The first train rolled out on October 27, 1904, at 2:35 in the afternoon, when Mayor George McClellan took the controls for the opening run. The line ran about nine miles from City Hall up to 145th Street in Harlem, with stops in between. Crowds packed the stations to ride. Some rode only for the thrill of the tunnel.
The need was plain. New York's streets were jammed with horse cars, and the elevated railways served only a few avenues. The new subway moved people fast and cheap beneath the noise, and the city grew outward along the line. Land values jumped near each stop. New neighborhoods like the Bronx filled in along the line.
The work was huge. Engineers dug the tunnels through hard rock under the busiest island on earth, and they kept the city above running while they did it, and the IRT won the first franchise and ran the cars with fares set at a flat five cents. The system spread within years. Extensions reached Brooklyn and the outer boroughs by 1908.
The subway changed how the city lived. Millions rode daily, and neighborhoods rose where the lines reached. The opening of 1904 began the network that still carries the bulk of New York. The gesture of the mayor at the throttle is still told. The ride cost a nickel for decades after.