The Pneumatic Transit System

"It all started..." the day I hired that DVD. We hadn't had a DVD player in the house until I bought my new PC. I'd been wanting to have a look at the old "Ghostbusters" movie and my video store only had it on DVD. Well, here was an opportunity to catch up with an old favourite and at the same time check out the DVD functions of the PC. (To people who know me, this is [essentially] not a computer story!)

I told the kids about the movie I was going to get (they'd never heard of Ghostbusters) and they loved it. Ghostbusters fever swept the house, indeed, the neighbourhood. Well, of course, my daughter had to get Ghostbusters 2 and the next weekend, we saw videos of Ghostbusters 1 and 2 on sale in a record shop for $11 each. "This'll keep 'em quiet for a while" I thought and happily handed over the money for both tapes. (To all the other people who know me, this is [essentially] not a Ghostbusters story!)

Well, I'd never seen Ghostbusters 2 before and there was something in there that got my attention. "We're breaking through. I see some light...", began the words of Ray Stantz (played by Dan Akroyd) as he was lowered down a hole dug in one of New York's busy streets, the cavern of an abandoned railway line opening up below him. "I'm in some kind of a chamber. There's tile work... Pneumatic Transit. I can't believe it: Its part of the old Pneumatic Transit system. Its still here...", said Ray.

"Pneumatic Transit" What the...???

I wanted to know more about this alleged pneumatic transit system. Was it real or was it just something the scriptwriters made up? Curious, I hit the internet and this is where the real story starts folks. The Google boys would have been proud of me that day.

I like the way that thin threads joining together unrelated events can sometimes lead you down an interesting and unexpected path.

New York city in the mid 1800s was getting crowded. In the streets, horses, carts and pedestrians fought for space. A mass transit solution was needed. It had to be a solution that didn't make the streets any more crowded. Some people had put proposals to build an elevated transit system but it was considered too noisy and too ugly. (Now where have I heard that before?) Tunnels had been thought of before and railways were already a success but steam power was too dirty for use in a tunnel where people had to breathe. A solution to the problem was needed and electric propultion was not yet viable.

It seems one of the first (if not the first) of the subways to open in New York was a Pneumatic Railway. It was built by Alfred Beach. This man had to be taken seriously. He was the co-publisher of the New York Sun (owned by his father), an early editor of the Scientific American and a patent lawyer. He was the inventor of the cable railway, pneumatic tyre, the hydraulic tunneling bore and maker of the first practical typewriter for which he won a gold medal at the Crystal Palace Exposition of 1953. He demonstrated the principle of pneumatic transit at the American Institute Fair in 1867 for which he was awarded another gold medal.

But what is meant by "pneumatic"? What part of it is pneumatic? Well, the train carriage is made so that it closely fits the tunnel through which it has to travel and has no internal propulsion. A blower is placed at one end of the tunnel and the train is literally pushed through the tunnel by air pressure. Reversing the blower causes the carriage to travel in the opposite direction.

Beach's pneumatic subway never reached the grandiose objectives of its builder. It was constructed to a length of around 95 metres from a basement in Devlin's clothing store at the corner of Broadway and Warren Street (across from City Hall) and travelled down the middle of Broadway to Murray Street. The whole construction was performed in secret, it is understood, to avoid having to pay off New York's corrupt chief politician. The tunnel was 9 feet in diameter and the rail car was constructed to fit the brick tunnel snugly without letting too much air through. The air blower was a 50 ton fan powered by a steam engine above the ground and designed to propel the lone 22-seat pneumatic subway car at a top speed of 10 miles an hour.

The railway opened in 1870. Beach had made his station with luxurious underground waiting rooms, well lit and appointed, they included ornate paintings, a grandfather clock, water fountain, goldfish tank and grand piano. The public were impressed but his dream was not to be. The beurocrats caught up with him and years of wrangling and court cases drained him financially and physically. The short line closed within 3 years of its opening and was eventually abandoned. A large vent in City Hall park remained while the tunnel existed as a reminder.

The building that housed the station was destroyed by fire in 1898 but by this time the station had been converted into an ordinary basement and the round tunnel opening walled up. The pneumatic railway was uncovered again in 1912 during the construction of New York's modern subway. The work of Alfred Beach was recognised in a plaque on the wall of the completed city hall station which now includes part of the original pneumatic tube.

Wanna know more?

See the photos.

Ghostbusters.net, the guide to all things Ghostbusters. :)

Beach Pneumatic transit, information and links relating to Beach's early subway.

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Last Updated on 29 February 2004 by Matt Walsh.