New York City Opens Its First Subway 4th grade · age 9

By Simit Patel · published October 26, 2026

On opening day in October 1904, thousands of New Yorkers rushed to ride the new subway. What were these riders thinking as they lined up to go underground for the first time?

The source

Things Seen and Heard Along the Underground: Experiences Here and There of Nascent Subwayites

The New York Times · October 28, 1904

About this document

As the reading described, the New York City subway opened on October 27, 1904. Huge crowds packed the stations. At the Fourteenth Street station alone, about 1,000 people pushed through the entrances in just the first six minutes. For most of these riders, it was their very first time going underground to catch a train.

The next morning, October 28, 1904, The New York Times published an article about what people said and did on opening day. Reporters listened to conversations on trains and in stations and wrote down the funny, excited, and sometimes nervous things riders told each other. The article included comments from all kinds of New Yorkers — congressmen, subway workers, families with small children, and even one gray-haired man who was too scared to ride and planned to save his nickel ticket for five years.

"I don't see why you've got to get a 'Subway Eye'", he said, when he had completed the trip. "On the locals, it doesn't affect you to look outside at a wall of dull white and the expresses run so fast that you don't know what you see."
"Mark my words," said the observant citizen, "the Subway is going to boom the newspaper business. When you get in, there's nothing to look at except the people, and that's soon a tiresome job."
"You ride like the wind," said an envious Congressman from Chicago, "but it smells like a cellar." "Yes," replied a New York. "We ride like the wind, and there may be an underground smell to your sensitive nostrils, but what a relief from crossing half of Illinois breathing the odors of the Chicago River."
"I didn't mean to come down here," said the unwilling patron. "The crowd brought me with them. I want to get out. I'm timid. I saw them build the Ninth Avenue elevated, and was sure that there was bound to be a terrible accident. I used the surface cars for five years until one day I was in a dreadful hurry and went down town by the elevated. I've ridden that way ever since. In five years, I may get my nerve up and ride on the underground. I'll save the ticket until then."
Included in the crowd that gathered around City Hall Park in the afternoon... was a woman clad all in black. She managed to persuade an officer to let her inside the lines, saying she "just must be the first woman to ride in the tunnel". When the procession entered the station, however, she found a less kindly policeman, who made her stand aside. She departed in tears.

Glossary

locals n.: trains that stop at every station along the route. (excerpt 1)
expresses n.: trains that skip some stations to go faster. (excerpt 1)
observant adj.: good at noticing things. (excerpt 2)
boom v.: cause to grow quickly. (excerpt 2)
tiresome adj.: boring, dull. (excerpt 2)
envious adj.: jealous, wishing you had what someone else has. (excerpt 3)
nostrils n.: the two openings in your nose. (excerpt 3)
patron n.: a customer or rider. (excerpt 4)
elevated n.: a train that runs on tracks built high above the street. (excerpt 4)
clad adj.: dressed, clothed. (excerpt 5)

The New York Times. “Things Seen and Heard Along the Underground: Experiences Here and There of Nascent Subwayites.” nycsubway.org, October 28, 1904, https://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/Things_Seen_and_Heard_Along_the_Underground_(1904).

Your turn

Setting the scene

What has happened in our unit story by the time this document was created?

What does it say?

In paragraph one, what does the rider say you see when you look out the window on the local trains and on the express trains?
In paragraph two, what does the "observant citizen" say the subway is going to help sell more of, and why?
In paragraph three, what does the Congressman from Chicago say about the subway, and how does the New Yorker answer him?
In paragraph four, why does the man say he ended up in the subway station, and what does he plan to do about actually riding the subway?
In paragraph five, what did the woman in black want to do, and what happened to her at the end?

What does it mean?

In paragraphs one and three, both riders use words about speed — one says the trains 'run so fast' and the other says 'you ride like the wind.' Why do you think the newspaper reporter chose to include so many comments about speed? Who was the reporter trying to impress, and what did the reporter want readers to feel about the new subway?
In paragraph four, the reporter calls the scared man 'the unwilling patron.' Why do you think the reporter used the word 'unwilling' to describe him? What does that word choice tell us about what the reporter thought of people who were afraid to ride?

What did the author assume?

Which assumption about what matters most in transportation do you think The New York Times would agree with?
A. Speed is the most important thing about the new subway — it doesn't matter much that there is nothing pretty to look at underground.
B. Having nice things to look at out the window is the most important thing about transportation — speed doesn't matter much if the ride is boring.
Which assumption about the new subway's future do you think The New York Times would agree with?
A. The subway is just a fun, one-time adventure that most people will soon forget about.
B. The subway will become a normal part of everyday life in New York City and will last for a long time.

Write your answer

Use The New York Times article about opening day on the subway to answer our question: On opening day in October 1904, thousands of New Yorkers rushed to ride the new subway. What were these riders thinking as they lined up to go underground for the first time?

From New York City Opens Its First Subway, a 4th grade history lesson on Pallas.