Times Square has been defined in multiple different ways: from literally referring to the “lower portion of the bowtie-shaped traffic islands formed by the diagonal intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue, between Forty-second and Forty-seventh Streets” or simply being the center of the city of lights.
It was officially created when the Times Square station of the city’s first subway line opened. After the creation of this first subway line, many more transportation methods were constructed around Times Square. For instance, the first Grand Central Terminal at Forty-second Street and Fourth Avenue was built in the late 1860s. This terminal served as a “magnet for commercial development in midtown, drawing hotels and restaurants and other commercial activities that formed the basis of an uptown business district” (Reichl 1999). Furthermore, as commercial activity centered in Times Square, mass transit systems centered there as well: “by 1928, five subway lines, four elevated train lines, eleven surface lines, five bus routes, and a ferry all had terminals or stops on Forty-second Street” (Reichl 1999). As more transit methods built around Forty-second Street, making it more accessible, Manhattan, specifically Times Square and Forty-second Street became the focus of the entire metropolitan area.
As Times Square became the center of the booming economy, several individuals travelled to and from there. However, as the Times Square subway station became a link for the commute of multiple individuals, it also became a target for terrorists. There have been a couple bomb threats broadcasted on the news in Times Square. In a New York Times article called “‘The Tunnel.’ Depressing, Claustrophobic and Now a Terror Target,” Michael Wilson focuses on the emotions of the commuters in the tunnel and the threat the suicide bomber posed. Due to mass transit systems that were built to enforce the centrality of Forty-second Street and Times Square, it causes crowding in the station. As mentioned in the article, “the tunnel squeezes together thousands upon thousands of human beings moving from one borough to another. Traffic lanes are as rigid as those on an interstate highway” (Wilson 2017). Was it effective to have multiple subway lines to cross through Times Square? Though it is efficient to have connection from one borough to another, is it worth the traffic and crowded nature within the Times Square station today?
Though those are questions we can raise, ultimately, the urban developers and planners of the past, especially those who constructed subway lines, are the ones who shaped our transit to and from Times Square today. The construction of the transportation system revolving around Forty-second Street and Times Square in the 1930s influence the number of New Yorkers today who have to go through the Times Square subway station to go to other places in the city.
Reichl R J (1999) Reconstructing Times Square: Politics and Culture in Urban Development. Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
Wilson M (2017) ‘The Tunnel.’ Depressing, Claustrophobic and Now a Terror Threat. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/12/nyregion/subway-tunnel-passageway-bombing.html (last accessed 15 March 2018)
