<P> Alfred Ely Beach built the first demonstration for an underground transit system in New York City in 1869 and opened it in February 1870 . His Beach Pneumatic Transit only extended 312 feet (95 m) under Broadway in Lower Manhattan operating from Warren Street to Murray Street and exhibited his idea for a subway propelled by pneumatic tube technology . The tunnel was never extended for political and financial reasons, although extensions had been planned to take the tunnel southward to the Battery and northwards towards the Harlem River . (In 1912, workers excavating for the present - day BMT Broadway Line dug into the old Beach tunnel; today, no part of this line remains as the tunnel was completely within the limits of the present day City Hall Station under Broadway .) </P> <P> The Great Blizzard of 1888 helped demonstrate the benefits of an underground transportation system . A plan for the construction of the subway was approved in 1894, and construction began in 1900 . The first underground line of the subway opened on October 27, 1904, almost 36 years after the opening of the first elevated line in New York City, which became the IRT Ninth Avenue Line . The fare was $0.05 and on the first day the trains carried over 150,000 passengers . The oldest structure still in use opened in 1885 as part of the BMT Lexington Avenue Line in Brooklyn and is now part of the BMT Jamaica Line . The oldest right - of - way, which is part of the BMT West End Line near Coney Island Creek, was in use in 1864 as a steam railroad called the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Rail Road . </P> <P> By the time the first subway opened in 1904, the lines had been consolidated into two privately owned systems, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT, later Brooklyn--Manhattan Transit Corporation, BMT) and the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT). The city built most of the lines and leased them to the companies . The first line of the city - owned and operated Independent Subway System (IND) opened in 1932; this system was intended to compete with the private systems and allow some of the elevated railways to be torn down, but stayed within the core of the City due to its small startup capital . This required it to be run' at cost', necessitating fares up to double the five - cent fare popular at the time . </P> <P> In 1940, the city bought the two private systems . Some elevated lines ceased service immediately while others closed soon after . Integration was slow, but several connections were built between the IND and BMT; these now operate as one division called the B Division . Since the IRT tunnels, sharper curves, and stations are too small and therefore cannot accommodate B Division cars, the IRT remains its own division, the A Division . However, many passenger transfers between stations of all three former companies have been created, allowing the entire network to be treated as a single unit . </P>

When was the subway in new york built