Return to Past Exhibits

March 19 - June 19, 1997

The Long Island Rail Road
Streetcars
Mass Transit
The Bicycle Craze
On the Road
Bridges and Tunnels
 In Flight
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While there had been elevated trains in Manhattan and Brooklyn since the late 1800s, mass transit did not come to Queens until the early 1900s. The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) operated elevated lines which ran over the Queensboro, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges, opening up Brooklyn and Queens to development. In the 1930s the city began construction of the Independent Subway System (IND). The IRT, BMT and IND were united under city ownership in the 1940s. Today, over a billion people ride the New York City subways each year.