New York Subway
About New York Subway
A camera on the front of a following train looks at the rear of an IRT local from Union Square at 14th Street to Grand Central at 42nd Street. A third train on the parallel track carries the lights. Passengers appear on the platforms as the train moves through the tunnel.
Cast & crew
More about New York Subway
G. W. Bitzer photographed it on 21 May 1905, seven months after the subway opened on 27 October 1904. Three trains had to run together: the one filmed, the camera train, and the light train. F. A. Dobson is credited with Bitzer on the Museum of Modern Art record. Biograph also cut some of this footage into the comedy Reuben in the Subway.
Themes
Background
The Interborough Rapid Transit opened on 27 October 1904. This view was made the following May, before Hale's Tours put audiences in fake train cars later in 1905.
Making
The lights rode a flatcar on the opposite track. Without that third train the tunnel between stations would have been black.
Look
Bitzer mounted the Biograph camera on the front of a train and paced another train uptown.
Technique
Three trains were timed so the camera, the subject, and a bank of lights all moved through the tunnel together.
Preservation
The Museum of Modern Art preserves a 35mm negative. The National Film Preservation Foundation circulates a transfer from that negative.
Notes
- The full title used by Biograph is Interior New York Subway, 14th Street to 42nd Street.
- Bitzer stopped the camera at least once, so the ride is shorter than the real trip.
- The National Film Preservation Foundation transfer runs 5 minutes at 18 frames a second.
- A MoMA gallery label describes the same ride as four minutes.
Scenes
- The columns of the tunnel flicker past as the light train keeps pace on the other track.
Influenced
- Reuben in the Subway (1905)
