, the line's planned stops in Manhattan, spaced farther apart than those on existing subway lines, proved controversial; the Second Avenue line was criticized as a "rich man's express, circumventing the Lower East Side with its complexes of high-rise low- and middle-income housing and slums in favor of a route." In response to protests, the MTA added stations at 72nd Street and 96th Street The MTA issued a plan for a spur line, called the "cuphandle", to serve the heart of the Lower East Side. Branching off from the IND Sixth Avenue Line near the Second Avenue station, the spur would run east on Houston Street, turn north on Avenue C, and turn west on 14th Street, connecting to the BMT Canarsie Line.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: A combination of Federal and State funding was obtained for the project. In March 1972, the entire cost of the section between 34th Street and 126th Street, according to the project's Draft Environmental Study, was estimated to be $381 million. In June 1972, it was announced that UMTA would grant $25 million for the construction of this section of the line. The MTA had requested $254 million in federal funds for the northern part of the line. Preliminary estimates of the cost of the southern portion of the line came to $450 million.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Construction on a tunnel segment between 99th and 105th Streets began in October 1972. A second segment between 110th and 120th Street in East Harlem started construction in March 1973. On October 25, 1973, the line's Chinatown segment commenced construction at Canal Street under the foot of the Manhattan Bridge between Canal and Division Streets. A fourth segment started construction on July 25, 1974, between Second and Ninth Streets in the East Village. In total, construction on the Second Avenue Line during the 1970s spanned over 27 blocks.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The city soon experienced its most dire fiscal crisis yet, due to the stagnant economy of the early 1970s, combined with the massive outflow of city residents to the suburbs. The system was already in decline; the subway had seen a 40% decrease in ridership since 1947, and a $200 million subsidy for the MTA as well as a 1952 fare increase had not been enough to pay for basic upkeep for the subway system, let alone fund massive expansion projects like the Second Avenue Subway. When plans were finalized in 1971, the subway had been proposed for completion by 1980, but two years later, its completion date was forecast as 2000. In October 1974, the MTA chairman, David Yunich, announced that the completion of the line north of 42nd Street was pushed back to 1983 and the portion to the south in 1988. On December 13, 1974, New York City mayor Abraham Beame proposed a six-year transit construction program that would reallocate $5.1 billion of funding from the Second Avenue Line to complete new lines in Queens and to modernize the existing infrastructure, which was rapidly deteriorating and in dire need of repair. Beame issued a stop-work order for the line in September 1975, whereupon construction of the section between Second and Ninth Streets was halted, and no other funding was allocated to the line's construction. Besides the Chrystie Street Connection, only three sections of tunnel had been completed; these tunnels were sealed.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: By 1978, when the New York City Subway was at its lowest point in its existence, State Comptroller Arthur Levitt stated that there were no plans to finish the line. During the 1980s, plans for the Second Avenue line stagnated. Construction on the 63rd Street Lines continued; the IND portion of the line opened in 1989 and extended to 21st Street–Queensbridge in Long Island City, Queens, but it did not include a connection to the Second Avenue line. Of this failure to complete construction, Gene Russianoff, an advocate for subway riders since 1981, stated: "It's the most famous thing that's never been built in New York City, so everyone is skeptical and rightly so. It's much-promised and never delivered."


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: With the city's economic and budgetary recovery in the 1990s, there was a revival of efforts to complete construction of the SAS. Rising ridership on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, the only subway trunk line east of Central Park, demonstrated the need for the Second Avenue Line, as capacity and safety concerns rose. The four-track IRT Lexington Avenue Line, the lone rapid transit option in the Upper East Side and East Harlem since the 1955 closure of the Third Avenue elevated, is the most crowded subway line in the country. The line saw an average of 1.3 million daily riders in 2015; this is more than the daily ridership of the second-busiest subway system in the U.S., the Washington Metro, as well as more than the combined daily riderships of San Francisco's and Boston's transit systems. Local bus routes are just as crowded during various times of the day, with the parallel M15 local and M15 Select Bus Service routes seeing 46,000 passengers per weekday in 2016, translating to 14.5 million passengers that year.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: In 1991, then-New York Governor Mario Cuomo allocated $22 million to renew planning and design efforts for the Second Avenue line, but two years later, the MTA, facing budget cuts, removed these funds from its capital budget. In 1995, the MTA began its Manhattan East Side Alternatives (MESA) study, both a MIS and a DEIS, seeking ways to alleviate overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue Line and improve mobility on Manhattan's East Side. The study analyzed several alternatives, such as improvements to the Lexington Avenue Line to increase capacity, enhanced bus service with dedicated lanes, and light rail or ferry service on the East Side. Second Avenue was chosen over First Avenue for logistical reasons. The MTA started the Lower Manhattan Access Study (LMA) in November 1997 in order to determine the best new transport connections to the New York City suburbs. The construction of the Second Avenue Subway from 63rd Street to Lower Manhattan was one of the five building alternatives developed by the study.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: A 1999 DEIS only proposed new subway service from 63rd Street north up Second Avenue to 125th Street via the Broadway Line to Lower Manhattan, with local and express tracks being switched on the Broadway Line. Second Avenue express trains would run to Lower Manhattan via the Montague Street Tunnel and local trains would run via the Manhattan Bridge and skip Lower Manhattan. A spur to Grand Central Terminal was considered, but later dropped due to its infeasibility.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Due in part to strong public support, the MTA Board committed in April 2000 to building a full-length subway line along the East Side, from East Harlem to Lower Manhattan. In May 2000, the MTA Capital Program Review Board approved the MTA's 2000–2004 Capital Program, which allocated $1.05 billion for the construction of the Second Avenue Subway. The next year, a contract for subway design was awarded to DMJM Harris/Arup Joint Venture. A new draft statement proposed the full-length line from 125th to 14th Streets. South of 14th Street, the line could either travel under Chrystie Street, St. James Place and Water Street to a terminal in Lower Manhattan, or link to the existing Nassau Street Loop tracks J1 and J2 at Kenmare Street to provide access to Lower Manhattan. The Water Street option was the one eventually chosen.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: On December 19, 2001, the Federal Transit Administration approved the start of preliminary engineering on a full-length Second Avenue Subway. The MTA's final environmental impact statement (FEIS) was approved in April 2004; this latest proposal is for a two-track line from 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in Harlem, down Second Avenue to Hanover Square in the Financial District. The final plan called for the full-length Second Avenue line to carry two services: the T, with a route emblem colored , as well as a rerouted Q train. Phase 1 rerouted the Q, the Broadway Express via the BMT 63rd Street Line and north along Second Avenue, to the Upper East Side at 96th Street. Phase 2 will extend the rerouted Q train to 125th Street and Lexington Avenue. In Phase Three, the new T train will run from 125th Street to Houston Street. The final phase will extend T train service from Houston Street to Hanover Square in Lower Manhattan.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The first phase was built within budget, at $4.45 billion. Its construction site was designated as being from 105th Street and Second Avenue to 63rd Street and Third Avenue. Deep bore tunneling methods were to be used in order to avoid the disruptions for road traffic, pedestrians, utilities and local businesses produced by cut-and-cover methods of past generations. Stations were to retain cut-and-cover construction. The total cost of the line is expected to exceed $17 billion. In 2014, MTA Capital Construction President Dr. Michael Horodniceanu stated that the whole line may be completed as early as 2029, and would serve 560,000 daily passengers upon completion; however, , only Phases 1 and 2 would be completed by 2029. The line is described as the New York City Subway's "first major expansion" in more than a half-century. It would add two tracks to fill the gap that has existed since the elevated Second and Third Avenue Lines were demolished in the 1950s. According to the line's final environmental impact statement, the catchment area of the line's first phase would include 200,000 daily riders.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: New York voters passed a transportation bond issue on November 8, 2005, allowing for dedicated funding allocated for that phase. Its passage had been seen as critical to its construction, but the bond was passed only by a narrow margin, with 55% of voters approving and 45% disapproving. At the time, the MTA said that the project would be done in 2012 in case the city's 2012 Summer Olympics bid succeeded, which it had not. On December 18, 2006, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced that they would allow the MTA to commit up to $693 million in funds to begin construction of the Second Avenue Subway and that the federal share of such costs would be reimbursed with FTA transit funds, subject to appropriations and final labor certification. The USDOT also later gave $1.3 billion in federal funding for the project's first phase, to be funded over a seven-year period. Preliminary engineering and a final tunnel design was completed by a joint venture between AECOM and Arup.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: On March 20, 2007, upon completion of preliminary engineering, the MTA awarded a contract for constructing the tunnels, a launch box for the tunnel boring machine (TBM), and access shafts to S3, a joint venture of Schiavone Construction, Skanska USA Civil, and J.F. Shea Construction. A ceremonial groundbreaking took place on April 12, 2007, at the 99th Street tunnel segment built in the 1970s. Actual construction work began on April 23, 2007, with the relocation of utility pipes, wires, and other infrastructure, which took 14 months.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: At the time, it was announced that passengers would be able to ride trains on the new line by the end of 2013. Due to cost increases, several features of the subway were cut back soon after construction started. Notably, the 72nd Street Station was truncated from a three-track, two-platform design to a two-track, single island platform design, paired with a simplification of the connection to the Broadway Line spur. This design change was done before the actual construction started. The MTA also postponed its completion date to 2014. In its 2008 capital improvement budget proposal, the MTA further postponed completion of Phase 1 to 2015, and in 2009, the MTA rescheduled it again to 2016.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: In 2009, contracts were awarded for the 96th Street station box, as well as for excavation around the 86th Street stations. The TBM began boring the western tunnel southward from 96th Street in 2010. Subsequent contracts for tunnels to the Lexington Avenue–63rd Street station, and for the excavation of the 72nd Street station, were awarded in 2010. The following year, contracts were awarded for excavation of the cavern at the 86th Street station, as well as construction for the Lexington Avenue–63rd Street station. The TBM, digging at a rate of approximately per day, finished its run at the planned endpoint under 65th Street on February 5, 2011, and subsequently started digging the eastern tunnel. On March 28, 2011, S3, having completed its task of completing the west tunnel to 65th Street, began drilling the east tunnel to the bellmouth at the existing Lexington Avenue–63rd Street station. The portion of the west tunnel remaining to be created was then mined using conventional drill-and-blast methods. On September 22, 2011, the TBM completed its run to the Lexington Avenue–63rd Street station's bellmouth.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The MTA opened a Second Avenue Subway Community Information Center for Phase 1 on July 25, 2013. It was located at 1628 Second Avenue between 84th and 85th Streets, near the line's 86th Street station. In the three years that followed, the center was visited over 20,000 times.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The final contract for the entire Phase 1 area was awarded on June 1, 2013. Blasting for the station caverns was finished in November 2013, and the muck houses were taken down at around the same time. In the winter of 2013, many of the tracks and signal panels began to arrive at the construction site, to be installed on the line over the next few years.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: On February 24, 2016, the MTA allocated $66 million to speed up the construction of the first phase so that it could open in December. However, by June, the project was not being built at a rate that would allow a December 2016 completion. Concerns about the line's timely opening persisted through October and November, with key systems such as elevators, escalators, and fire alarms not having been tested. Test trains started running on October 9, 2016, and out-of-service Q trains started running through the subway in November 2016.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The entrance to the Lexington Avenue–63rd Street station at Third Avenue, which was completed as part of Phase 1, opened on December 30, 2016. The ceremonial first train, with several prominent officials in attendance, ran on New Year's Eve, and trains began serving the line in regular passenger service at noon the next day. About 48,200 passengers entered the new stations on January 1, excluding passengers who toured the line by entering at a station in the rest of the system.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Because of the opening of Phase 1, ridership on the Lexington Avenue Line at the 68th Street, 77th Street, 86th Street, and 96th Street stations decreased in January 2017 compared to January 2016. The Second Avenue Line's three stations and the renovated Lexington Avenue–63rd Street station saw an average weekday ridership of more than 150,000 by the end of January. The 72nd Street station was the busiest of the line's new stations, with an average daily ridership of 44,000. By April, taxi usage in the area also saw a decline of more than 20% compared to before the line's opening. By February 2018, there were 190,000 riders per weekday, within the 5% margin of error for the 200,000-daily-rider estimate given in the Environmental Impact Statement. Rush-hour ridership was within 2% of projections. In November 2017, because of the increasing demand, Q service was increased by one trip during each rush hour, and one northbound R trip was rerouted from the IND Queens Boulevard Line to further boost service. This trip returns southbound in Q service.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The second phase, between 125th and 96th Streets, was allocated $535 million in the MTA's 2015–2019 Capital Plan for planning, design, environmental studies and utility relocation. Three new stations will be constructed at 125th Street, 116th Street and 106th Street. A transfer to the Lexington Avenue Line and an intermodal connection with Metro-North Railroad would be available at the Harlem–125th Street station.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The original plan called for the main line to turn west onto 125th Street with tail tracks to Fifth Avenue, while tail tracks would continue north on a spur via Second Avenue to 129th Street. However, the tail tracks to 129th Street, as well as a proposed ancillary building at 127th Street and Second Avenue, were removed in a June 2018 update to the plans. The change in tail tracks was made because it was found that providing tail tracks at the line's terminal will more efficiently facilitate subway service. A bellmouth provision for extension to the Bronx remains, though shifted closer to the 116th Street station at 118th Street. Here, two outer tracks will head west toward 125th Street while space for two inner tracks will allow for an extension to the Bronx. North of 120th Street, the line will be constructed through the use of TBMs. South of 120th Street, the line will utilize the 99th–105th and 110th–120th Streets tunnel sections built during the 1970s, with a cut-and-cover tunnel connecting the segments between 105th and 110th Streets.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The Phase 2 budget was originally $1.5 billion, which would be used to start construction of the tunnels; the MTA reduced the amount of money allocated in the budget, projecting that the agency would not be able to start construction by the end of the 5-year cycle in 2019. Although the MTA previously expressed concerns about funding the Capital Program, a spokesman stated that the reduction in funding was a result of uncertain timing and not money problems. The delay had upset politicians and residents of East Harlem, who objected to the 3-to-4-year delay. In April 2016, the MTA and the State of New York reached a deal to restore funding to Phase 2, with a total of $1.035 billion allocated; this budget was raised by $700 million in May 2017. By August 2017, preliminary work on the line was underway, and design of the project was being performed by Phase 2 Partnership, a joint venture of Parsons-Brinckerhoff and STV. The EIS and design were finished in 2018. In July 2018, the MTA published a Supplemental Environmental Assessment for the SAS FEIS. The FTA issued a Finding of No Significant Impact for the project on November 15, 2018.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: A Second Avenue Subway Community Information Center for Phase 2, along 125th Street between Park and Madison Avenues, opened on September 18, 2017, delayed by four months. With the election of Joe Biden as U.S. president in 2021, the administration of Joe Biden approved $23 billion in funding for new transit projects across the United States that November, including Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway. Land acquisition for Phase 2 started in April 2022.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Phase 3, which has no funding commitments, would extend the line southward along Second Avenue from 63rd Street to Houston Street. Upon its completion, a new service will operate running between 125th and Houston Streets. Phases 2 and 3, classified as a high-priority project by the Trump administration, may cost up to a combined total of $14.2 billion.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Phase 4, which also has no funding commitments, will provide an extension from Houston Street to a permanent terminus, with storage tracks, at Hanover Square. These storage tracks, initially recommended in the SDEIS, would allow for the storage of four trains, and they would run south of Hanover Square from Coenties Slip to a traffic island located near Peter Minuit Plaza at a depth of . The Hanover Square terminal is only planned to be able to turn back 26 trains per hour instead of 30 as less capacity will be needed on the line south of 63rd Street. The Hanover Square station will be deep enough to allow for the potential extension of Second Avenue Subway service to Brooklyn through a new tunnel under the East River.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The stations on the line were built so that they are more wide open than most other underground subway stations in the system; because of this, Horodniceanu likened the Second Avenue Subway stations to the stations on the Washington Metro. All stations on the line feature platforms, with overall lengths to provide space for power stations and ventilation plants. Tracks are built on rubber pads, which reduces noise from trains.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: In August 2006, the MTA revealed that all future subway stations—including stations on the Second Avenue Subway and the 7 Subway Extension, as well as the new South Ferry station—would be outfitted with air-cooling systems to reduce the temperature along platforms by as much as . In early plans, the Second Avenue Subway was also to have platform screen doors to assist with air-cooling, energy savings, ventilation, and track safety, but this plan was scrapped in 2012 as cost-prohibitive. Stations constructed as part of Phase 2 may receive platform screen doors depending on the results of studies being conducted for their installation elsewhere.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The construction of the of the Second Avenue Subway underneath densely populated Manhattan will require the use of several construction methods, depending on the section of the line. The line's tunnels will largely consist of twin tunnels with diameters of up to . About 90% of the tunneling is to be performed by tunnel boring machines. The rest will be done using the cut-and-cover method, or through the use of mined drill-and-blast, for sections averaging in length, namely the station boxes. The methods used to construct the sections of the line were confirmed in 2003, with a modification of the section north of 120th Street announced in 2016.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Phase 1 of the Second Avenue Subway was constructed between the Lexington Avenue–63rd Street station on the 63rd Street Lines and an existing tunnel segment between 99th Street and 105th Street, with a terminal station at 96th Street. In Phase 1, tunneling was completed between East 63rd Street and East 92nd Streets through the use of TBMs. The TBM launch box was , and is now part of the 96th Street station. Two access shafts were constructed for the 72nd Street station. Slurry or diaphragm walls, wide and long and about deep, were built alongside the sections between East 93rd and 95th Streets. Since the rock is shallower between East 91st and 93rd Streets, secant piles did the same work at shallower depths. Earth excavation was conducted between walls once they were installed, and box structures were built using a bottom-up construction method. Temporary decking constituted the top of the boxes, and the decking both braced the excavation and supported the walls and Second Avenue traffic.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The stations at 86th and 72nd Streets were mined. This was challenging, given the number of expensive high rise properties in their vicinities. The 96th Street cut-and-cover station was about deep, making it one of the shallowest stations being built on the line; the shallowness was so that the new line could align with the preexisting piece of subway tunnel built in the 1970s between 99th and 105th Streets. Stations at the two mined stations are between deep in rock. The construction method that was used was supposed to ease concerns for buildings above the station sites, because only two shafts were required for excavation.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Of the below-ground obstacles, Arup director of construction David Caiden stated: "It's a spaghetti of tunnels, utilities, pipes and cables—I've never seen anything like it." Complicating the process, the project must go over, or under, subway lines, Amtrak railway lines, and the Queens-Midtown Tunnel linking Manhattan and Queens, in later phases. In addition, there were geological anomalies along the way of Phase 1. Manhattan's geology changes along the subway's length, passing through rock and soft ground, consisting of sands, silts, and clays over Manhattan schist, and there are faults and shear zones as well as fractured rock. Hard-rock TBMs in diameter, in length, and in weight were used to tunnel during the first phase, progressing at a rate of about per day. The tunnels near the 125th Street station would need to go through soft soil in addition to diving underneath the existing IRT Lexington Avenue Line. The soft-soil tunnels are in contrast to the hard-rock bored tunnels south of 92nd Street and the cut-and-cover tunnels north of that point (necessitated because Manhattan's rock profile drops sharply north of 92nd Street).


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Phase 2 will extend the line north from the 96th Street station to the Harlem–125th Street subway station at Lexington Avenue. North of 120th Street, it will be constructed through the use of TBMs. The TBM Launch Box will be located between 121st Street and 122nd Street on Second Avenue. The TBMs will head north under Second Avenue to 118th Street before turning slightly east to curve under the East River Houses, turning west on 125th Street, crossing Lexington Avenue, before ending either east of Lenox Avenue or to the west of Lenox Avenue to accommodate storage tracks. The line is designed as to not preclude the construction of a station at Lenox Avenue and the extension of the line west along 125th Street.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: South of 120th Street, the line will utilize a tunnel section built during the 1970s, located between 110th Street and 120th Street. This section will have tracks and other essential equipment installed, like that of the rest of the line. Cut-and-cover will be used to connect the existing tunnel section to the bored section to the north (at 120th Street) and to the portion of the line already in operation to the south (at 105th Street) to maximize the use of the tunnel sections built in the 1970s. A bellmouth will be constructed to allow for a future extension to the Bronx at 118th Street. The storage tracks west of the 125th Street station would replace the storage tracks north of the 96th Street station, which would then be used in revenue service as part of Phase 2.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: A transfer will be constructed at the eastern end of the Second Avenue Subway's Harlem–125th Street station to connect to the IRT Lexington Avenue Line's 125th Street station. A new lower-level mezzanine will house the connection between the two stations, directly connecting to the downtown platform for Lexington Avenue service. The direct connection to the staircases to the upper level will be rebuilt. At the western end of the station, staircases will lead to Park Avenue, allowing passengers to walk to the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem–125th Street station.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The station entrances for 106th Street and 116th Street will be located on the east side of Second Avenue so as to avoid utilities located on the west side of the street and to avoid potential adverse effects to the East Harlem Historic District.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Phases 3 and 4 will extend the line south from 63rd Street to Houston Street and Hanover Square, respectively. As part of Phase 3, a connection to the IND 63rd Street Line would be built, allowing for non-revenue moves into Queens. This connection will be constructed through underground drilling and blasting. Bellmouths already exist for this connection east of the Lexington Avenue–63rd Street station. This section, like the rest of the line, will mainly consist of a two-track line. However, between 21st Street and 9th Street, two additional tracks will be constructed on either side of the main alignment to allow for the storage of eight trains. This location was selected due to the sufficient depth of the area. The third phase would pass above several East River tunnels, including the 63rd Street Tunnel, the 60th Street Tunnel, the 53rd Street Tunnel, the Steinway Tunnel at 42nd Street, and the East River Tunnels at 32nd and 33rd Streets.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Like Phase 1, the sections between stations will largely be constructed through the use of TBMs, while stations will be constructed through cut-and-cover and mining, allowing for the construction of station caverns, shafts, and entrances. Five transfers are planned to connect stations on the Second Avenue Line and nearby stations on adjacent lines, increasing travel options for passengers. The transfer at Grand Street will require the construction of a mezzanine below the existing station, allowing for a vertical transfer to be constructed. The existing station will have to be rebuilt to accommodate the increased volume of passengers using the station. The Houston Street station's transfer to the Second Avenue station of the IND Sixth Avenue Line would require some construction within the existing station. The remaining three transfers are being proposed, and will be constructed, barring the increased cost of their construction. The transfer to the BMT Canarsie Line's Third Avenue station would consist of a passageway that will be long. The most complicated of the transfers will be the connection between the 42nd Street station and the Grand Central station on the IRT Flushing Line. To allow for the connection to be built, a 900-foot long tunnel would be built under 42nd Street from the west side of Third Avenue to Second Avenue. The Flushing Line station might have to be significantly reconstructed in anticipation of the increased volume of passengers and due to Americans with Disabilities Access requirements for the transfer. To allow for necessary vents and emergency exits to be built, cut-and-cover would be used. The final transfer would be between the 55th Street station and the Lexington Avenue–53rd Street station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line. Either shielded mining or cut-and-cover would be used to complete the connection. The existing station would have to be modified to allow for the transfer passageway to be built.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Three construction options were evaluated during the project's Environmental Impact Study for the portion of the line between 11th Street and Hanover Square. One option known as the Shallow Chrystie Option would mainly use cut and cover, while the Deep Chrystie Street and Forsyth Options would use a combination of tunneling by Earth Pressure Balance Machines (EPBMs) and cut and cover. The Shallow Chrystie Option would have used the existing Confucius Plaza tunnel section between Canal and Division Streets, and like the plan from the 1970s, there would have been a cross-platform transfer to the existing Grand Street station, with the transfer expected to be heavily used. However, this option would require digging up Sara Delano Roosevelt Park to the east as Chrystie Street is not wide enough to fit four tracks. Under this option, a track connection would be built to allow trains from Second Avenue to run via the Manhattan Bridge north tracks to allow service to Brooklyn. The Forsyth Option would curve below the park to Forsyth Street and the station would be built under Forsyth Street, requiring a 200-foot transfer passageway that would be less convenient than the other options. The Deep Chrystie Option would have the Second Avenue Subway run deeper underground, running underneath the existing Grand Street station, with a mezzanine in between the two stations. In order to allow for sufficient room for stairways to transfer to the Second Avenue Line, the Grand Street station would be widened to have twenty foot wide platforms. No track connection would be built under this option, and the Confucius Plaza tunnel section would not be used for subway service, but it instead might be used for ancillary subway facilities. Currently, this is the preferred option.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: South of the terminal at Hanover Square, two tail tracks will be constructed through the use of a TBM to allow for the storage of four trains. The tracks would be built at a depth of about under Water Street, allowing the line to be deep enough to tunnel under the East River for a possible future extension into Brooklyn. Cut-and-cover would be used to build a vent facility at a traffic island located at Water and Whitehall Streets.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: There was controversy over the high cost of the line as a whole. The project was divided up into four phases, in part, to maximize the ability of the project to receive funding from the Federal Government as part of the Department of Transportation's New Starts Program. The initial projections for the cost of the line were made in the 2004 FEIS, with Phase 1 estimated to cost $3.8 billion, Phase 2 estimated to cost $3.4 billion, and Phases 3 and 4 each estimated to cost $4.8 billion.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Phase 1 ended up costing $500 million over its original budget of $3.8 billion—still a very high price compared to other new subway systems worldwide. Regulations set by the Buy America Act forced the MTA to purchase materials made in the United States, which led to objections when an MTA contractor bought a fire suppression system made in Finland. Finally, the private and public sector could not cooperate smoothly on the project, further raising costs. Of the $4.5 billion cost for Phase 1, $2.4 billion was allocated to building the three new stations and renovating the Lexington Avenue–63rd Street station. Meanwhile, $500 million was spent on design and engineering, and another $734 million was for building tunnels between the stations, tracks, signals, and trackside systems. The rest of the cost, $800 million, was spent on "construction management, real estate, station artwork, fare-collection systems and other sundry items." The stations' cost was magnified by the depth of the stations and the enormity of the caverns that needed to be excavated. The Second Avenue Subway stations have full-length mezzanines, like the original IND but unlike other deep-level projects such as London's Crossrail. The stations will have full-length mezzanines as opposed to smaller mezzanines for each entrance to accommodate anticipated ridership for the full-length line and to comply with emergency egress requirements.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: In December 2016, after it was announced that Phase 2 might cost $6 billion, transit experts expressed concern that the Second Avenue Subway might be so excessively costly as to preclude construction of Phases 3 and 4, as well as future expansions. One expert stated that the Phase 1 project was the most expensive subway project in the world, and that compared to other subway systems around the world, the cost of building new subways in New York City was much higher. The Second Avenue Subway's per-mile construction cost is higher than that of other projects in similar cities like London's Crossrail and Paris's Grand Paris Express, which themselves are among the most expensive underground-railway projects in the world. MTA officials stated that the Second Avenue Subway cost as much as it did only because of the complex underground infrastructure in Manhattan, as well as the fact that the New York City Subway operates 24/7 service.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: For Phase 1 of the Second Avenue Subway, four contemporary artists were chosen to design artwork for the 96th, 86th, 72nd, and 63rd Street stations. The project consisted of four permanent installations: "Blueprint for a Landscape" by Sarah Sze at 96th Street; "Subway Portraits" by Chuck Close at 86th Street; "Perfect Strangers" by Vik Muniz at 72nd Street; and "Elevated" by Jean Shin at 63rd Street. These public artworks were sponsored and commissioned as part of the MTA Arts & Design program.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The opening of Phase 1 extended Q service to 96th Street from its former terminal at 57th Street. The Q service has a rush-hour service frequency of 7 to 10 trains per hour; by contrast, the IRT Lexington Avenue Line's express tracks () have an estimated rush-hour frequency of 30 trains per hour, or one train approximately every 2 minutes in each direction. As part of the 2004 Final Environmental Impact Study (FEIS) for the line, Q service was planned to have a frequency of 14 trains per hour during rush hours, but this was revised due to MTA schedule changes. A few rush hour N trains that formerly short-turned at 57th Street began to run to 96th Street on January 3, 2017; the northbound trips are labeled as Q trains via the Sea Beach Line to reduce passenger confusion. Starting on November 6, 2017, one northbound R train has served the line during weekday mornings, boosting service. From April 2019 to April 2020, weekend and evening M service was also diverted on the Second Avenue Subway to accommodate extra passengers during the 14th Street Tunnel shutdown.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: In Phase 2, all current services will be extended to 125th Street and Lexington Avenue. As part of the 2004 FEIS, it was planned for Q service to be increased to 19 trains per hour to accommodate the projected increase in ridership. In order to allow for the construction of Phase 3, bellmouths have been constructed at the turnoff to the BMT 63rd Street Line.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: When the construction of Phase 3 is completed, a new T service will operate from Harlem–125th Street to Houston Street. After Phase 4 opens, T service will run the full length of the line, from Harlem–125th Street to Hanover Square. T service is planned to operate at a frequency of 14 trains per hour during rush hours, with the combined frequency north of 72nd Street with Q service being 28 trains per hour. With the opening of Phase 3, the frequency of Q service is planned to be reduced from 19 to 14 trains per hour.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: The Ts route emblem is colored (hex triplet #00ADD0, which could also be considered robin's egg blue or teal) because the color had also been used for the JFK Express in the past. In 2011, turquoise was considered "the color of the year", and at the time of the color's selection in the 2000s, it was also considered a very upscale color.


title: Second Avenue Subway

text: Three stations are part of Phase 1, which opened on January 1, 2017. Three more are planned for Phase 2 (including one transfer to an existing line); six more in Phase 3 (including up to four transfers); and four more in Phase 4 (including one transfer).


title: Judee Sill

text: Judith Lynne Sill (October 7, 1944 – November 23, 1979) was an American singer and songwriter. The first artist signed to David Geffen's Asylum label, she released two albums on Asylum and partially completed a third album before dying of a drug overdose in 1979.


title: Judee Sill

text: Her eponymous debut album was released in late 1971 and was followed about 18 months later by "Heart Food". In 1974, she recorded demos for a third album, which never was completed. The demos were released posthumously with other rarities on the 2005 two-disc collection "Dreams Come True".


title: Judee Sill

text: Sill was influenced by Bach, while lyrically her work drew substantially on Christian themes of rapture and redemption.


title: Judee Sill

text: Judith Lynne Sill was born in Studio City, Los Angeles, California, on October 7, 1944, and spent her early childhood in the Oakland, California area. Her father, Milford "Bun" Sill, an importer of exotic animals for use in films, owned a bar in Oakland, in which Sill learned to play the piano. When Milford Sill died of pneumonia in 1952, Sill's mother Oneta moved with Judee and her older brother Dennis to Los Angeles, where Oneta soon met and married "Tom and Jerry" animator Kenneth Muse.


title: Judee Sill

text: In a 1972 "Rolling Stone" magazine interview, Sill described her home life after her mother's remarriage as unhappy and frequently violent due to physical fights between Sill and her parents. She transferred from a public high school (Birmingham High School in Van Nuys) to a private school, where she met other rebellious teenagers, some of whom were allegedly involved in crime. Either during high school or after her graduation (depending on the source), Sill and a man she had met committed a series of armed robberies of businesses such as liquor stores and gas stations. Sill and her robbery partner were soon arrested and she spent nine months in reform school, where she served as church organist and "learned a lot of good music" including gospel music.


title: Judee Sill

text: After being released, Sill briefly attended San Fernando Valley Junior College as an art major. She also played piano in the school orchestra and worked in a piano bar. In 1964, her mother died, and she left college and moved out of her stepfather's home. She started doing LSD and other drugs, moved in with an LSD dealer and joined a jazz trio.


title: Judee Sill

text: The couple lived in Las Vegas for a time, but both developed crippling heroin addictions within months. When Sill moved back to California, she resorted to sex work, scams, and check forgery to support her habit. A string of narcotics and forgery offenses sent her to jail, and she learned that her brother Dennis had suddenly died of a liver infection. When she got out, she immediately set to work as a song composer.


title: Judee Sill

text: Sill encountered Graham Nash and David Crosby and toured with them for a time as their opening act. After some initial interest from Atlantic Records, David Geffen offered her a contract with his new Asylum label. She sold her song "Lady-O" to the Turtles, and was featured on the cover of "Rolling Stone". Harris worked on her first album and was involved with the Turtles (which led to his short stint as keyboardist with Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention in 1971).


title: Judee Sill

text: Graham Nash produced her first album's first single, "Jesus Was a Cross Maker", released to radio on October 1, 1971. The album "Judee Sill" was released on September 15, 1971. It featured Sill's voice in multiple overdubs, often in a four-part chorale or fugue. She worked with engineer Henry Lewy, noted for his work with Joni Mitchell throughout the 1970s. The album was not a commercial success.


title: Judee Sill

text: Sill took over the orchestration and arrangements on her second album "Heart Food", which included "The Donor". "Heart Food" was released in March 1973 and was critically acclaimed, but sold poorly, leading to the end of her association with Geffen and Asylum Records. Sill's friends have said that she lacked the resilience to cope with poor album sales and bad reviews of her work, and that she was dropped after she refused to perform as an opening act, a task she disliked. According to another source, Geffen pulled support for "Heart Food" and refused to release any more of her records after Sill, frustrated over what she perceived as his lack of support for her career, publicly referred to him by using a homophobic slur (she either called Geffen "fat fag" on stage or referred to his "faggoty pink shoes").


title: Judee Sill

text: She continued to write songs, and in 1974, began to record new material for a planned third album at the studio of Michael Nesmith. By this time, Sill was once again suffering from drug abuse and other health problems, and her music was not regarded as marketable. She also was beginning to lose interest in music and focus on other pursuits, including theosophy and animals. In the mid-1970s, she worked for a time as a cartoonist with a Los Angeles animation studio. Her 1974 recordings were never finished. Twenty-six years after Sill's 1979 death, the unfinished songs were mixed by Jim O'Rourke and released, along with a collection of rarities and home demos, as the album "Dreams Come True" on the Water label.


title: Judee Sill

text: Sill's personal life was turbulent, and she was affected by the early deaths of her father, mother and brother. Sill claimed to have been married twice, saying in interviews that she was briefly married either during or just after high school to a classmate, that her parents had the marriage annulled, and that he later died in a rafting accident. A friend of Sill's has written that she claimed to have married her robbery partner as a teenager. Sill's second marriage was to Robert Maurice "Bob" Harris on April 27, 1966, in Clark County, Nevada. They divorced in 1972. She married Samir Ben Taieb Kamoun, a Tunisian actor, mime, and Charlie Chaplin impersonator, on January 24, 1979, in Clark County, Nevada.


title: Judee Sill

text: Sill was openly bisexual. Her romance with singer-songwriter J. D. Souther inspired her song "Jesus Was a Cross Maker". Souther later wrote the song "Something in the Dark" about her. She had a long-term relationship with poet David Omer Bearden, who contributed lyrics to "Heart Food" and toured and performed with her; Sill dedicated "Heart Food" to him. As Asylum's first published artist, Sill also had a close friendship with David Geffen, which went awry after comments she made in frustration at not receiving enough promotion for her second UK tour.


title: Judee Sill

text: After a series of car accidents and failed surgery for a painful back injury, Sill struggled with drug addiction and dropped out of the music scene. She died of a drug overdose, or "acute cocaine and codeine intoxication," on November 23, 1979, at her apartment on Morrison Street in North Hollywood. The Los Angeles coroner ruled her death a suicide, taking into account a note found near her body, but some who knew her have contended that the note, which reportedly contained "a meditation on rapture, the hereafter, and the innate mystery of life", was not a suicide note but rather a diary entry or song concept. Her ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean after a ceremony organized by a few close friends at the Self-Realization Fellowship in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles. According to a 2006 "Washington Post" story, by the time of Sill's death, she had become so obscure that no obituary was published, and for many years, a number of her friends were unaware she had died.


title: Judee Sill

text: Although Sill's music was not commercially successful, a number of later songwriters have been fans of her work, including Andy Partridge, Liz Phair, Warren Zevon, Shawn Colvin, Steven Wilson, Robin Pecknold, Daniel Rossen, Bill Callahan and Terra Spencer. She was included in "The Billboard Guide to Contemporary Christian Music"; her faith was debatable, but she made frequent use of Christian symbolism in her lyrics, combined with a "lack of sensuality" and the "denial of the physical". Her music has been described as "intensely devotional".


title: Judee Sill

text: Nick Lowe has said that "Jesus Was a Crossmaker" was an influence on his Brinsley Schwarz song "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding".


title: Judee Sill

text: The Okkervil River song "Okkervil River R.I.P." speaks of Sill as having died "in some trailer park of cocaine and codeine, all alone."


title: Judee Sill

text: Singer-songwriter Laura Veirs' "Song for Judee" on the 2016 album "case/lang/veirs" is about Sill's life and death. In an interview with CBC music, Veirs said of the track "We weren't sure we were going to track this one because not everyone in the band loved it. We recorded it on a whim and all fell in love with it. It's about a tragic songwriter from the '70s named Judee Sill. I love how the bouncy chorus offsets the darkness of her story."


title: Judee Sill

text: Singer-songwriter Aaron Lee Tasjan's "Judee Was a Punk" on the 2015 album "In The Blazes" is about Sill.


title: Judee Sill

text: Terry Hounsome's 1981 book "New Rock Record" lists a Sill album titled "Tulips From Amsterdam". Unsure of the information's source, Hounsome later removed the listing from his database.


title: Judee Sill

text: Sill appears on Tommy Peltier's "Chariot of Astral Light (featuring Judee Sill)", which was recorded in the 1970s but not released until 2005 on the Black Beauty label. She contributed guitar, organ and backing vocals to six tracks on the album and is pictured with Peltier on the cover. Also in 2005, Sill's unfinished recordings, mixed by Jim O'Rourke, were released along with other rarities and unreleased demos as "Dreams Come True," a two-CD set on Water Records. Sill's two original albums, "Judee Sill" and "Heart Food", were released that year as individual CDs, each with bonus tracks, on the Rhino Handmade label. The next year, Rhino released "Abracadabra: The Asylum Years," a two-CD set of both albums with bonus tracks.


title: Judee Sill

text: In 2007, an album of Sill's live performance tracks performed for the BBC was released as "Live in London: The BBC Recordings 1972–1973".


title: Judee Sill

text: In 2017 independent record label Intervention Records released 180-gram double 45rpm LP reissues of Sill's self-titled album and "Heart Food".


title: Judee Sill

text: "Jesus Was a Cross Maker" has been covered by the Hollies on their 1972 album "Romany"; by Cass Elliot on her self-titled 1972 album; by Judie Tzuke on her 1991 album "Left Hand Talking"; by Warren Zevon on his 1995 album "Mutineer"; and Frida Hyvönen in 2009. A 2005 cover by Rachael Yamagata was featured in the soundtrack of the Cameron Crowe film "Elizabethtown", in which The Hollies' version is played over the opening credits. The soundtrack album for the film contains versions by both Yamagata and the Hollies.


title: Judee Sill

text: Jane Siberry contributed vocals to a cover of "The Kiss" for Ghostland's album "Interview with the Angel". This version was also released on Siberry's 2001 compilation "City". "The Kiss" was also covered by Bonnie "Prince" Billy on his 2004 CD single "No More Workhorse Blues"; by Neil Cavanagh on his 2008 album "Short Flight to a Distant Star"; and by Matt Alber, using Sill's original piano arrangement, on his 2011 album "Constant Crows".


title: Judee Sill

text: In 2009, the independent label American Dust announced the release of "", featuring covers of Sill's songs done by Beth Orton, Bill Callahan, Ron Sexsmith, Daniel Rossen, Final Fantasy, Marissa Nadler, Frida Hyvönen and Meg Baird, among others.


title: Judee Sill

text: In November 2016, in conjunction with Record Store Day, the Fruit Bats released "The Glory of the Fruit Bats", a limited edition LP comprising previously unreleased originals, select covers, and cinematic instrumentals, including a cover of "My Man on Love" from Sill's 1971 debut album.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: John George Diefenbaker ( ; September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 and 1979 to lead the party to an election victory, doing so three times, although only once with a majority of the seats in the House of Commons.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: Diefenbaker was born in southwestern Ontario in the small town of Neustadt in 1895. In 1903, his family migrated west to the portion of the North-West Territories which would soon become the province of Saskatchewan. He grew up in the province and was interested in politics from a young age. After service in World War I, Diefenbaker became a noted criminal defence lawyer. He contested elections through the 1920s and 1930s with little success until he was finally elected to the House of Commons in 1940.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: Diefenbaker was repeatedly a candidate for the party leadership. He gained that position in 1956, on his third attempt. In 1957, he led the party to its first electoral victory in 27 years; a year later he called a snap election and spearheaded them to one of their greatest triumphs. Diefenbaker appointed the first female minister in Canadian history to his cabinet (Ellen Fairclough), as well as the first Indigenous member of the Senate (James Gladstone). During his six years as prime minister, his government obtained passage of the "Canadian Bill of Rights" and granted the vote to the First Nations and Inuit peoples. In 1962, Diefenbaker's government eliminated racial discrimination in immigration policy. In foreign policy, his stance against apartheid helped secure the departure of South Africa from the Commonwealth of Nations, but his indecision on whether to accept Bomarc nuclear missiles from the United States led to his government's downfall. Diefenbaker is also remembered for his role in the 1959 cancellation of the Avro Arrow project.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: In the 1962 federal election, the Progressive Conservatives narrowly won a minority government before losing power altogether in 1963. Diefenbaker stayed on as party leader, becoming Opposition leader, but his second loss at the polls prompted opponents within the party to force him to a leadership convention in 1967. Diefenbaker stood for re-election as party leader at the last moment, but only attracted minimal support and withdrew. He remained in parliament until his death in 1979, two months after Joe Clark became the first Progressive Conservative prime minister since Diefenbaker. Diefenbaker ranks average in rankings of prime ministers of Canada.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: Diefenbaker was born on September 18, 1895, in Neustadt, Ontario, to William Thomas Diefenbaker and Mary Florence Diefenbaker, née Bannerman. His father was the son of German immigrants from Adersbach (near Sinsheim) in Baden; Mary Diefenbaker was of Scottish descent and Diefenbaker was Baptist. The family moved to several locations in Ontario in John's early years. William Diefenbaker was a teacher, and had deep interests in history and politics, which he sought to inculcate in his students. He had remarkable success doing so; of the 28 students at his school near Toronto in 1903, four, including his son, John, served as Conservative MPs in the 19th Canadian Parliament beginning in 1940.--the others were Robert Henry McGregor, Joseph Henry Harris, and George Tustin.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: The Diefenbaker family moved west in 1903, for William Diefenbaker to accept a position near Fort Carlton, then in the Northwest Territories (now in Saskatchewan). In 1906, William claimed a quarter-section, of undeveloped land near Borden, Saskatchewan. In February 1910, the Diefenbaker family moved to Saskatoon, the site of the University of Saskatchewan. William and Mary Diefenbaker felt that John and his brother Elmer would have greater educational opportunities in Saskatoon.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: John Diefenbaker had been interested in politics from an early age and told his mother at the age of eight or nine that he would some day be prime minister. She told him that it was an impossible ambition, especially for a boy living on the prairies. She would live to be proved wrong. John claimed that his first contact with politics came in 1910, when he sold a newspaper to Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier, in Saskatoon to lay the cornerstone for the University's first building. The present and future Prime Ministers conversed, and when giving his speech that afternoon, Sir Wilfrid commented on the newsboy who had ended their conversation by saying, "I can't waste any more time on you, Prime Minister. I must get about my work." The authenticity of the meeting was questioned in the 21st century, with an author suggesting that it was invented by Diefenbaker during an election campaign.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: In a 1977 interview with the CBC, Diefenbaker recalled he saw injustice first-hand in his youth against French Canadians, Indigenous Canadians and the Métis. He said, "From my earliest days, I knew the meaning of discrimination. Many Canadians were virtually second-hand citizens because of their names and racial origin. Indeed, it seemed until the end of World War II that the only first-class Canadians were either of English or French descent. As a youth, l determined to devote myself to assuring that all Canadians, whatever their racial origin, were equal and declared myself to be a sworn enemy of discrimination."


title: John Diefenbaker

text: After graduating from high school in Saskatoon, in 1912, Diefenbaker entered the University of Saskatchewan. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1915, and his Master of Arts the following year.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: Diefenbaker was commissioned a lieutenant into the 196th (Western Universities) Battalion, CEF in May 1916. In September, Diefenbaker was part of a contingent of 300 junior officers sent to Britain for pre-deployment training. Diefenbaker related in his memoirs that he was hit by a shovel, and the injury eventually resulted in his being invalided home. Diefenbaker's recollections do not correspond with his army medical records, which show no contemporary account of such an injury, and his biographer, Denis Smith, speculates that any injury was psychosomatic.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: After leaving the military in 1917, Diefenbaker returned to Saskatchewan where he resumed his work as an articling student in law. He received his law degree in 1919, the first student to secure three degrees from the University of Saskatchewan. On June 30, 1919, he was called to the bar, and the following day, opened a small practice in the village of Wakaw, Saskatchewan.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: Although Wakaw had a population of only 400, it sat at the heart of a densely populated area of rural townships and had its own district court. It was also easily accessible to Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Humboldt, places where the Court of King's Bench sat. The local people were mostly immigrants, and Diefenbaker's research found them to be particularly litigious. There was already one barrister in town, and the residents were loyal to him, initially refusing to rent office space to Diefenbaker. The new lawyer was forced to rent a vacant lot and erect a two-room wooden shack.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: Diefenbaker won the local people over through his success; in his first year in practice, he tried 62 jury trials, winning approximately half of his cases. He rarely called defence witnesses, thereby avoiding the possibility of rebuttal witnesses for the Crown, and securing the last word for himself. In late 1920, he was elected to the village council to serve a three-year term.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: Diefenbaker would often spend weekends with his parents in Saskatoon. While there, he began to woo Olive Freeman, daughter of the Baptist minister, but in 1921, she moved with her family to Brandon, Manitoba, and the two lost touch for more than 20 years. He then courted Beth Newell, a cashier in Saskatoon, and by 1922, the two were engaged. However, in 1923, Newell was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and Diefenbaker broke off contact with her. She died the following year. Diefenbaker was himself subject to internal bleeding, and may have feared that the disease would be transmitted to him. In late 1923, he had an operation at the Mayo Clinic for a gastric ulcer, but his health remained uncertain for several more years.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: After four years in Wakaw, Diefenbaker so dominated the local legal practice that his competitor left town. On May 1, 1924, Diefenbaker moved to Prince Albert, leaving a law partner in charge of the Wakaw office.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: Since 1905, when Saskatchewan entered Confederation, the province had been dominated by the Liberal Party, which practised highly effective machine politics. Diefenbaker was fond of stating, in his later years, that the only protection a Conservative had in the province was that afforded by the game laws.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: Diefenbaker's father, William, was a Liberal; however, John Diefenbaker found himself attracted to the Conservative Party. Free trade was widely popular throughout Western Canada, but Diefenbaker was convinced by the Conservative position that free trade would make Canada an economic dependent of the United States. However, he did not speak publicly of his politics. Diefenbaker recalled in his memoirs that, in 1921, he had been elected as secretary of the Wakaw Liberal Association while absent in Saskatoon, and had returned to find the association's records in his office. He promptly returned them to the association president. Diefenbaker also stated that he had been told that if he became a Liberal candidate, "there was no position in the province which would not be open to him."


title: John Diefenbaker

text: It was not until 1925 that Diefenbaker publicly came forward as a Conservative, a year in which both federal and Saskatchewan provincial elections were held. Journalist Peter C. Newman, in his best-selling account of the Diefenbaker years, suggested that this choice was made for practical, rather than political reasons, as Diefenbaker had little chance of defeating established politicians and securing the Liberal nomination for either the House of Commons or the Legislative Assembly. The provincial election took place in early June; Liberals would later claim that Diefenbaker had campaigned for their party in the election. On June 19, however, Diefenbaker addressed a Conservative organizing committee, and on August 6, was nominated as the party's candidate for the federal riding of Prince Albert, a district in which the party's last candidate had lost his election deposit. A nasty campaign ensued, in which Diefenbaker was called a "Hun" because of his German-derived surname. The 1925 federal election was held on October 29; he finished third behind the Liberal and Progressive Party candidates, losing his deposit.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: The winning candidate, Charles McDonald, did not hold the seat long, resigning it to open a place for the Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, who had been defeated in his Ontario riding. The Tories ran no candidate against King in the by-election on February 15, 1926, and he won easily. Although in the 1925 federal election, the Conservatives had won the greatest number of seats, King continued as Prime Minister with the support of the Progressives. Mackenzie King held office for several months until he finally resigned when the Governor General, Lord Byng, refused a dissolution. Conservative Party leader Arthur Meighen became Prime Minister, but was quickly defeated in the House of Commons, and Byng finally granted a dissolution of Parliament. Diefenbaker, who had been confirmed as Conservative candidate, stood against King in the 1926 election, a rare direct electoral contest between two individuals who had or would become prime minister. King triumphed easily over Diefenbaker, the Liberals won the federal election, and King regained his position as prime minister.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: Diefenbaker stood for the Legislative Assembly in the 1929 provincial election. He was defeated, but Saskatchewan Conservatives formed their first government, with help from smaller parties. As the defeated Conservative candidate for Prince Albert City, he was given charge of political patronage there and was created a King's Counsel. Three weeks after his electoral defeat, he married Saskatoon teacher Edna Brower.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: Diefenbaker chose not to stand for the House of Commons in the 1930 federal election, citing health reasons. The Conservatives gained a majority in the election, and party leader R. B. Bennett became Prime Minister. Diefenbaker continued a high-profile legal practice, and in 1933, ran for mayor of Prince Albert. He was defeated by 48 votes in an election in which over 2,000 ballots were cast.


title: John Diefenbaker

text: In 1934, when the Crown prosecutor for Prince Albert resigned to become the Conservative Party's legislative candidate, Diefenbaker took his place as prosecutor. Diefenbaker did not stand in the 1934 provincial election, in which the governing Conservatives lost every seat. Six days after the election, Diefenbaker resigned as Crown prosecutor. The federal government of Bennett was defeated the following year and Mackenzie King returned as prime minister. Judging his prospects hopeless, Diefenbaker had declined a nomination to stand again against Mackenzie King in Prince Albert. In the waning days of the Bennett government, the Saskatchewan Conservative Party president was appointed a judge, leaving Diefenbaker, who had been elected the party's vice president, as acting president of the provincial party.