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Urban Transportation

transportation from one part of a city to another. In the early days such transportation was provided by horse-drawn vehicles, and one of the first innovations was the use of the rail. The introduction of steam and of other methods of transportation without the use of horses went on during the 19th century and now the chief forms of urban transportation are surface roads operated by electricity, cable-operated surface roads , and electrically operated elevated roads and subways. The development in the main has been through the horse-drawn URBINO car, to a car dragged along by a cable, a car driven by electricity derived from an elevated trolley or from underground contact, all of these being supplemented by the motor omnibus. The systems of urban transportation in most American cities were at first established by local capitalists, but later companies usually combined to control the lighting, electric railway and gas facilities, while in other cities the municipal authorities have taken the transportation systems into their hands. The elevated lines in New York were formerly operated with small steam locomotives, but later displaced steam with electricity. In recent years the systems in the larger American cities have become very complicated. According to recent figures, for example, Boston had 231 miles of surface street railway, of which 197 miles had a second track.

There were about 14 miles of rapid-transit track, with a second track. In a recent fiscal year the gross earnings amounted to $17,269,000 and the operating expenses amounted to $11,288,000. The number of passengers carried totaled 346,317,000. The miles run were 57,806,000. These results included the traffic on elevated lines and subways.

In New York almost every form of transportation facilities known is in vogue. There are elevated roads, operated by current from a third rail; with electric surface lines below them, operated by underground contact; four track subways lower still; lower still another subway, and still lower, at 42d St., the Queensboro Tube which runs from Manhattan under the East River to Long Island. The tremendous north and south traffic in New York has made it necessary to develop the city transportation to the highest limit, and as a result Manhattan Island is a great object lesson in such transportation. The subway system is the most extensive in the United States, and it has been the model on which the systems of other cities, both in the European countries and the United States, have been constructed. See STREET RAILWAYS.