1905 NYC Subway footage

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This is all kinds of awesome, particularly since it looks basically the same as today. The first 5 minutes is more or less the same, but at 5:00 you can see a station full of people.

2 thoughts on “1905 NYC Subway footage”

  1. This was pretty neat. Looking at footage like this, as well as some of the original subway system in London is always interesting. Has sort of a “the more things change, the more they stay the same” feel to it (sans puffy dresses and top hats I suppose).

  2. It’s also interesting that there are not very many women. About 20% of the workforce was women then, but their wages were far below that of men (even for the same or similar jobs), so maybe they couldn’t afford the subway. A few nicely dressed women (probably NOT factory workers) do eventually appear in the film. A 2004 brochure of the NYC Transit Riders Council states: “Each train on the original 1904 subway had one car reserved for women only.” Perhaps it is still true in 1905, as it takes a few moments for the women to appear. All the men are wearing suits, so these are all “white collar” jobs. If “blue collar” workers were taking the subway, it probably wasn’t this part of the day being filmed.

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