Subway construction photograph collection, 1900-1950

The New-York Historical Society's Subway Construction Photograph Collection, 1900-1950, includes over 71,000 photographs taken by various New York City transportation agencies during the construction of the New York City subways. The Board of Rapid Transit, the Public Service Commission, and their successors photographed construction of the subway and its surface extensions in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens in a succession of contracts: Contracts One and Two were awarded to what later became the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT); Contract Three was also awarded to the IRT, and Contract Four was awarded to what became the Brooklyn Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT); Contracts Three and Four were known as the Dual Contracts; additional lines were subsequently built by the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad (IND). The photographs were primarily taken for insurance purposes in the event that buildings shown would be damaged during construction. The photographs depict the streets as they appeared before construction began as well as actual construction shots. The digitization of the Subway Construction Photograph Collection was made possible by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.