First Pneumatic Subway Opens in NYC: Air-Powered Underground Train
Alfred Beach built a subway under Broadway without telling the city. He'd applied for a permit to construct a pneumatic mail tube. He built a passenger train instead. Three hundred feet of tunnel, one elegant wooden car, pushed by a giant fan. It seated 22 people. The waiting room had a fountain, a fish tank, and a grand piano. Four hundred thousand New Yorkers paid 25 cents each to ride it in the first year. Boss Tweed, who controlled surface transit, blocked every expansion permit. The tunnel sat unused for seven years. Workers rediscovered it in 1912, digging for the real subway.
February 26, 1870
156 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on February 26
Ptolemy needed a zero point for his astronomical tables. He chose February 26, 747 BC — the first day of King Nabonassar's reign in Babylon. Not because Nabonas…
Astronomers began tracking the reign of the Babylonian king Nabonassar, establishing a precise chronological anchor that lasted for centuries. By standardizing …
exécution du prophète Mani pour cause d'hérésie en Perse, le manichéisme se pose en concurrent du culte officiel le mazdéisme.
Chandragupta I took a title nobody had used in centuries: *samrat*, supreme emperor. Not king. Emperor. He married a Licchavi princess named Kumaradevi and put …
Valentinian I became emperor because nobody else wanted the job. The previous emperor had died suddenly in Bithynia. The army gathered to pick a successor. They…
Eine im Codex Theodosianus gesammelte Regelung untersagt den Handel mit Märtyrergebeinen. Sie wird in den folgenden Jahrhunderten wenig beachtet.
Talk to History
Have a conversation with historical figures who witnessed this era. Ask questions, explore perspectives, and bring history to life.