The power to move a city: electrification of the New York city subway system

Because the subway system is New York's largest single user of electricity, the way it was planned and built were major factors in the city's evolution to electrical power. Ever since, the technology of transit electrification and the general electrification of homes and businesses have worked together. Since the subway opened in October 27, 1904, the system has added hundreds of track miles and stations and thousands of subway cars to serve the needs of a far larger city.