1902

from the Detroit Publishing Company Collection , Library of Congress

This photo of "Columbia College from the Southwest" shows the center mall of Broadway opened up for subway construction, and along the edges of the hole appear the conduit tracks of the Broadway streetcar line. The subway had to underpin the conduit track, which was kept in service throughout the digging underneath.

As completed, two subway tracks, the downtown local and center tracks, are under the mall, and the uptown local is under the street; and of course the station platforms extend under the street. The Columbia University station was originally reached from a house built in the mall on the north side of 116th Street, which was removed in 1969 when the sidewalk stairs were opened. Just north of the station the subway structure of steel bent and concrete jack arch changes to an early experimental use of reinforced concrete arch, which happens to include the area under the 117th Street streetcar crossover track.

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