reserve when even the federal government probably doesn't understand why things are happening. i think sometimes you just have to say that people know more about something and we have to allow them to run whatever institution that we are talking about. >> we've been talking here on booktv went david harsanyi. his most recent book is "the people have spoken (and they are wrong): the case against democracy." david harsanyi is also the author of the nanny state. thank you for your time. >> anytime. >> visit booktv.org to watch any of the programs that you see here online. type the author or book title in the search bar in the upper left side of the page and click on search. you can also share anything you see on booktv.org by clicking share on the upper left side of the page and selecting the format. the tv streams live online for 48 hours every weekend with top nonfiction books and authors.

booktv.org. >> doug most recounts the competition between boston and new york city, to build the nations first subway system during the late 19th century. this is a little under one hour. [applause] >> thank you. thank you everyone for coming out on this lovely night. i've done one of than earlier so far and the also was a slushy and lovely night. so maybe this is what you should expect going forward for things. it is also appropriate as i talk to people about this today, as i was thinking about this now, it's appropriate that their snow around because as it turned out snow was a critical factor in the building of subways in this country. i will talk a little bit about that. subways came to be in large part because of a storm much bigger

than the one that we are experiencing today and a much more deadly one. i thought i'd do tonight is talked briefly about the question everyone has asked me, how did you come up with the idea for the book, a question that you often here. and i will talk a little bit about that. and then i will read a few passages. one thing about this book is that it toggles back and forth between two great cities, boston and new york. because as we know those two cities have a great history together. babe ruth, they tend to think that is what started the rivalry. but in fact it goes back much further than that. so i will talk a little bit about that as well. so those cities have a lot in common and a lot of differences. so i will do some readings and a few passages from the book that should give you a flavor of how the book covers boston and new

york. because they are very different projects. one boston opened its subway was about a mile off track. a tiny section of track when new york open its subway, exactly 20 miles prieto is a much bigger project when they opened and of course some people like to joke that boston stopped building after they opened open up that 1 mile and never improved upon it. they are still riding on what they would have back then. new york certainly did expand and grow and sort of expand. and so briefly how the book came to be. when i first started, i used to be a transportation reporter in new jersey. and when i covered transit i was fascinated by trains and transportation issues. and when i was in boston it was a fun experience. as i started looking for a book idea i started looking at the idea of the boston subway.

one of the things it is interesting is as i looked at the history of it i discovered no one had written the true story behind how the subway came to be. but then i was really interested when i discovered that at the same time boston was debating and building and taking the subway, new york was doing the exact same thing. at the same time in the late 1800s, both cities were completely overrun by immigrants who have flooded into the city in the second half of the 19th century and had really overrun the cities. and the cities were at the time sort of just fingernails of what they are today. everyone was crammed into the city because that was as far out as you could go if you wanted to go just a brookline, for example. if you wanted to get from downtown boston to brookline, it would take you two hours by horse carriage. so people out here, except for

the extremely wealthy, and they had private carriages and that was the way life was back then. if you didn't have a private church and a card for yourself hold by a forthcoming live downtown one of those streets were was developed very early and the same was true for new york. and everyone lived in the furthest part of downtown new york city, crammed into the fingernail of the island of manhattan. only one they began to speed up and the electric trolley came along and other means of leaving people around started to come along but then people were able to move out and proud of the city. then it was 2 miles and then it was 4 miles and it became the city starting to expand and grow and that was critical to get people further out from the downtown area where they were living. so that was sort of a big moment in the second half of the 19th century that happened with the

expansion of cities. in the book sort of developed from that moment on cities order to expand. what happened was a couple pivotal things. the blizzard of 1888. in 1888 a storm on like nothing we've ever seen since then cripple the entire northeast. for at least a week, some people estimate that a thousand people were killed within this blizzard. it devastated the entire northeast. new york and boston and everything in between was halted to a standstill. when that happened, new york especially took a look at the way they were moving people in the city which at the time was elevated trains and carriages on the street. they said that this has to change and we can't be anything else. boston had started to look at ways to move people underground. this is one of became very interesting. there was a gentleman in boston

by the name of henry whitney. if you think of his name in american culture, two things come to mind. one of them is the whitney museum, which is a famous greek museum that was founded by ancestors of the whitney family and another one was eli whitney. when i first heard about the guy that invented the cotton gin. he was a cousin of the whitney family and this is what a family that is one of the most important cultural families that made such an impact in american life today. the two brothers from the whitney family grew up in massachusetts sort of by springfield. they both played pivotal roles in the two subways. one in boston and one in new york. henry whitney live right here in new york and he is essentially single-handedly responsible for what you see on beacon street. he is the man who sort of subdivision of beacon street becoming what it is today with

tracks down the middle, trees lining the track. all of our tumble aside of the street. he sort of saw that and develop that and made a fortune off of it and he is also them in the first proof and proposed the subway in boston. in 1887 before the state legislature and proposed for the time what was called a radical idea. and the idea was met with jeers and a lot of people said it's sacred ground, don't touch that. you can't go anywhere near that. and he sort of pushed it and he became a critical figure in how the subway came to be today. the same time that he was doing that, his brother william whitney was getting involved in the street transit system in new york city. the interesting thing about these two brothers is that they were polarized. henry was a slacker who dropped out of school. bounced around the country trying to find it direction in

the job and didn't marry until he was in his 40s and when he married, he married a woman 20 years younger than him and sort of was directionless for a long time until he got involved in transit and real estate. i gave him a purpose and a direction and focus him. his brother was the exact opposite. his brother married and first went to harvard and then yale and then married into one of the richest families in the country, which had made a fortune in oil. eventually william became an important lawyer who helped to bring down boss tweed and was recruited to run for president. and had william whitney wanted to become president, he could have. and he didn't want to be president. he came back home and gave an interview at the time is that i'm not running for president.

in the 1880s he became a huge political figure in washington. and he got involved in transit in new york and the two brothers became these figures in this project. so as i discover that and i dive into the life of the whitney family and the subway, i became fascinated to have these two cities, boston and new york, these two brothers, henry and william, and then this project. the last reason i wrote this book. i think that all of us tend to take these things for granted. we ride the subway, you can think about the brooklyn bridge, other projects that have been built. when we ride the subway today, whether it's in boston or new york or london or paris, wherever you are, i think that we tend to not think about how that tunnel came to be. and boston and new york that came to be because of immigrants, workers, italians,

they came to this country with the sole purpose of digging a tunnel with picks and shovels and active. their bare hands, horses pulling cartloads of dirt. there were no giant machines that we see today when we walk by a construction site. there was none of that. just men and their tools to that, to me, was fascinating. this was a sort of look at the tunnel, i find that i have a special appreciation for it because it's a remarkable feat as to what these tunnels are today and if you think about it, we don't see water getting into them and that was done 150 years ago. because they knew that that was going to be a political thing, people made you feel safe and secure and that was a huge obstacle for them to overcome. and it was terrifying and they had to overcome that and

convince people and that was one of the big achievements was convincing mankind that it was safe, secure, not going to flood and the total will be light and airy and we joked about how light and ares would be in boston. they are dry and it's pretty amazing. so when i ride through the tunnels today, i do have a special appreciation for them, for how those tunnels came to be. and the book tells the story of not just henry whitney and william whitney and some of the big players that were behind us, but it also tells us the story of these immigrants. a guy named patrick mclaughlin who is working on a job one day and a hammer came down and hit him on the head and almost killed him. you know, the projects back then -- they sort of knew what they

were doing. but they were learning as they went. dynamite was something that was brand-new in the late 1800s. something they had worked with in boston or new york. here they were blowing up things in the city streets and it was crazy. they didn't quite know how to harness the power of dynamite, yet they were doing it. so the book tells the story of the big people and the little people, wanting it to reflect both of those things. so i hope that when he read the book and you sort of take away from an, especially the accretion and the appreciation of how we get around today. it's a remarkable feat. it including in new york. the same company that is building this, but they also built boston's big bridge. there's a lot of connections between boston and new york for this project that exist to this

day. so it sort of tells a lot of this. there is little background before you on how the background came to be and why was interested in it. i'm going to assume that even though you may be in brooklyn or boston, perhaps written on the new york subway at some point, it's a huge part of the book. we want to give you a flavor of what happened in each of these cities. the first piece i want to review is from the first chapter of the book and my favorite that i researched and wrote. before the new york subway opened in 1904, before that subway opened 50 years earlier, there was a gentleman by the name of alfred b-2 was a skinny, opera loving inventor who invented things like a typewriter for the blind. and lots of other sort of quirky inventions. such an amazing man. he had a dream in late 1840s and early 1850s that new york needed

a subway. this was 50 years before new york would actually get a subway. but he had this dream to give them a subway. but it was an obstacle standing in this way and i will read a short portion from this chapter. the clothing store was a five-story driving commercial success. devlin's opened their store in 1883 a few blocks from city hall. then they needed more space for their racks of ready-made suits and umbrellas and ties and trousers. one of the reasons was near the corner of one street and broadway and it was due to that gigantic basement. we needed just such a space at the beach transit company. when he saw the basement and noticed that could be accessed from the side of the street, we

negotiated a deal with the brothers. for $4000 a year he leased their entire basement for period of five years in 1868. he spent the next year focused on a single piece of machinery that he would need to dig a funnel. the advice he came up with ingenious. he used a water pump to exert a water mechanism with each push forward kurt he also designed a hood to protect his workers from falling debris or in a catastrophic event of a collapse. but before he could start digging, a different kind of catastrophe merely to release product in the fall of 1869. a pair of cronies of boss tweed try to drive up the price of gold by driving up and buying it in bulk. it rose to $137 per ounce. by the morning of september 24, 250. frenzy ensued and riots broke out. the national guard was put on notice and gold kept writing to $160 as lunchtime packs.

brokers lives were destroyed in one shot himself before the day was over. by the time the government intervened in the afternoon and sold $4 million in gold it was too late. wall street's first black friday exposed two men acting alone and how they can bring the country to the brink of financial ruin. it touched everyone including beach, but he was too far invested in the subway stop. three months later he was ready to start tumbling. in late december 1869, he and his son frederick, who you'd have to be the foreman of the project and a small group of men arrived after the store closed for the night. they brought picks and shovels and covered wagons and other tools. following his instructions to tunnel south under broadway from one street to just blow murray street, the laborers worked widely to avoid suspicion on the streets above. six men would stand inside while another half would polish the tunnel. some carried out the dirt and covered wagons and others laid the bricks to wind the tunnel.

others lay the tracks to carry cable car. the walls were painted white and iron walls were near the gas plants that were hung. it was scary, too. cluster for but for some workers who walked off the job. the rumbling from the street railways overhead created a terrifying war that made the late-night work nerve-racking. still thanks to soft soil and tunneling shields, the digging went quickly and then went forward 88. he was believed at how smoothly it progressed until the ground shook. the softer it came to an abrupt end and the workers stared at a stone wall in front of them that was a horrible for them. either the wall had come down or the project was over. no one knew if it would cause ugly debacle or classroom of a. so beech told his men to take it

down stone by stone. each stood by as every stone was removed and pass from worker to worker and carted out in the night. the ceiling held and the wall came down and the digging resumed. as hard as he tried to keep his work a secret from the world above, it was impossible. the operation required scaffolding and tubes and pieces of enormous machinery that would be a corner where would sit for hours or days where would mr. say disappear down the steps never to be seen again. new york's mayor, abraham hall, one of the loyalist of boss tweed, talked about what the company was up to. and then when it sunk ever so slightly, the mayor acted. he exerted eight over the construction site demanding to be let in so he can expect to work and got nowhere. his men had strict orders to let nobody in and remind anyone who tried that they were chartered by the state to complete this. as to whether his work was responsible for that, the response was simple.

nonsense. "the new york times" reported this the next day and suggested that hall was not going to back away. the company had commenced operations and it is likely that they were movies. the beach was stubborn and he released a statement and the doors being closed to all persons, there is no truth to that. company promised to make repairs and mayor hall backed off and beech bought himself time. one month later 50 days after the digging began, the tunnel was finished. it was a perfect cylinder of 312 the, all that was needed now are the two most important pieces, the subway car and the fan to blow the car down the tracks. so that is a little piece of history where alfred beech built a secret tunnel from the entire city of new york and it was just a great story when occurred, and

when boss tweed find out, he was not happy. because he had mistaken the transit system and the idea of a subway in the city really angered him. so the great story of this little guy taking on the big guy, david and goliath. that's a fun way to look at it. but the story was remarkable. so that is a piece and let me skip ahead now to boston. boston story, to me one of them was the most interesting when they first started dating on the subway side, the construction site downtown. and so i'm going to redo a piece of when i construction actually began. the contractor on the job in boston was a man named michael meehan. they called it meehanville.

the car was loaded with dirt. piles of picks and shovels shovels were all over them every morning the sun came up and there were dozens of men, sometimes 100, jostling for positions. the most important person who stood guard was not michael but his son robert. easily spotted by his bowler hat and a piece of paper always in his hand. contractors office had a comfortable chair and nobody was allowed in without the password. meehanville was a makeshift village set up for the duration of the project. three shanties were corrected and given a fresh coat of paint for places for labors to eat their lunch and mend their hands and sore feet and sometimes just wait for the next assignment. no smoking was allowed during working hours. so the shanties also became a place for pipe smoker. robert meehan was entrusted to take on the names and addresses of able-bodied workers who congregate around him every morning. he was also the timekeeper on the job and the general utility

man who answered all questions. each morning he would take down information of the men and explained that if and when their services were required, they would receive a letter in the mail and be expected to arrive at 7:00 a.m. at first only 25 men, but that was expected to go to 50, 100, possibly more than a thousand per day working day and night. as more were brought in, the process of sealing up with concrete and steel beams began. as soon as the project started, neither meehan or his partner whose face had appeared in the paper many times, could be walked without being cornered and pressured from work. everyday letters begging for work were thrust into their hands. he spoke and refer them to his son, except in instances when they were not up to his standard. we want a pick and shovel, he asked one of the men. no, i want something easier. and he said no, there's no snaps around here. and then he laughed. and then he has softer side.

i will help colombia when i get home tonight, the reference to a popular in them. my wife will not come home without a job and she means business. it worked. he was a family man himself with wife and two daughters at home. take a shovel and get to work. many times these men put their work on schedule and only occasionally good workman disappoint. a job was wanted. a1 individual was arrested for stealing pools from a construction site. but there was an incident that was rare as they tried their best to hire men that they had worked with before and trusted. he made no secret. the first was to be citizens of the country, the second was to come from the same neighborhood. he made no secret of his affection for the irish and his disdain showed up at the site every morning. one morning he spotted the men

sitting by themselves and talking only in italian and he knew right away that he would not make his list. the italians, they are not wanted. i told him that none but voters would be employed. and why not, i'm going to a ploy my friends. i never lost anything by standing by the men that supported me. i was not really true. he lost money. the italians work for low wages, but he didn't care. $1.20 per day as other contractors are doing, you can work them for 10 hours and i can make a good deal more money on this job. but i'm not doing business that way. the first 20 minute he picked to work, nine were from jamaica plains for. the rest came from other parts of boston. and he kept true to his word about italians. as long as they kept speaking italian and isolating themselves from the others they would have to wait for opportunity to work in meehanville. at least until the demand was more greater. so this whims of this world back then, we like to think of ourselves today as being so ethical and conscious and back then there was none of that.

it was i'm going to hire my buddies and there's nothing you can do to stop me. and he was right. and they didn't stop him. skipping ahead briefly to the first day. this was september 1, 1897. the project took about 2.5 years. as far-fetched as this may be to believe, it came in under budget. i was told it was expected to cost $4 million and came in at $4.2 million. pretty remarkable when you think about some other projects around here and what they might've cost today and getting them under budget, not so easy. so this is sort of an exciting glimpse into that very first day. if you can imagine what it was like to see a subway car for the first time. you can imagine what that must of been like. just a personal thought aside, something that happened to me. when i was in new york city about two years ago. as with my family and two kids. we went down to the 79th street

area that i used to live in my two kids were with me. and we started walking down her and we had this moment where my wife and i were sitting on a bench and her two kids were waiting for the subway to come. they kept running up to the yellow line and looking down the tracks to sort of see if it was coming. then they would run up to us back and forth. and it was one of these funny moments were they just kept running and i finally snapped a picture of them on my phone just because the two of them were looking down the tracks, tearing down there and waiting. and i mentioned it at the end of the book because as i reflected on that moment, it sort of reminded me that their excitement and anticipation must've been what it was like more than 100 years ago for the new yorkers and bostonians to stare down these dark mysterious tunnels. places where they've never been before and wait for the flight that was going to come, this train was going to emerge from the darkness and take them somewhere. for my kids i was all that mattered. it must've been like that years

ago. so i thought about a sort of an interesting thing. and i wanted to share because it meant something to me and i could appreciate it. to this was the first day. when jimmy reed walked into the shed looking nuttier than usual, dark blue coat, seven gold buttons and a cap with a street visor into bands of gold, he greeted his passengers and confessed with no hesitation that he was tired after a night of restless sleep. the trolley rushing to reach the subway tunnel kept him away, he said. the last passengers to arrive was a chief inspector for the railway company who took up a spot on the cars footboard so he could have passengers keep your hands and heads inside to avoid putting any posts or trees. after making sure the car was ready, the passengers let out a hearty cheer as the electric motor said the trolley on its way. the benches were not killed yet, but they would be soon enough. outside they waved their handkerchiefs and boards of

encouragement. don't let any of them get ahead of you, one cried out. and he turned serious as his car rounded the bend. he great to stop to allow another dozen passengers on board. all aboard for the subway on park street, he shouted. a voice shouted saying that's right, you do that without a starter. the bell rang out in the car pulled out again. journey from austin to tim ridge to boston took about 20 minutes most mornings. but the unusual number of passengers at this hour deleted a few extra seconds at each stop. by the time the car reached cameras just across the charles river from boston, an older gentleman found that there were no seats left and told he would have to wait for the next car. not a chance and he shouted back. he said his name was cw davis and he came from dickerson bill to enjoy this and he deserved to make history with the rest of them. he said in 1856 yet written on the first metropolitan railway line. he wanted to achieve another first today. the schedule called for a car be

half hours most days. and now is thought to be fast running. people learn to live a lot faster these days. passengers could not refuse the charming mr. davis as he climbed up and hung onto a pole. when a photographer alex let him sit for a minute so they could photograph it, he refused. as the car got closer and crowds grew in numbers with men and women and children waiting in the anti-, they were being crusd with more stop. the car was brimming over the edges and passengers were brimming and people were hanging out of the aisles. as he steered his car, both sides of the street had a line of a sea of people and the word became louder. he could barely make up the entrance to the tunnel, a sea of people dressed in black. the final stop between arlington street and charles street, when

it seemed that there was not a single inch of room left in common to more people reach up from the sidewalk and grab hold of an arm that was being held up by another arm. they were pulled on board and swallowed up by the excitable mass. the spaces between the seats were held with standing people. we were packed like sardines boxes. both were loaded until there was not enough room. a car with seats for 45 passengers and standing room for a few dozen more have 140 passengers. with reed at the controls and the clock and the arlington street church pointing at 6:00 o'clock, car 1752 cracked downward in the subway tunnel slope. if there was a time to stop and acknowledge the moment, this was it. they in the speech from the mayor was in order or from henry whitney or the governor or the chief engineer. anyone who had a hand in bringing america's first subway

to this day. not only was it completed on time of $4.2 million under the 5 million projected cost. along with the 10 killed in a gas explosion, others died in the building of the subway and it was constructed without a much as has been anticipated. so the little glimpse into that very first day and in more detail comes after that when the subway goes underground. one of my favorite quotes is at first went underground, which is the passengers in the front seat leap forward hearing ahead to see what sights awaited them in from the rear a shout rang out, down in front. [laughter] everyone wanted to see what was ahead of them. so it was interesting also about the days of the subways open, boston being boston, they did a very dated. there was no huge speech were big deal. it was the subways here, so here we go. in new york the entire world was

invited. the president was invited on the governor was there. it was a big deal. and as new yorkers, we like to celebrate. and they did. so is very different how the two cities celebrated these momentous moments. the last thing i will redo is it he's from new york's first day, which is equally exciting to very different. outside city hall a sea of more than 5000 people cover the steps. they filled the plaza and surrounded the kiosk of the city hall station. it was almost 230 in the afternoon when a procession of men in top hats and long frocks came bounding down the steps. they marched into a roped off court order marked by police to fight to keep the pushing and shoving back. as frank hedley led the group toured city hall and the kiosk, cheers and applause drowned out the factory whistles. the horns and ferries from the nearby harbor and the church

bells. he opened the group with the mayor still holding in the company case to ascend the steps of the platform. a shiny and over subway train with a cars attached sat there and in seconds it was filled above capacity with officials and a few dozen thrillseeking stragglers who administered the weekend before the door closed. he opened up a special case to reveal a silver key and he took it and reached to slide it into a whole. it doesn't do very well, he said. but after tinkering for a few seconds he succeeded and the electric motor buzzed to life. he leaned over with some last-minute instructions. are we ready, he hollered. all right, he kept his hand on the emergency brake, slow at first. young and clean-shaven, he cut a dashing figure. by the time he was 27 he was elected mayor at the age of 38. his father had run against abraham lincoln for president and had been a famous civil war

general. but he had no approval formally in construction. but he was savvy enough to realize that the citizens were clamoring for it. on his first day he took a tour to show his interest and appreciation for it. unlike his most immediate predecessors who were voted out of office in a year or two, he was popular enough to last five years and during this term he had a huge public works project that grew as he oversaw the construction of the manhattan and queens bridge. he arrived at the right time and he made history when he pushed his hand forward and began his first subway ride in new york history. the car rounded a corner and the brooklyn station came into view. it jerked to a stop in the emergency brake was bumped. and the subway who was moving in no time again. taking up steam as the trapped workers were coming. as they pulled into the station, he turned in such a rush slow her down? talking as if he had been the motor ran his whole life or in.

>> are going slow, but don't you want the motor man to take hold? but the mayor said, no, sir, i'm running this train. and run it, he did. zooming up the street, he pushed the train faster. he passed island transit had not been allowed to start and they tossed their hats and cheered and into grand central became and then it was gone. a minute later a sign was spotted 12 feet high. the mayor started out. up to 43 miles per hour. far faster than the engineer anticipated going on this leisurely pleasure trip. out he turned to him and said that slower. easy for the curve. the pastor worker who sides kept the train and then glided towards the last station, onto

the northbound local track. the trip lasted about five minutes longer than they had an express ride that would normally take. but it was impressive nonetheless. he finally took his hand off of the control and let george morrison takeover. cleland, taking out a cigar, shook his tired rest and said that was a little tiresome, don't you know i meant what you have to keep pressing mapping down on the time. if you relax your hand, the train stops. with him at the controls come in the train continued with and without warning the passengers who had been staring in the darkened tunnels were suddenly looking out into the dust. more than 122nd street between emerged from the ground near a viaduct and it was the only place where ran in the open air and new yorkers who knew the precise spot turn it on shouting from the streets and rooftops. morrison blew the whistle before it disappeared back out of sight at 135th street.

the little glimpse into new york's subways. [applause] so it really is the story of two cities that had close relationships on one hand and two brothers who had close relationships. but at the same time the cities and the brothers had competition with each other and when boston opened first, there was a great thing in "the new york times", new york took a lot of pride in being a much more bold and inventive leading city in the country is not the world. and yet they had to sort of stand by and watch as boston was this tiny little podunk town. they said so conservative and american city would be the first to open a subway in this country. and it was a hint inside the minds of new yorkers. a little bit of galling to them that boston would be first. they would catch up in due time.

the boston certainly did get there first and it's a fun story to tell. hopefully that gives you a little bit of insight. but the book is not just about the big lairs but about the little people who built the tunnel. that is what i hope comes away from it. a special appreciation for not only are subway but that of new york and london and paris and all of the great underground cities that exist today. in 1863 new york and boston didn't come until almost 30 years later. so there is a big gap between the world's first subway in america's first subway. the book explains why that was. so we can talk about anything you want to talk about, any questions you might have. one thing comes up and says you explore this or that. the purpose was to stop when the subway opened. as we know there was another expansion of the subway in what happened after they were born.

this was about the debating and the construction and the opening. but it's not about what happens after that. and i wanted it to be about that process that was just interesting to me. questions, things you want to talk about? >> it's a good question. does the beach tunnel still exist. well, in 1912, workers were construction company were expanding, they stumbled, if you want to call it that. they were working down there in "the new york times" knew of the beach, and suggested that they might bump into something down there. sure enough they did. they bumped into a wall and remarkably they found this car that had been part of this. and it was an amazing find.

and one of the saddest things of that wine is that the response was, well, that's sort of interesting. moving on. and so they sort of just kept on going. there's a great photo of the guys were sitting there in the car was a pristine condition. it was rotted, but you could see the shape of everything and was a great thing. so they did discover it and it was never preserved. it was a shame because it's a great piece of history. >> can you talk about how you researched this? given that it's pretty old and not well written about two. >> yes, the research comes from a couple of great sources. first of all, newspapers are getting a lot of publicity these days for how they are doing. and the reporting back then and in newspapers was just remarkable. going to the library's at the

different cities, and you can do some research online now, they were remarkable for how they covered this in such tremendous detail. when you hear quotes that i have given in the book, those are quotes always the became most likely from the newspapers where they were having reporters on the job in covering the experience of that was one of the big things. both cities also had transit conditions that kept remarkably detailed reports of these projects. those reports are still available today. so is able to sort of get access to the reports. especially the boston transit commission that created reports from 1891 through 1898. they were three or 400 pages each time an and remarkable for their detail because they really sort of explain the building of the tunnel tunnels and how they were secured envelop. the also if there was an accident on the job site, they would have a report of the accident and details about that. lots of good details about the reports. one last some of the bigger name people in the book, they

fortunately left their papers behind. so william whitney, for example, the brother lapel of left all of his papers behind at the library of congress in washington. that was great to have that. so went to library and spent a couple days down there. sort of poring over his letters and things like that. a very touching moment in the book where one of his children died and you could sort of get inside of his mind about what was going through his head and how that happened and how that was an emotional time frame for him. there were a lot of ways the research and reporting came to life through private papers and things like that. another key character in the book is a guy name steinway. the and he came over from germany and essentially was a piano manufacturing giant. the huge figure. and he fortunately left his

diary to the smithsonian. there are some great moments when we read his diary and it is such a personal thing. you think when you think about it, people writing down their innermost thoughts. one night that he wrote about this and he went to bed with an anxious day coming ahead and he had heard was breaking into his house and his dream. as a writer and reporter in and researcher dream of those things. ..

the route that it did. the route is a combination of the anc lines in new york. when i've come across over the west side of central park across back over in harlem. at the time when they open the new york subways were fascinating and the eastside at the time had a lot of opposition. they didn't want the subway. rather than let that get and in the way they set time, we'll go around you. to the adulterers that if you look at the very first track that happened in new york city, it literally goes by side and avoid the entire eastside. that didn't happen until years later. >> actually built the two lines parallel. they had a local and express by doing that at the same time, which was a brilliant thing to do. >> is a brilliant plan conceived by the guy who i mentioned

earlier, the engineering firm that built the big dig, second avenue subway and built the first subway in new york. he was the chief engineer and he was instrumental in coming up with that idea for express and local trains. that is a critical thing for new york. in a big city like new york is critical. >> i believe it is the first part of the subway in boston and the big trench. they covered that. but then you're talking about tunneling. was there a lot of tunneling us that are mostly they would open it up? >> great question. those cities used for the most part, a method called the cutting cover method, which is exactly what it sounds like. cut a trench, laid the tracks, covered over. for most of new york that's how it was built. the difference in new york there are a couple stations, couple parts of the city of new york if you for it around manhattan

subway or you have to take an elevator way down deep in the washington heights area around 88th street and other places. if you think about what manhattan is, it is a rock. it is a giant rock and they had to build a subway through this. they were able to cutting cover, but there were places where they were not and that's why they had to tunneling using dynamite. is risky and dangerous and bad things happen and there is some big explosions that happened because they weren't familiar with how to control dynamite. it set off a blast, for example, under the city and there is a pattern if we wait 10 minutes before we go under their because that gives time for loose rocks to follow things to happen. sometimes they would wait 10 minutes, go down and then the rock would fall. there were some spots for they did some actual tunneling.

did he live to see either one of these open? >> said he did not. each died in 1901 u.s. open in new york and died before the new york subway opened. so he did not live to see it, but his story is certainly looked on. >> also the engineer -- >> which celebrated its 100th any herstory. the cape cod we know today. [inaudible] >> the question is can you talk a little bit about what the sinus? trouble today the green line extension and all the sign-up spirit who financed those projects? >> it's a good question. the new york story and i have a whole chapter, especially when the bids were opened in boston.

it has been out to private contractors and they'll bid on it in the sky was the one who was awarded the contract. you would think the lowest bidder would get the job. the lowest bidder on the boston job was a brooklyn contractor. mysteriously the book written contractor didn't get the job. michael meehan went to the transit commission insert a floppy and bad he was the second lowest bitter. he went to the transit commission and city do not want to give this junior contractor. it's too big a job, too important. it needs to go to a local contractor and mysteriously the bid was overruled. for the most part it was done out of a three bidding process. the new york financing was one of the reasons why the new york job happened later in boston. for a lot of reasons they were thinking about it before boston. they're ahead of the curve. ready to move, but new york had a lot of a lot of problems arranging the finance team. there is a pivotal moment that happened in 1891 linear person

essentially saying we want to subway, let's do it. the big thing happen where they invited all these people to come and bid for the project, a very open process and nobody did. it was like this enormous huge high-profile moment. it's out there or can you get lots digging and here it is the nobody did. it's a big moment for steinway, big letdown. they were very dejected after that happened in effect is one of the moments when parson sort of thought that for years he was going to be the guy to build the subway in new york and said that day. i'm done. i'm going to leave. he left an anti-china to build a project in china because he didn't think he would be around to see the new york subway happened. he was in china working on a huge project their any cable grants us come back, we're ready to build now. so he comes back. what else? other questions. >> i was wondering the waters in

the back bay that must've been very difficult. >> it was a huge obstacle they had to overcome. one of the transit commission reports were explicit in saying this tunnel has to be able to float on water. they knew they had to make it so secure and so safe and watertight that it just would not get any water because they and the public was terrified of that. water is going to come in and whatever. it's a great anecdote for the first time in boston the engineer in the chief contractor took a group of people like the mayor and the governor down into the tunnel and everyone was prepared for this to be dank, dark, and wet. that's what they expect it to be. at one point he sort of looked on a switch. you have to remember this is the time when lightbulbs were no. i mean, edison invented the light bulb a decade earlier.

it was a sort of very near thing and sort of flipped a switch and entire time i was bathed in bright white light and everyone was just, wow, it was clean, bright and airy and smell just like the air for both and they were all shocked. they couldn't believe it. they did a remarkable job in the book explain in great detail how they did it, how they feel they are, how they protected it. there've been moments when it would be taking a moderate come up from below. they have to seal it off and put another layer of concrete and steel. so i have been. for the most part they did a remarkable job of stealing the tunnel off. yeah, in the back. >> i read a public policy blog for a new transportation, the hyper loop. would you have anything to recommend for the future transportation projects? >> it's funny bernat. for those of you who have heard of a tremor today, along us sort

it is the guy who owns tesla and it's been in the near sellout for some some of these big projects. i'd like to think of a guy as today's alfred each. if you think what he did, he did not build the first subway what he did was he stepped motion in the dream. we can do something they. he made new yorkers only this could really happen. even though it didn't happen for another 40 years or so, just the idea that he put out there, that we can build a subway, we can do this was a big deal. so people like the one mask, who put forth sort of similar, bold ideas that some people laugh at and mocking his support this idea of building up supersonic sort of electromagnetic train that would go between northern and southern california at 800 miles per hour, you know the jet essentially.

a lot of people laugh and say that's never going to have been. it's. it's not going to happen in any of our lifetimes. but those sort of people, people who put forth those ideas for big dreams and big ideas are critical today. you know, even if they don't achieve their dreams, someone else might pick it up, another generation behind them. in the book it and does address that. there is a guy at the rand corporation in california, robert salter who wrote a paper darted proposing that islam must have proposed today come to select romantic choose. whatever happened? probably not. someone like robert salter links to iran mosque who eventually gets there. that is how those things happening. it's great to have people put

together bold ideas even if we never see them. >> one to 10 they propose having something between boston and new york. >> way. how great would it be to get to new york in 20 minutes? [inaudible] >> so anyways, would be great. we might get there one day. you need those people to at least before the big ideas because the never happen unless some of us it. i know it's cliché. today we live. the president said would put them in one day. it's the only way things are going. any other questions? now? good. thank you for your time and coming out. [applause] happy to sign any books if you have them. any other questions? [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> i love the london underground in the paris venture was beautiful. but they are spending it. >> everyone go in there and explore it. >> hao in there and explore it. >> hadi spell it? the

>> caring. [inaudible conversations] >> thank you. i appreciate it. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] also a high school correspondent in miami. the >> thanks a lot. >> thanks for coming out. i'm glad he came out.

>> how are you? thanks for coming out. i can do it on this page. >> for more information, visit the author's website, doug most.com. >> otd spoke with scholars that the hoover institution, think tank at stanford university to find out what they're reading.