VIDEO: Riding the Subway in the 1940s Wasn’t Much Different From Today
Here’s a picture of the New York City subway–mobs of commuters crowding the platforms; train cars filled to the brim; passengers blocking the train doors; people walking while reading the paper, oblivious to their surroundings. Sounds like your commute this morning, right? But believe it or not, we’re describing the subway from the 1940s. Unearthed today by Gothamist, this video from the New York Transit Museum archives shows just how little things have changed in the past 75 years.
Even the technology looks eerily familiar, because, as we know, today’s subway runs on 1930s technology, which includes still relying on pencil and paper to track train progress. Of course, some things are quite different. The video shows the old token vending machines that were located right on the platform; wooden turnstiles; and transit workers manually closing the train doors.
[Via Gothamist]
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