“Tracking History of our Subways”

You have to love the Post’s adept turns of phrase. Oops — did I say the “Post”? I meant to say the Official Newspaper of the Subway’s Centennial Celebration.

Today’s special insert follows the story of the subway system, including an interactive site for aficionados.

The special section collects notable movies and songs relating to the subway and adds a nice “Did you Know?” portion including the following nuggets:

Early IND cars had light bulbs with reverse-screw threads to prevent passengers from stealing them for home use.

The first woman conductor was hired in 1917, when many men were overseas for WWI. They were dubbed conductorettes.

New York’s 468 stations are only 35 fewer than the combined total of all other subway systems in the country.

Frank Hedley, an early and influential subway executive who was born in England, introduced British spellings to the IRT. Everyone else had dispatchers. The IRT had despatchers.

A hat-grabbing fad developed in the 1920s. Mischievous riders would snatch hats off of men standing on the platform. The fad declined after a grabber was accidentally killed.

The longest ride (without a transfer to another train) is the 32.3-mile trip on the A train from 207th St. in Manhattan to Far Rockaway, in Queens.

The New York subway system has approximately 6,400 cars.

The day with the highest ridership was Dec. 23, 1946 when 8.87 million fares were collected.

New York’s subway system uses enough power annually to light the city of Buffalo for a year.

The F and G train stop at Smith and Ninth streets is the system’s highest station — 88 feet above street level.

The station which lies the deepest below ground is the 1 and 9 stop at 191st Street in Manhattan — 180 feet down.

There has never been an I, O, P, U, X or Y train. I and O were never used because they might be confused with numeral one and zero. P was likely skipped to prevent embarrassing travel directions like, “You can take a D at Columbus Circle, or you can take a —.” Well, you get the idea.

Before holding lights, dispatchers used a system of loud bells and gongs on the platform to signal the trains to leave. The last gong survived into the 1970s at the 111th Street station on the 7 line in Queens.

(Research assignment: What was going on December 23, 1946?)