>> nearly 10,000 people filed by mona lisa the first day making most popular hostess in washington. everybody wants to meet the new girl in town. >> with live coverage of the c-span and the 2, here on -span c-span 3, we complement that civil war's 150th anniversary, visiting events, tours d museums and historic sites to discover what artifacts reveal america's past. history book shelf with the best

known american history writers, looking at the policies and legacies of the commanders in chief. in history with top college professors devilling into the past. series featuring archival films through the 1930s 0s, c-span 3, created by the cable tv industry nd funded by the local cable and satellite provider. watch us on hd, like us on and follow us on twitter. >> each week, american history artifacts visits knew sooems and historic places. next we take you under the for a tour rooklyn of the new york transit museum by the museum's director, gabriel shubert. so let's put it into some sort of an exhibit that people can

enjoy in the year of the bicentennial. so this had been moth balled. wasn't being used. squirrelled away at a few yards. turnstiles were squirrelled away few places. the people who worked here were able to organize bringing all of he cars to the station and opened the facility as an the new n -- called york city transit exhibit. it was only supposed to stay pen from the fourth of july to labor day of that year, 1976. but we never closed so it was popular and we've grown it from then until now into really a world class museum is very much about new york city's infrastructure and the history of the development as a world class city. as you walk down the steps from entrance, you find yourself in a 1936 decommissioned new station. subway how did that come about? well, there were three general subway construction. started.s when it all

the first line opened in 1904. in that era, the design style bozart style. so you see on those lines of the ornamentation, very ornate, beautiful decoration. second phase happened in the at that time, the artistic style that was most in arts and crafts style. so you still see a lot of we have more so straight lines, beautiful colors, straight linebacks and clean angles. in 1930s when this station was built, we are now in the industrial age. industrial design was what was in style. and so the style of architecture seen in this station is very basic. industrial. the mosaics that you see are not decorative, they're just about facts.the they're directional and nstructional and informative rather than decorative. 1936 station was built in

and it was meant to be the first stop on new york's first attempt avenue subway. there had been three attempts. we're in the third right now. will make it.ne the first attempt, this station -- i'll show you on a begins.e how it if you look out here to the rockaways in brooklyn, this is ind r as the line of the extended. nd this line went all the way to downtown brooklyn here at stop which e next was going to be the first stop of the second avenue subway was street station. that's where we are now. the line was going to make go lf a right-hand turn and to the far east side of manhattan and become the second avenue subway. many times in ambitious government projects, money, and so this station was stubbed. see a cinder block wall there that stops the subway

system there. connect to the station that's still in service. a the other end, there's cinder block wall so it never got built. an e're standing in exhibition called steel, stone, and backbone, an introductory explain to our visitors how the subway system came about, how it was built. you'll see this way, interesting facts about new york at the turn of the century. a picture of new york on the lower east side where both all ess, residential, and of the population was copps traited when the subway system was about to be built. take a look at this map here which shows you the population in new york city, the dots indicate where population was most concentrated. th was concentrated below 14 street in manhattan. -- lived and had to, most people did, on the lower move.side, you couldn't the streets were filled with

people,horse excrement, tenement buildings with bad unsanitary type of conditions. had to livee people and work because there was no way to go and live somewhere to and get into the city work as we have now. eventually, finally, it took a finally the city fathers agreed that politically there had to be a subway. to be able nly way to survive and thrive and ultimately because the center of commerce, culture, and business that it is today. what is new york city all about? how are we going to build a subway system? topographical and geographical conditions in new york city that we have to consider in order to be able to build a subway system. so there's a topographical map of new york showing you a lot of hills and cliffs in upper manhattan. in the middle part of manhattan flat. but new york is a city of islands. so if you're going to connect together se islands with a subway system, you have to do a lot of underwater

tunnelling. are three methods of building the subway system that become prominent. one, is blasting through rock. one is doing underwater tunnelling to get between the is nds of manhattan -- this an image of the sand hog who has had to go underneath water, live compressed air, terrible conditions. possibly contracting the bends putting his health at great risk to a tunnel underneath the rivers of new york city. other method of subway construction was called cut and cover. digging cally entailed a trench in the street, covering t over with wooden planks, building a concrete tube which is what the subways would go through, the subways would run through. laying track. and then ultimately replacing the street above. that's called cut and cover. those are the three major methods of subway construction. to show this picture because this is an

example.ng the tailor had to have his building shored up done by the were system as they building the subway. but if he saw a crack in his building, he's likely to go to of transportation and say, hey, you guys build a ubway, there's a crack in my building. the subway builders were shrewd and photographed all of the they started re the construction project. so we would say we've got a our files with date on it before you started building, before we t crack started. don we don't owe you a penny, my friend. all of the photographs were taken for insurance purposes but it leaves us with this terrific sense of what our history is like. by archives is used scholars, by filmmakers, by dvertisers, by students, by authors. because it is a wonderful -- it of the ives you a sense history of new york city based on all of the contract drawings

that we have. maps of how the subway was built. and how it ultimately was extended. photographs that showed what he city looked like as the subway was built and after the attempts and projects to expand the subway system. we have a terrific collection of documentation in our archives. here shows you this was a labor march to get better workers s for the building the subway system. the subway was built mostly by immigrants, italian immigrants, and african-american immigrants. italians were he able to get jobs based on their connections to either towny hall the pedrones system, which italians were getting jobs based on who they bosses were.the the african-americans were stuck with the worst paying jobs. it was basically those three

ethnic groups that built the subway system. little bit shows a equipment they had, the hard hats they wore, the they pails and canteens used to keep the system going. the sub waive system was built 1900. not a lot of power tools. the system was built with picks nd shovels and really basic hand tools and horses pulling away carts of debris and spoils. a pretty basic operation. and yet, was the first subway built in four years. so it's kind of astounding how that came together. a typical guy who was working on the subway system with a shovel in his hand. what did he earn? what was he able to buy with his earnings? a little chart of the different jobs that were involved in building the subway system. teamsters and the drivers made the most, the water boys

made the least. this is what they could buy with wages. a beer was five cents, a hot dog as five cents, a hat, $2, and hair cut was 10 cents so that gives you a bit a sense of what work on the o spubway before there were strong unions and what money could buy ith your dollars in 1900 and 1902. in this section of the we get to the final phase of construction, which is putting the finishing touches on this station. you can see a lot of beautiful mosaics. you can see again this is the irt. first one that was built. so check out all of the ornate eautiful plaster decor in the ceiling here. interesting light fixtures, beautiful mosaic tiles that just tell you where you are, but also really decorate station walls.e the most beautiful station of all was the first station on the the old city hall station in lower manhattan. the mayor's nt to office in city hall.

the mayor said i want the station near my office to be the beautiful and show what civic pride is able to produce when you do public works projects. so, this station has beautiful ornamentation. it has vaulted ceilings. it has beautifully colored tiles. leaded glass skylights to bring natural light to the station. it has a beautiful oak booth brass grille in front of it. even though there's simple design element to these that are really quite charming. closedy hall station was because as the trains got longer and longer, and there's a very, this xtreme curve on station, which you can see just from this photo, and when trains six cars to ten cars, they are -- there was not enough room for that train to in to this station.

it was not safe because the was so strong. so between the cars, there was the big gap to get to the train m, plus the entire couldn't fit into the station at one time. o basically, it stopped being used and it was moth balled at some point, the transit museum to restore it and make it an historic site. we're seeing and people love getting in there. the transit system runs tours to be aers but you have member before you can get on one of the tours. here we are on the lower level we he transit museum where have the really magnificent and unparalleled collection of elevated bway and cars. again, what makes the transit museum unique, there are many museums, when you visit a railroad museum generally to to walkhe car, you have up about eight steps to get to the height of the wheel to get into the car itself. so here we are in station that the cars are actually in the environment where they were

running, where you would have to them, where you still access them if you're in new york. so it makes it very realistic. we've got cars here from many different eras. i'm going to show you the oldest one. they range from about 1900 up until the 1960s. o here we are with one of the jewels of our collection. this is an elevated car that was the ng in 1900 before subway system was even built, this was an elevated car. it's made of wood and if you just take a step inside here, i can show you some of the it.ures of here is our air conditioning system. what is it? it's an actually open platform can stand on in the very, very hottest days of the summer and get the cold breeze to cool you off. there were no fans, no air conditioners in these cars. ust a lot of people on a hot summer day. these are very elegant and cars.iful you can see here that the glass etchedconductor's cab is

with the letters brt, which stands for brooklyn rapid transit. the seats are made of ratan. here was not plastic in those days. there was not fiberglass in those days. and i think people may have a little better then than they do now. of the he upholstery seats is made of rattan so that held up fairly well in those days. >> these are hand holds. canvass.ade of and if you look at these, you can sort of understand where the term strap hanger came from. because now they're made of metal or they're just a metal but in these days, there were leather or canvas straps to.y could hold on the lighting is incandescent.

the ads are old and invoke of time when life was simpler and perhaps people thought themselves more innocent in some way. it's very interesting to see the ad. you see some products you recognize, campbell's soup is of nd today and a lot products that have -- that have still a -- heinz is product that we use today. also the configuration of the seats is interesting. faced each other, didn't seem to mind that so much. today we're all completely in our electronic devices and books and newspapers and we're not looking at anybody. in the 1900s, that seemed to not be much of an issue and gladly faced one another and maybe even talked to each other, who knows? in 1888.was built it's the oldest -- it's one of that runs onhicles electric power that still exists in north america. car because the bi was ansonia derby and

birmingham. it ran in connecticut. electric locomotive and we brought it to complement o show the earliest uses of electricity and mass transit. the caboose number 60 is the we have in the transit museum that represents the two railroads that are part history that we talk about here, the long island railroad and metro north railroad. caboose is from the long island railroad. it ran for a long time, it had many, many years of service. you'll see if you look inside it's got a number of amenities for the crew that was running train. so there's a bed where somebody on a long run can rest. bathroom, sink, there's a cook top stove, and there's a table to sit and for running the le train were taking their breaks. so it's a really wonderful part the collection and represents, again, we would love to have railroad vehicles here at the transit museum. because we're in a subway

station, our ceilings are so railway cars fit into the site because they have higher ceilings. his little caboose helps us remember the railroads that we represent. this is what we call the motor truck. this is what runs the subway cars. so there's usually two of the underneath the carriage of each car. if you see that hole in the iddle, there's a stem on the bottom of the carriage of each car that fits into the hole. motor what connects the to the carriage. you can see the wheels right here. are the wheels that ride along the running rails. the ll them which are actual railroad tracks. so those are the running rails. what we callhis is the third round. and it's power that runs through the third rail and a third rail shoe which is right here. his plate takes power from the third rail and pulls it into the motor to run the train. o that's a very, very simplified and basic explanation of how a subway car actually

runs. this car 6095 is a triplex. it's three cars connecting together. i can show you how they connect together right here. but these doors would close at one time. you can see they would swivel around in the disk in the floor there. connected. less power, potentially, that it takes to move that along. but it's interesting because this technology is coming back. and there's now discussion about the g doors that connect trains so that passengers can move between one car and another. that, but there's talk of changing the technology and the design of the cars to in the future. in service from 1928 to 1965. a 40-year run that were. trains the stainless steel car as you see looks very different and a little more modern than the

other cars we've looked at so far. car was built in 1949 in anticipation of the second avenue at the second subway. and this is going to be the car of the future, the modern car. its price tag was $100,000 per car, which was unheard of. it was dubbed the $1 million car. because if there were ten cars n this train, it was going to cost $1 billion to build. it had various interesting ewfangled modern elements to it. the stainless steel walls of the car. ventilation systems. fluorescent lights. stainless steel hand holds. these round sort of funky porthole windows. of these modern elements to the car. this car train ran as a year.ype for about a and then they opted not to go ahead and build the car in to specs. so this is really a rare vehicle

that we're standing in now. was never s car built. so there are only one or two of these cars left. right here in the transit museum. so it's an interesting attempt at modernization that ultimately in a different direction as the technology for car building changed over the years. car was built in 1961. and you can again see some of car, the nts from that future experimental car. and, again, fluorescent lights, ventilation systems, the aluminum hand holds, so you can see some of the elements from carry over. but the seat configuration is different. the seats are made of fiberglass. so they're not made of rattan anymore. hey're much more utilitarian looking. that i. >>er not quite as comfy and cozy the older carsom from the earlier years. my guess is more of the to do with the propulsion of the car and the way the motors work. explain it to you, but that's my guess.

as you know, there were two worlds fairs in new york city. one was in 1939, one was in the 1960s. there were two subway cars specifically to take people out to the world's fair. one.this was it was a refurbished -- it was a refurbished elevated car. made of wood. it's painted with the world's fair colors which were orange and blue, which are now the of the net-- mets, of course. would take you out to the number seven line to queens to the world's fair. refurbished, elevated car, it's kind of beautiful in its way. show you another worlds fair car down there for the 1964 worlds fair. is called the blue bird. it was used to take people out to the world's fair in 1964. along the flushing line. and it took millions of people out to the world's fair in queens. and, again, you can see that the blue and sically the orange which were colors of the world's fair.

streamlined logo which, again, was indicative of the design sense of the time. a modern car here with fiberglass seats, fluorescent air conditioning, metal hand holds, with a very industrial kind of look to it. ♪ it's the subway special that takes you there ♪ ♪ there's a good time feeling in the air ♪ on the subway special to the world's fair ♪ ♪ trains are easy anywhere ♪ ♪ any time night or day ♪ cents ♪ay 15 ♪ and you're on your way these ads are '60s looking, looking., early '60s because, again, that's when the cars were being used. series that derful were designed by a woman who

worked for the subway system and created this series called the subway son. she hey were cartoons that drew that were basically about etiquette, that were trying to better people to behave but coaxing them gently and kindly. so she had a whole series of that ic little cartoons tried to get people to use better manners when they were riding the subway. typical element of a 1936 ind station. it is the signal tower. you may wonder why it's called a tower when it's underground. but that's what these things are called. it's because signal towers were yards.for railroad but a lot of times in the subway system, they have to be nderground as they're controlling a railroad that also functions underground. so you'll see a signal board interlocking system which actually is in realtime showing you where trains are in system that connect to this

white station. cars ue lights indicate that are in stations. the green lights indicate cars that are in motion. lights on the far right are these cars that are here in the transit museum. this is an interlocking when trains switch from one track to the driver of the motorman is not making that happen, rather, it's happening tower operator who actually controls the switches and controls when a train goes track to another. ow we're in an exhibition called on the streets which is about surface transportation which to us transportation geeks means transportation that's not underground. and we have a timeline in this that takes us from the early 1800s when mass transit came about. and the first form of mass transit was a horse drawn trolley. so it's really a carriage with eight or ten seats in it. and a driver and a horse and

somebody is rung that and charging you a fare to get on get from one place to the other in new york city. so that's our first form of mass transit in new york, very interesting. developed in this section is a traffic ntersection where kids with play and sort of see what it were a ok like if you bus driver. so there are two buses that kids and adults -- because plenty of to do it, can sit in the driver's seat and see what to drive one like of these big buses. the bus fleet is gigantic. 5,000 obably close to vehicles and it's a really well maintained and a fleet that's be consciousard to of pollution control and the environment. o when you ride mass transit, whether you take the train or the bus, you are contributing to you're bility because not using your car and you're taking up far less of a carbon someone who's in an individual form of

transportation. so that's another reason why champions of mass transit here. >> in new york city, people have a choice of arteries of transportation. certainly, the most important means within the city is the subway. almost any section of the city is within easy walking distance of a subway station. and by subway, one can travel to most points in the city. quicker and cheaper than by any other way. subway system is the circulatory system of new york city. not have become the world class capital of the world that it is today without its subway system. allowed the city to expand and to develop as you built the subway system, you got more real estate. and so the city was able to beautiful residential neighborhoods and people had a ay to get to the two central districts in order to get to work. without the subway system, you ouldn't have skyscrapers, you couldn't have a concentration of culture and business that you

have in new york city without the subway. and so to look at the old cars basic see what -- how technology was, but how based on a neighborhood it was is a heartwarming k, aspect of what we do here. it's that this subway -- the take the trains that we are a part of our lives. they're a part of our neighborhoods. they're part of the fabric of means to live in an urban environment. and it's a very important way, about o teach people sustainability. again, if you're taking the train or you're taking a bus, your carbon ng footprint. that's a very important lesson that we think kids and adults learn.o so i think that the history that we see here in the transit museum is very basic to what new all about and how new york city developed. >> the new york transit museum nonprofit organization administered but not funded by

mta or metropolitan transit authority. other view this and all american history tv programs at c-span.org/history. on break ongress is this month, c-span's primetime features a wide range of political views and topics. this week, a debate on america's greatness, veteran's health detectives for the centers of disease control and prevention. e visit the press club for the future of news and we take a history tour looking a the civil war. through imetime monday friday at 8:00 p.m. eastern and let us noe what you think about the programs you're watching. 202-626-3400 or you can e-mail us at comments@c-span.org. join the c-span conversation, like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. this week while congress is in ecess, watch american history tv in primetime, each weeknight at 8:00 eastern, american tv will feature a variety of topics on the early

merican republic, jewish history, world war ii, and sports history. and let us noe what you think about the programs you're watching, call us at e-mail us at r comments@c-span.org. conversation, n like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. tv, ext on american history the architect of the capital, talks about the role of builder and steward of many of washington, d.c.'s most iconic buildings, including the supreme court, the library in congress, and the buildings near the capitol. e discussed the preservation projects including the dome work to repair 1300 deficiencies in iron structure. this event was hosted by the smithsonian associates. runs an hour and 15 minutes.