Investor's Business Daily, March 30th, 2007
To William Barclay Parsons, civil engineering wasn't just about crunching numbers and solving technical matters.
It was far more. He saw his career choice as "a tool for expanding America's wealth and power," Clifton Hood wrote in "722 Miles: The Building of Subways and How They Transformed New York."
Parsons (1859-1932) was instrumental in huge public works projects that enlarged America's commercial stature. In addition to consulting on the Panama Canal, he helped build the Cape Cod Canal in Massachusetts and hydroelectric plants across the U.S. He also charted a 1,000-mile railway in the heart of China and built docks in Cuba.
His most stellar achievement was designing the first stretch of New York City's subway system, now 720 miles. Completed in 1904, Parsons' phase consisted of 21 miles of train tracks through Manhattan and the Bronx. Its immense size and technological innovation helped it become a model for other rapid transit projects.
Parsons showed extraordinary leadership skills in the project. On top of his immediate staff, he supervised up to 7,700 construction workers. Problems popped up along the way; at least 50 workers lost their lives and many others were injured due to accidents. But Parsons stayed calm and focused under pressure.
"Parsons was hardly an amiable or engaging man, and he had little personal warmth," Hood wrote. "But this stern, demanding patrician nonetheless drew first-rate engineers to his side, inspired their best work and earned their ... loyalty."
One journalist described Parsons as a "born general and diplomat" who was "as thorough as a machine."
From the time Parsons opened an engineering firm in New York in 1885, he was fascinated by rapid transit. He mostly wanted to design a massive subway system that would alleviate foot and horse carriage traffic above ground.
He drove himself hard to do it. He reviewed topographical maps of Manhattan and hiked through city neighborhoods to determine the best route, power motive and construction methods for an underground railway.
He then presented his case to subway proponents. He wrote letters to New York Mayor Abram Hewitt, explaining the need for an underground system. He also met with real estate developer William Steinway, who headed a commission researching a subway in New York.
His lobbying paid off. Parsons was appointed deputy chief engineer of the project in 1891.
Other engineering contemporaries doubted that someone so young and inexperienced could handle such a detailed project. Furthermore, underground rapid transit and Parsons' favorite means of power, electrical traction, were in their infancy in the U.S.
"Some of my friends spoke pityingly of my wasting time on what they considered a dream," Parsons said.
Even Parsons questioned electricity's possibilities, and didn't rule out steam or cable power. But he refused to veer from his goal. He traveled to Europe, then at the forefront of rapid transit operations, to acquire technical savvy.
Parsons gave himself an eclectic education to bolster his cause. He saw a steam-driven railway that encircled the perimeter of Paris; the digging of a cable-powered underground railway project in Glasgow, Scotland; and an electric elevated system in Liverpool, England.
He absorbed all the specifics he could, thinking how he could apply them in New York.
He also visited London, where the world's first electrically powered subway was opened in 1890. The trains traveled just 13 miles per hour, but Parsons saw that electric power had many advantages over London's two steam-underground systems.
Upon returning to the U.S., he proposed to his commission an electrically powered underground rail system in New York.
Parsons then outlined how deep to build the subway. Unlike the soil in London, where clay allowed for building tunnels an average of 50 feet below ground, Manhattan's geology consisted of schist, a hard substance that impeded tunneling at a similar depth. He knew that the distance from ground to bedrock varied widely, 20 feet in one spot and 163 feet in another, for example.
One way to avoid the schist, Parsons thought, would be to build tunnels as far as 200 feet below the surface. After more intense research, he determined that doing so would require installing expensive elevators, escalators and ventilators.
He thus opted to build 15 to 20 feet below the surface by excavating a trench in the street. Such a project would be one-eighth the cost of a deep tunnel and yet yield a stable structure, he surmised.
To guarantee ease of travel, Parsons designed the route in the shape of a Z.
It began with a loop near City Hall, proceeded north up to Grand Central Station, then westward to Broadway and along Broadway to 104th Street.
From there, the line continued north along Broadway to Kingsbridge, then eastward under the Harlem River through the Bronx to the Zoological Gardens.
Five of the 21 miles consisted of elevated track.
It was unveiled on Oct. 27, 1904.
This story originally ran Jan. 8, 2002, on Leaders & Success.
Copyright 2007 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.
