HOW TO STUDY PRIVATE LIFE.
It possesses one advantage—that of enabling strangers to study the private life of the people on second story floors along its route; and for this reason I presume distinguished foreigners, who come to New York, are generally invited to make a journey over this railway. By no other means now known can so good a knowledge of the domestic habits of New York be obtained. A gentleman who made a journey in one of the cars of this road soon after its opening, stated that he counted ninety-seven families at breakfast, of whom thirty-three were eating fish, twenty-seven were eating beefsteaks or mutton-chops, while the balance were sticking to bread and vegetables in various forms, or were breakfasting on nothing at all. He saw thirteen family quarrels in various stages of progress, and observed one lady, apparently of foreign origin, discussing home affairs with a broom-handle. He obtained an intimate knowledge of wearing apparel for both sexes, and saw a great many things he had never seen before, and hardly expected to see on so short a journey.
TUNNELING BROADWAY FOR THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY.
Soon after this Elevated Railway was begun, some enterprising gentlemen undertook the construction of a railway under Broadway, on the pneumatic plan. They leased a cellar at the corner of Broadway and Warren Street, dug a tunnel under the sidewalk, and thence directly under Broadway for a distance of two hundred and fifty feet. It had been claimed that an underground railway could not be made beneath Broadway without interfering greatly with the traffic of that busy thoroughfare. The projectors of this line, known as the Beach Pneumatic Railway, contended that they could do their work without interference with travel, and they not only did it in that way, but they kept the entire public ignorant of their operations until they were ready to throw open the completed portion of their line for inspection. They were at work three or four months before any outsider obtained the least hint of what was going on, and for the last few months of their work, the public dwelt almost entirely in conjectures. It leaked out that something was being done there, but what it was, nobody could exactly tell.
OPENING AN UNDERGROUND RAILWAY.
Finally, a certain day was fixed for the opening, and a great many persons were invited to be present. They found a comfortable station and waiting-room under the sidewalk of Warren Street. They found a passenger car on the track, and a well-lighted tunnel, through which they could walk, and listen to the rumbling of carriages overhead. The tunnel was as dry and comfortable as brick-work and whitewash could make it. Telegraph wires extended from end to end, so that communication could be had at any moment with the engineer; and although the distance was short, the car, in moving along the track, attained considerable speed. They found powerful machinery, capable of forcing thousands of cubic feet of air per minute, and propelling the cars at a rapid rate. The machinery was moved by steam power, and the cars were propelled by the force of the air pressing against them. Whether the tube was five yards in length or five miles, as long as it remained tight the car could be driven by the power of the stationary machinery.
