Business History

How To Dig a Train Tunnel Under the Hudson River (from HISTORY This Week)


Listen Later

For more historical deep dives just like these, check out HISTORY This Week wherever you get your podcasts!

February 14, 1905. A stick of dynamite detonates under the Hudson River — and the ground above swallows a locomotive whole. It's the latest setback in an audacious plan to tunnel beneath the river and bring trains into Manhattan. The Pennsylvania Railroad is the largest corporation in the world, but the goopy riverbed keeps fighting back. How did they finally break through? And why are these 115-year-old tunnels still the most critical infrastructure in America?

Special thanks to our guests: Polly Desjarlais, content and research manager at the New York Transit Museum; Jill Jonnes, author of Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels; and Andy Sparberg, former LIRR manager, transit historian, and author of From a Nickel to a Token: The Journey from Board of Transportation to MTA.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Business HistoryBy Pushkin Industries

  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4

4.4

55 ratings


More shows like Business History

View all
Stuff You Should Know by iHeartPodcasts

Stuff You Should Know

78,708 Listeners

Radiolab by WNYC Studios

Radiolab

43,820 Listeners

Freakonomics Radio by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Freakonomics Radio

32,234 Listeners

Planet Money by NPR

Planet Money

30,682 Listeners

99% Invisible by Roman Mars

99% Invisible

26,263 Listeners

Revisionist History by Pushkin Industries

Revisionist History

58,961 Listeners

Sidedoor by Smithsonian Institution

Sidedoor

2,248 Listeners

Twenty Thousand Hertz by Dallas Taylor

Twenty Thousand Hertz

4,205 Listeners

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond by Pushkin Industries

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

4,107 Listeners

The Indicator from Planet Money by NPR

The Indicator from Planet Money

9,558 Listeners

Throughline by NPR

Throughline

16,497 Listeners

Against the Rules: The Big Short Companion by Pushkin Industries

Against the Rules: The Big Short Companion

9,528 Listeners

Solvable by Pushkin Industries

Solvable

570 Listeners

The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos by Pushkin Industries

The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

14,333 Listeners

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford by Pushkin Industries

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

5,109 Listeners

HISTORY This Week by The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios

HISTORY This Week

4,212 Listeners

Go and See by Lexus

Go and See

403 Listeners

Making a Killing with Bethany McLean by Pushkin Industries

Making a Killing with Bethany McLean

71 Listeners

Deep Cover by Pushkin Industries

Deep Cover

4,426 Listeners

People I (Mostly) Admire by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

People I (Mostly) Admire

2,032 Listeners

Hearing with Tali Farhadian Weinstein by Pushkin Industries

Hearing with Tali Farhadian Weinstein

79 Listeners

Fiasco by Pushkin Industries

Fiasco

438 Listeners

Bad Women: The Blackout Ripper by Pushkin Industries

Bad Women: The Blackout Ripper

1,221 Listeners

Backstage Pass with Eric Vetro by Pushkin Industries

Backstage Pass with Eric Vetro

233 Listeners

What's Your Problem? by iHeartPodcasts and Pushkin Industries

What's Your Problem?

263 Listeners

Not Lost by iHeartPodcasts and Pushkin Industries

Not Lost

436 Listeners

Car Show! with Eddie Alterman by Pushkin Industries

Car Show! with Eddie Alterman

149 Listeners

The Loudest Girl in the World by Pushkin Industries

The Loudest Girl in the World

332 Listeners

Come As You Are by Pushkin Industries

Come As You Are

376 Listeners

Started from the Bottom by Pushkin Industries

Started from the Bottom

98 Listeners

The Best Audio Storytelling 2022 by Pushkin Industries

The Best Audio Storytelling 2022

78 Listeners

The Economics of Everyday Things by Freakonomics Network & Zachary Crockett

The Economics of Everyday Things

1,644 Listeners

Where's Dia? by Pushkin Industries

Where's Dia?

263 Listeners

Charlie's Place by Pushkin Industries

Charlie's Place

68 Listeners