Customer Reviews

722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In you are looking for a tour guide of New York's vast subway system, or a concise timeline of its construction and equipment, look elsewhere.

What Clifton Hood has produced is a political history of the subway which should be read by every student of New York history and every person who wants to understand better the workings of New York City politics today.

The reader will find such familiar personages as Boss Tweed and Fiorello LaGuardia, but will also read about John F. Hylan, mayor from 1918-1925.

Hylan's is hardly a household name in popular New York history--he is known instead to the relative handful of people who delve into the recesses of Big Apple politics of the early 20th century.

In 722 Miles, Hood places Hylan in his proper place as the man who politicized the NYC transit system and, in so doing, set the stage for the long deterioration of the system which is only now being reversed.

I could quibble with various aspects of Hood's book--perhaps he focuses too much attention on one or another story relatively peripheral to the system's development while treating too lightly other threads. For example, he doesn't visit the influence of the BRT (later BMT) system until it became involved in the subway building contracts of 1913.

Additionally, to address the concerns of an earlier reviewer, there are lapses in editing which are odd in so heavily researched and footnoted a work. For example, at one point (using my hardbound copy as reference), Hood described a laborer's pay on the first subway as being $2.00 or $2.25 PER HOUR, a princely sun at the time, when he clearly meant PER DAY. Elsewhere, in describing the distastrous Malbone Street accident of 1918, he twice specifies that the fully wrecked car was number 109, when it is well known to have been 100--an insignificant detail, perhaps, but one which causes one to wonder what others details might have been mistated.

All in all, however, these lapses do not dim Hood's achievement in producing the only modern work of its kind, a compelling and perceptive look at the way New York City politics have interacted with perhaps its most significant public work.

As another reviewer mentioned, this isn't a tourist guide. There aren't that many maps, and the ones present do not show stops. Aside from the creation of new suburbs such as Jackson Heights, there isn't a whole lot of discussion of how the subways affected neighborhoods after they were built, especially after cars began to take over.

The main point this book makes is how the combination of enforced low fares and the perception of rapid transit as a business rather than a public service caused the subways' decline. The beginning of the book describes some of the engineering problems involved in building subways in New York. I would have liked to have seen more of that, especially for later, non-IRT subways; diagrams of the terrain in question would have been interesting.

Anyway, the book has to stop somewhere. For all that's left out, the discussion of people and politics, and of how things could have turned out differently, is fascinating.

In response to other reviewers: this book is not MEANT to be a tourist guide, it IS, however, an academic study, and a very good one indeed. For those who did not enjoy the book, because of it's lack of pictures, perhaps the problems lie with the reader rather than the author?

As a daily rider of the New York subway system, I find it dynamic and exciting piece of living history. This book, however, was not. It is a plodding academic treatment that focuses more on politics than the actual system. The pictures were too few. The maps were poorly realized and uninformative. As the system is still in place largely as it was decades ago, I would have liked references to the current line and station names instead of trying to guess or sit there with my own maps (something you can't do if reading while riding the subway). The subway system represents both a technological marvel and an instrument of great social change. Where is that book.

Having lived in NYC most of my life, I wanted to find a book which provided a comprehensive overview of the development of our public transit network, from the omnibus of the Civil War era to the present period. This book does it, and without running to encyclopedic length (its about 260 pages, not counting about 50 pages of supportive notes/footnotes).

A good deal of attention is given to the political machinations which were of such importance in building our current complex route system, including unfortunate gaffs, payoffs and a frequent lack of vision. (Editorial note: What we have is wonderful; what we might have had would be a marvel (like the rest of America, NYC has a history of periodic distain for public transit infrastructure development, preferring instead to nurture a love affair with the automobile - think Robert Moses).

The book also emphasizes the impact of subway extensions from lower Manhattan into the upper reaches of the borough (Washington Heights, Inwood etc), as well as Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. At least for a NYer, this is fascinating stuff, and the author uses examples, such as Jackson Heights in Queens, to illustrate the "before and after" impact of bringing multiple lines into what were farmlands and open fields just 100 years ago. The author provides lots of interesting and supportive statistics. There is also an excellent index along with over 50 pages of source footnotes.

The only real failing of the book is a lack of decent maps and a curious avoidance of using current line designations (ie, E train, #7 line etc) to quickly identify line routes as they were built in spurts starting in about 1900), preferring instead to use the old general designations (like IRT, BMT, IND), which no one under 60 remembers.

There are some photos, but they are few and of inferior quality. (See online sites like Museum of the City of NY, NY Historical Society, NYPL, NYC Transit Museum etc for great photo collections). There are also many books in print with photos of various facets of NYC transit history.

Bottom line though, I highly recommend this work. If it had decent maps, I'd give it 5 stars.

Long on politics and organization but short on actual construction history. I would have preferred more detail about the techniques and trouble sncountered along the way. After all, most of the construction took place a very long time ago technology wise.

This book is a good compliment to my other books on the history on the New York subway system.

Social histories such as this are very useful compilations of the many disparate sources of info. Labours of love.
Some readers might wish for full details of every type of rolling stock used, motor control gear, air brakes etc., but the social history is often neglected.
722 miles will stand comparison with "the Subterranean Railway" by Christian Wolmar, on the London underground.

I enjoyed reading this book and found it informative and thorough.
I'd recommend it to anyone. Fantastic job Professor Hood!!!!!

this book mainly about how the transportation system evolved and stuff in NYC. Very informative...mostly a research of the past and such to now...like a research paper mostly book form.

however, delivery from amazon is horrible....took like 2 weeks to get here? so i was behind in reading for school.