Tremont Street Subway

A Überwerfungsbauwerk in today untapped southern part of the tunnel with rise to Pleasant Street.

The Tremont Street Subway is a tunnel of the subway system in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. He was put into operation on September 1, 1897, is the oldest subway tunnel in North America. Originally the tunnel was built to separate the trams from above-ground traffic, but not the creation of a metro. Today the building is the central part of the Boston Green Line, connecting the station with the park Boylston Street and Government Center.

At the beginning were served through the tunnel stations on the Boylston Street and Park Street, and the squares Scollay Square and Adams Square. But when in 1963 the stations Government Center and Boston City Hall were put into operation, the station at the Adams Square was closed and completely renovated at the Scollay Square and rebuilt that. At the same time the northern tunnel towards Haymarket was rerouted, but get the south tunnel in the original. Today, the Tremont Street Subway is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark.

Closure of the southern tunnel section

In the original state in 1897 consisted of a main tube of the tunnel below the Tremont Street, which ended at the Park Street and a fork to the south had. The up -turning to the west branch is still used today and runs at the Boylston Street toward Back Bay. The other tube was further below the Tremont Street and led by the increase Pleasant Street Incline to the surface ( shown in photo at right). This section tram lines led southwest toward Egleston via Tremont Street and southwest toward South Boston on Broadway. Although the tram lines were discontinued in 1961, the tunnel section exists to this day.

The original entrances were located in the Boston Public Garden at North Station and at the Pleasant Street. The other additions at Copley Square and east of Kenmore Square were closed as part of the extension of the route.

Power supply

From the start, the Boston subway used electrically powered trams with overhead lines, which was made possible by the invention of the roller pantograph in 1880 by Frank J. Sprague. Today, a modern system will be used.

Property rights

Original owner of the tunnel structure was the private West End Street Railway and later the Boston Elevated Railway. In 1947, the tunnel went into public ownership over to the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which was re-established later than today's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.