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Driving blind: NYC subways steered by 1930s tech, paper maps and a lot of hope
Ever experience a subway delay at DeKalb Avenue near the foot of the Manhattan bridge? Thank Great Depression era-tech.
That delicate dance is managed by MTA staff behind a locked door, operating equipment invented when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the White House. Known by MTA workers as “the tower,” the subterranean signal room is one of dozens across the city that features a colorful “model board” that is reminiscent of a mid-century telephone operator terminal. In practical terms, that means when your train is stuck in a tunnel in Brooklyn due to signal trouble, there’s a decent chance someone like Castillo is hastily sifting through the old diagrams in the dingy room at the DeKalb Avenue station, figuring out how to resolve the latest problem with the ancient technology.
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