In 1870, a New York millionaire secretly built a 300-foot underground railway. Decades before the city's modern subway network took shape, people forgot it existed

Long before New York City had its sprawling subway network, Alfred Ely Beach secretly built a 300-foot underground railway beneath Broadway. The project, unveiled in February 1870, was powered not by conventional trains but by pressurised air, and it was built after Beach obtained permission to dig for what the city believed would be a much smaller project.

The hidden subway ran from Warren Street to Murray Street and was designed as a demonstration that pneumatic tubes could move people as well as letters and parcels. It quickly became a sensation, carrying 400,000 riders in its first year, with each passenger paying 25 cents for the experience.

Yet the ambitious experiment did not become the foundation of New York's subway system. Political opposition and a major economic crisis eventually killed Beach's plans, leaving the small tunnel sealed and forgotten. It was only rediscovered decades later.

Beach wanted to put a railway underneath Broadway

New York's underground transit system officially arrived in October 1904, more than 40 years after London's Underground opened. Chicago and Boston also introduced rapid transit before New York.

But Alfred Ely Beach had imagined an underground railway much earlier. In a November 1849 issue of Scientific American, Beach described his idea as “Nothing less than a railway underneath, instead of one above—railway life down stairs, instead of railway life up stairs.”

His original proposal was relatively straightforward. He wanted to tunnel beneath Broadway, with openings and stairways at every corner. Horse-drawn cars would run underground, while pedestrians would have their own walkways.

The idea made sense in a city whose population had exploded. During the 1850s and 1860s, New York grew from about 500,000 people to nearly one million. Streets were crowded with pushcarts, omnibuses, horse-drawn carriages and livestock.

The railway would run on air instead of horses

Beach eventually abandoned the idea of using horses underground and turned to pneumatic power.

The inspiration came partly from Englishman Josiah Latimer Clark, who in 1853 created a 220-yard pneumatic tube between the London Stock Exchange and the Electric Telegraph Company. Pressurised air carried letters and small parcels between the two locations.

Beach later demonstrated that the same basic principle could be adapted for passenger transport. At the American Institute Exhibition in 1867, he showed that larger pneumatic tubes could potentially be used as mass transit.

His next move was far more secretive.

He told New York he was digging something else

Beach knew that Tammany Hall, the powerful political machine led by William M. “Boss” Tweed, opposed his plans. Existing horse carriages and omnibuses were major parts of the city's transport system, and political leaders publicly argued that replacing them could hurt working people.

Instead of waiting for political approval, Beach obtained permission to dig beneath Broadway for the installation of small pneumatic mail tubes.

Once construction began, however, he used the excavation for his real objective: building a demonstration pneumatic subway.

Matthew Algeo, in his history New York's Secret Subway, described the project as “a demonstration of a pneumatic subway system underneath Broadway to prove it could be done.”

And the experiment worked.

The tiny subway had chandeliers, a piano and goldfish

When Beach opened the system to the public in February 1870, it extended only 300 feet. But the underground station was designed to make an impression.

Reports described a lavish space featuring chandeliers, a grand piano and even a fountain containing goldfish. Visitors could experience Beach's vision of an underground railway while travelling beneath Broadway.

The response was remarkable. Around 400,000 people rode the subway during its first year, paying 25 cents each.

Public enthusiasm, however, was not enough to overcome the political forces standing in the way of a larger system.

Tammany Hall continued opposing the expansion, while Beach hoped that enough public support would eventually force the city to allow his project to grow.

The Panic of 1873 ended Beach's underground dream

The decisive blow came from the economy.

The Panic of 1873 triggered a severe downturn that lasted until 1877 and hit New York particularly hard. Investors withdrew money from Beach's project, leaving him without the funds needed to turn his small demonstration into the extensive underground railway he had envisioned.

Beach eventually secured the long-sought permission to continue building, but by then the financial backing had disappeared.

The tunnel was sealed.

For decades, the forgotten subway remained beneath Broadway while New York eventually developed the much larger underground network that opened in 1904.

Then, in 1912, workers constructing the then-new BMT subway line were digging along Broadway when they stumbled across Beach's old tunnel.

The underground relic had survived remarkably well. According to the New York Times, it still contained its “piano and all.”