"I've always loved the descriptions of street traffic before the introduction of one-way streets in 20th century. Carts and carriages could move in any direction they wished (or the horse wished) and there were few, if any, patrolmen to control the flow of traffic at busy intersections. Add to this omnibuses (the MegaBus of their day) or trolleys, and cart-men, and it's amazing that anyone would survive crossing the street. Raised sidewalks, if you were wealthy enough to have them in your neighborhood, were built as much for fashion than safety (they help kept the horse dung in the street and off your shoes). ... When the IRT was designed, I seem to remember that there were also plans to connect all the stations with walkways, some moveable, to make an alternative, safer, streetscape for pedestrians (Seattle Underground in reverse). Stores planned to open subterranean storefronts in addition to their street-level ones (the only actual example I can think of is the K-Mart at Astor Place). So the subway could have been one long corridor with occasional trains passing through it.?meechybee ["Broadway Almost Had Elevated Moving Sidewalks In the 1870s"]
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