From the exhibition
Proposed Arcade Railway Under Broadway
August Will · 1870

This architectural rendering by August Will depicts a visionary underground transit system planned for New York City. The cross-section illustration reveals a multi-level design with an elevated street-level view above and a detailed cutaway showing the proposed subway infrastructure below, complete with rail lines, stations, and crowds of pedestrians. The image represents nineteenth-century ambitions to modernize urban transportation through subterranean rail networks—a concept that would eventually reshape American cities. Such engravings circulated in newspapers and journals, communicating technological progress to the public and influencing civic development discussions.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com CC0