Plan showing proposed route of Subway, February 1895

Beneath Our Feet: By the late 19th century, Boston was grappling with a rapidly expanding population that needed reliable transportation throughout the city for their daily needs. Tremont Street near Boston Common was the epicenter of a chaotic transit network, seeing hundreds of horse-drawn carriages, street-cars, and pedestrians during rush hour. The controversial remedy to Boston’s transit nightmare was the subway. This 1895 map shows the first route planned, from the Public Garden to North Station. On September 1, 1897, Boston’s first underground car ran from the Garden to Park Street, and the city became the first in the United States with a subway system.
Courtesy of Boston Public Library