Commuting
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Mass transportation fundamentally altered the social and economic fabric of New York, and in particular, Lower Manhattan. It catalyzed physical expansion, and sorted out people and land uses. By opening vast areas of unoccupied land for residential expansion it pushed settled regions outward four times more distant from city centers than before. In the process it further separated places of work from places to live. This growing division was characterized by commuting patterns to and from work at the beginning and ending of each day that continue today. |
Commuting on the Staten Island Ferry, 1901 |
Rapid Transit helped transform Lower Manhattan. Concerns about population congestion and getting people to work more rapidly motivated the transportation engineers of the time to develop Manhattan's vast subway system. These factors also prompted economists and other social scientists to investigate the commuting patterns of New Yorkers.
"A very large proportion of the commuters are clerical and salaried workers, and an exceedingly small portion can be classed as laborers or factory workers. This condition of affairs is due to many causes, foremost among which is the high charge for commutation in New York. Commutation at the rate of ten cents per day will scarcely take the passenger out of sight of the skyscrapers of Manhattan."
--Edward Pratt, Congestion of Population in New York City, 1911
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"Pratt's data show that only a third of workers below 14th Street lived in Lower Manhattan." |
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By 1920 New York's subway system had developed into one of the largest rapid transit systems in the world. For more on the history of New York's Rapid Transit system visit the NYC Subway website.
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The impact of the subway lines on population redistribution is shown in the map on the right, which charts areas of population growth between 1910 and 1920. |
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The Second Ave E L in Lower Manhattan circa 1900 |
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Transit System by 1916 |
