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The Dual Contracts

Between 1910 and 1920, the City, along with the IRT and BMT companies, undertook a massive construction project known as the Dual Contracts. These contracts provided for the expansion of the subway and elevated networks to open up areas of the city without transit service. Typical of the Dual Contracts subway station design was intricate mosaic tiling, such as this at Montrose Avenue on the Canarsie line. Photo by Wayne Whitehorne.

A New Subway Line For New York City: The Triborough System
A 1910 report on the so-called Tri-borough system, which was the genesis of the Dual Contracts. The Tri-borough plan included the Centre Street, Lexington Avenue, and the Fourth Avenue (Brooklyn) subway lines.

New Subways For New York: The Dual System of Rapid Transit
A 1913 guide to the Dual Systems period of subway expansion, by the New York City Public Service Commission. Outlines the Dual System plans, routes and stations of the new lines, contract costs, etc. (6 chapters)

The Dual System of Rapid Transit
A 1912 description of the Dual Contracts expansion published by the Public Service Commission.

The New York Rapid Transit Railway Extensions
A series of articles published by Engineering News in 1914 detailing various aspects of the construction of the Dual Contracts subway lines. (12 chapters)

Public Service Record - The Dual Contracts
A series of articles published in the Public Service Record pertaining to the Dual Contracts subway lines, 1915-1918. (12 articles)

The Steinway Tunnels
Ground broken in 1892, and not used for subway service until 1915, this tunnel was an important link in the Queens portion of the Dual Contracts.

Opening Of The Broadway Subway
The New York Times report on January 1, 1918.

Opening A New Link Of New York's Vast Subway System
This July, 1918 Scientific American magazine article reports on the opening of the Lexington Avenue line and some of the engineering problems encountered.

New Subway Lines Open To Traffic: Great "H" System Put Into Operation
The New York Times report on Friday, August 2, 1918, the day after the Manhattan IRT subway lines were extended into their full-length configurations.

The Park Place Subway Station Escalators
A 1919 report from Scientific American about the installation of escalators at the Park Place station in Lower Manhattan.

Fifty Years of Rapid Transit (1918)
This 1918 book by James Blaine Walker details the politics behind the development of New York's elevated lines, its first subway, and the Dual Contracts.

Build More Transit Lines/ Rush Hour Relief For Passengers
Two 1924 articles about the need for completion of the 14th St.-Eastern (Canarsie) and Nassau St. lines, and overcrowding on the Williamsburg Bridge routes.