Customer Reviews

Secret Subway: The Fascinating Tale of an Amazing Feat of Engineering

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This is a children's book, but don't let that put you off. This is an entirely entertaining book full of interesting and informative information. It is the story of Alferd Beach who built the first subway under New Your City. Alfred Beach was the son of the owner of the newspaper the New York Sun. Alfred did not what to go into the newspaper business so instead he bought a small weekly magazine called Scientific American that published some science but mainly poetry and religious teachings. Beach turned it into a magazine totally devoted to science and technology. The magazine was a big success and soon inventors like Samuel Morse (the telegraph) and Thomas Edison (the phonograph)were asking Beach for help in filing patents. Beach formed the Scientific American Patent Agency to help file and monitor the progress of patent applications. It was the first agency of it kind in the U.S. and by 1850 was filing over 3,000 patents a year and in the 1860s filled over one third of all patents awarded to investors in the U.S. Needless to say, Alfred Beach became rich.

Because of the crowded streets of New York City, as a public service Beach decided to build a subway. His big problem was the the city was controlled by Boss Tweed and Boss Tweed had financial interests in building an elevated railroad. Boss Tweed therefore had political forces block approval of Beach's subway(there are two whole chapters devoted to Boss Tweed and those chapters alone is totally engrossing.) Beach decided to build his subway in secret and hope that once it was built, the public would demand that it be given the permits.

The book is not just about the subway. There are chapters about life in New York City in the 1860s, the technological revolution in America in the late 1800s (Electric lights, the telegraph, the telephone, typewriter, farm machinery (by the end of the 1870s, farmers could plow or harvest more than 100 acres per day as opposed to about 2 per day previously)), Boss Tweed, and the final chapter is about construction of the present day subway which started about 1900.

As an adult, I find some children's books refreshingly educational. This is one such book--a book that told me of a man I'd never known of before, a publisher and inventor, Alfred Ely Beach, who saw a problem and figured out a way to solve it. It taught me more about the city of New York. And it gave more information about the infamous Boss Tweed.

The explanation of Beach's work was easy to understand and follow. The story was made more exciting by the secretiveness of his plan. And the silent, smooth underground car with the luxurious waiting room sounded more like a fantasy then reality.

I have one correction with the editorial review. Beach wasn't crushed by Tweed. Beach outmaneuvered Tweed, and Tweed was taken down by other forces before he had a chance to really menace Beech. Beach's plan was put off by the great financial panic of 1873 which ruined many of his most important investors.

A very interesting and educational book!

A very well-written and amazingly exciting story showing the work of a truly extraordinary man, pitted against one of the most notorious politicians of NY's Tammany Hall. For 4th grade and up but you don't have to be from the City to appreciate it.