The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1913-08-21
UNDERGROUND LIFE
IN new YORK CITY

''From a million and a half to a
million and three quarters of the resi-
dents of New York City spend at least
a portion of each day underground,
and many thousands come to the sur
face so rarely that the light of day
blinds them when they reach it, says
Leo l.. Redding In a profusely illus
trated article in the September Popu-
lar Mechanics Magazine. Discussing
this phase of modern city life. Mr..
Redding adds:
$50 accustomed has New York be-
come to the idea of living under
ground that only a few DAYS ago a
public celebration was held when a
new underground passageway was
opened. This newest tunnel, costing
many thousands of dollars, was dug to
give the people who live near the Hud-
son river and in the neighborhood of
18lst street an opportunity to pass
beneath the hills from their homes to
the subway, by which means they
Island, to Brooklyn, and, by means of
transfer, to New Jersey. Until this
underground cutoff was opened the
same citizens had to walk about 1000
feet up and down hill breathing the
good outdoor air. Now they will make
the same trip underground through a
damp. dingy passageway, and because
they save a few hundred feet and a
bit of exertion consider themselves
fortunate
According to the best obtainable
statistics about 10000 persons in New
York City spend their entire working
hours beneath the surface of the
earth. These figures incluae $500 EN-
ployes on the two systems of subways
now in operation. They include 1000
men who are employed digging the
new subway. This force will be more
than doubled in the near future. Also
included are the 1,200 men, most of
whom are working several hundred
feet below the street surface, driving
that wonderful aqueduct which is to
carry throughout the Island of Man
haitian and over into Long Island the
waters that are being brought down
by siphOn from the Catskill mountains
Then there are more than 10000 men
and women who are employed in more
private enterprises than take them
constantly below the street surface.
son quite ordinary days 100000
persons are accommodated in the New
York subways, and the crowds are
multiplying week by week.
Men go below the surface to reach
the trains that are to take them from
he
Pennsylvania station, east and west
out of the city. After thev have reach
ed the trains they are dropped still
further underground, in order that
they may pass beneath the bottom. of
the Hudson and East rivers.
''To get out of New York City by
means of the New York Central rail
road or the New York, New Haven
and Hartford railroad it is necessary
to make use of that other arehitectur
al wonder, the Grand Central station,
and again travellers drop down into the
bowels of the earth before they may
start.
''In the great hotels of New York
the mechanical departments are all
far beneath the street surface. These
"
and in most cases the hotel proprietors
are only too glad to permit their kiteh
ems, bakeshops, furnace rooms, engine
rooms and laundries to be inspected
These places ordinarily are the clean
est in the entire hotel.
"Many of New York s greatest
department stores are connected di-
rectly with the subway, as are also
some of its newer theaters. Last Feb
ruary family of three from San
Francisco, visiting in New York, lived
for a fortnight in one of the most
fashionable and most expensive hotels
in the city, spent most of their time
sightseeing and theater- GO
ing, and only once during the entire
fourteen days passed into the open air
of the outside world. From their room
in the hotel they were dropped by ele-
vator to the level of the subway.
the subway they went to de-
partment stores, theaters, restaurants,
museums and even to church When
they started for home they went by
subway from their hotel to the Grand
Central station and did not get out
into sunlight until their train had
well started on its long journey. And
this was not on bet, either