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A Century of Subways: Celebrating 100 Years of New York's Underground Railways
 
 
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A Century of Subways: Celebrating 100 Years of New York's Underground Railways [Hardcover]

Brian J. Cudahy (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Book Description

0823222926 978-0823222926 October 29, 2003 3
Brian Cudahy offers a fascinating tribute to the world the subway created. Taking a fresh look at one of the marvels of the 20th century, Cudahy creates a vivid sense of this extraordinary achievement-how the city was transformed once New Yorkers started riding in a hole in the ground.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author


BRIAN J. CUDAHY's books include Around Manhattan Island: And Other Maritime Tales ofNew York and A Century of Subways: Celebrating 100 Years of New York's Underground Railways (both Fordham). He lives in Bluffton, SC.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 388 pages
  • Publisher: Fordham University Press; 3 edition (October 29, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0823222926
  • ISBN-13: 978-0823222926
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,441,329 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Brian Cudahy was born in Brooklyn, New York, and it was there that he developed a life-long fascination with subway trains. His first professional career was as a professor of philosophy, and he held positions on the faculoty of both Niagara University and Boston College. Cudahy left the academic world in the mid-1970s and spent the rest of his career working in the field of mass transportation, first with Boston's MBTA, then with the RTA in Chicago, and finally with the U.S. Department of Transportation.

He has published widely in two areas of transportation ... urban mass transit and maritime history. When Fordham University Press celebrated its centennial in 2007, Cudahy's history of the New York subways, "Under the Sidewalks of New York," was cited as one of the Press' ten best sellers during its first hundred years.

Brian Cudahy retired in 1999 and currently lives near Hilton Head, South Carolina. Watch out, though! One of these days, readers may be able to get an inside look at urban mass transit in America through Cudahy's first work of fiction, a book that will bear the title "Foggarty's Heart Attack."

 

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Best for train, not New York City, buffs, December 28, 2005
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This review is from: A Century of Subways: Celebrating 100 Years of New York's Underground Railways (Hardcover)
Don't be misled by the title into thinking that this book is mainly about the history of the NYC subway system. While the genesis of the NYC subway is covered, particularly the first IRT line, it forms only a modest part of the book, which also describes the start of the Boston, London, Glasgow and other subways, and the development of the commuter rail network into New York City. The book also dwells a lot on the physical, mechanical and electrical attributes of rolling stock, electricity supply, line construction methods, etc., for the various systems. While this does put the NYC subway system into context, it doesn't make for a particularly "light" read or give the reader an overall perspective on how the entire NYC subway system developed during the past 100 years and its impact on the city.
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Who better than Brian Cudahy?, November 5, 2003
This review is from: A Century of Subways: Celebrating 100 Years of New York's Underground Railways (Hardcover)
New York's subway system has been written about, painted, painted on, talked about, griped about, even sung about. (Don't sleep on the subway, darling...) There are a fair number of books about it, most of them are technical. And the technical achievements of the subways system are amazing.

But only Brian Cudahy can write with the excitement and enthusiasm for this complex transit system to bring its history and experience to life. The word "Celebrating" in the subtitle is more indicative of his attitude than the bland "A Century of Subways." He starts with the asphyxiating conditions of Manhattan's streets immediately before 1900, and the need of developers, businessmen, and employers alike to expand into the other boroughs. This system, once built, would ease the overcrowding of Manhattan's slums, provide capital for real estate and housing barons in Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and northernmost Manhattan, and turn places like Coney Island into true party spots.

Of course, skeptics did abound: "New Yorkers will never go into a hole in the ground." And this is where Brian Cudahy then delivers to us the fanfare, thrills and--efficiency (!)--of the first subway ride, as bystanders cheered from clean, beautiful (!!) subway stations. At the center of it all is August Belmont, and the admiration Cudahy has for him is evident. Yet he doesn't resort to worshipping the tycoon/developer.

A CENTURY OF SUBWAYS is a fun and educational book. Its tone is miles away from his sober, but equally fascinating book, THE MALBONE STREET WRECK. While this disaster was waiting to happen in 1918, Cudahy, in A CENTURY OF SUBWAYS, savors the joyful moments of 1904.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of THE FIVE POINTS CONCLUDED

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An aptly and extensively researched tribute, February 9, 2004
This review is from: A Century of Subways: Celebrating 100 Years of New York's Underground Railways (Hardcover)
An impressively informative work by transportation historian Brian J. Cudahy, A Century Of Subways: Celebrating 100 Years Of New York's Underground Railways tells of the amazing and critically important history of subway systems as a remarkable technological achievement in mass transportation which legendary for its practicality. A grand presentation that takes the reader and subway enthusiast on a vivid trip through time as an aptly and extensively researched tribute to the visionaries and power brokers behind the creation of New York's famous subways, A Century Of Subways would grace the American History and Transportation History collections of any academic or community library system.
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First Sentence:
A Century of Subways: Celebrating 100 Years of New York's Underground Railways has been written to help celebrate the centenary of the New York Subway. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
trackside third rail, electrified zone, electrified service, first revenue train, subway equipment, new electric locomotives, annual patronage, electrified district, original subway, electrified network, new subway cars, steel passenger cars, subway service, inaugurated service, new underground railway, end vestibules, electric zone, electrification system, motorized cars, passenger entry, new rolling stock, railway electrification, catenary system, suburban service, tube railways
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, New Haven, Grand Central, Long Island, Interborough Rapid Transit Company, Penn Station, South Ferry, American Car, Seventh Avenue, Broad Street, City Hall, Standard Steel, East River, East Boston, Pennsylvania Railroad, Contract One, Lexington Avenue, Atlantic Avenue, August Belmont, Second World War, Third Avenue, Hudson River, New Jersey, Times Square, United States
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