Prisoners of Second Avenue

1929: city announces that it will build a Second Avenue subway line, part of a plan to add a 100-mile network at an estimated cost of $800 million.

2007: city starts building Second Avenue subway.  And we thought work orders for the Board of Ed were slow.

Back to 1929, the Great Depression stopped the plan until—weirdly–work resumed in 1972, then had to be stopped again because of the fiscal crisis. 35 years later, no trains run through “the tunnel to nowhere.”

Incredibly, on Thursday, April12, 2007, groundbreaking for Phase One of the Second Avenue subway was announced. The first section of the subway, which will include stops along Second Avenue at 96th, 86th, 72nd and 63rd Streets, is expected to open in 2013. After the city finds more cash, the line will extend north to 125th street and south to Lower Manhattan. Stations, the city promises, will resplend with state of the art escalators, stairs and elevator connections from street level to mezzanines to platforms.
God willing, we won’t have to exit at Bloomingdale’s ever, ever again.

– Mohammad Abu Taher