New York Subway Construction, Times Square

Excavation for the New York Subway, Times Square, New York City, looking north from the Times Building site, which was also under construction. Photograph from Robert L. Bracklow photograph collection, New-York Historical Society.

The first subway line, the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT), to 145th Street, did not reach Times Square until 1904, but the route had already been fixed in 1901. It gave New Yorkers unprecedented mobility in the city.
In April 1902, the subway company took possession of the cellar beneath the Broadway side of the old Pabst Hotel and about half of the space beneath the sidewalk on 42nd Street, for tunnel purposes. Foundations for the Times Building began in 1903 and it was completed by the end of 1904. The Hotel Astor, built between 44th Street and 45th Street, opened on September 9, 1904. The four-story Barrington Apartments is between 43rd St. and 44th St. Times Station opened to the public on October 27, the same year.

More: Map of the Subway, theaters and hotels in 1906 ►