The Proposed Arcade Railway Under Broadway. (View Near Wall St.

• Price: $195.00
  

  SKU: 104242

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• ARTIST:

• PUBLISHER: No publisher noted. Printed by Hatch & Co

• MEDIUM: Two stone lithograph.

  DATE: Undated, c. 1870.

• EDITION SIZE: Image size 5 1/2 x 8 3/8" (14 x 21.4 cm)

• DESCRIPTION: The Arcade Railway Project was the brainchild of the civil engineer Egbert Ludovius Viele. (1825-1902). Viele is best known for creating what is know known as the “Viele” map of Manhattan which shows all the watercourses, creeks, rivers, ponds and springs that were once on the island, a map that is still used by engineers today. In the 1860s and 1870s, he set his sights on improving intense congestion on Broadway with an ambitious plan called the Arcade Railway. He proposed putting four railway tracks under Broadway, and adding subterranean sidewalks and stores along the tracks. Viele planned for two sets of tracks, running north and south respectively. One track in each direction would make local stops, while the other would be express. The Arcade Railway plan, was in many ways a precursor to the concept of our current subway system.<br><br> “[We] have so crowded the thoroughfares and overburdened the means of transportation, that there is an imperative and universal demand for relief, while a settled conviction pervades the public mind that this relief can only be afforded by the construction of a sub-surface railway.”<br> Egbert Ludovius Viele.<br><br> The 1st building on the left advertises the name of the printer, Hatch & Co. lithographers and engravers.

• ADDITIONAL INFO:

• CONDITION: Good condition.

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• CATEGORIES: 18th-19th Century Subjects , Town Views - United States , New York State