Boston Opens First Subway: Underground Transit Born

Passengers boarding at Park Street station on September 1, 1897, rode the first underground rapid transit system in North America, gliding beneath the streets of Boston in electric trolley cars that traveled through a tunnel stretching from Park Street to Boylston. The Tremont Street Subway solved an urgent surface-level problem: Boston's narrow colonial-era streets had become so choked with horse-drawn vehicles and electric streetcars that traffic in the downtown core had ground to a near standstill. The subway moved the trolleys underground, freeing the streets above and cutting commute times dramatically. The project required cutting a trench through some of Boston's most historic ground, including sections of the colonial-era Granary Burying Ground where Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock lay buried. Workers unearthed over 900 bodies during construction, along with artifacts dating to the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Chief engineer Howard Carson managed the tunneling through a mix of open-cut and shield methods, navigating around the foundations of buildings, gas mains, and sewer lines in one of the most complex urban engineering projects attempted to that point. Opening day drew enormous crowds, with over 100,000 passengers riding the system during its first day of operation. The original fare was five cents. The subway's immediate success demonstrated that underground transit could work in an American city, and it influenced planning for the systems that followed in New York, Philadelphia, and other major cities. Boston's subway predated both the Paris Metro, which opened in 1900, and the New York City Subway, which followed in 1904. The Tremont Street Subway tunnels remain in active use today as part of the MBTA Green Line, making them the oldest continuously operated subway tunnels in the Western Hemisphere.