Public Transportation
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Overall, the Gilded Age saw many improvements to transportation. Most significantly, improvements to railroads, streets, and modes of transportation, making the average person's life easier. These innovations were the roots of the transportation systems we have in our cities today.
Subway System
In the early 1900s, real estate developers realized that the "el", the city's large train system, was not fast enough for the demands of New Yorkers. It would solve overpopulation, and spread the city out. Transportation tycoons, such as Jay Gould, Russell Sage, and J.P. Morgan, set out to plan how the subway could be pulled off. They ended up agreeing on a compromise that included a hybrid of public and private ownership, with public supervision. In 1904 (see timetable above), August Belmont opened the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, which originally ran for 22 miles. The line was immediately a huge success, carrying an average of 600,000 passengers daily. Throughout time, the track would grow to be over 800 miles, carrying over 4 million people daily. New companies began setting their routes, such as the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, which merged with the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company to increase travel range. Stations were built at all the city's major blocks and parks. In New York, the creation of the subway system most definitely had greatest historical effect on public transportation.