The Story
Here's a brief outline
on what happened. If you want to do more research, see the Links page.
Ideas dated back to 1884.
No ideas were done until 1912, but all plans had in common that the subway
would be built in the old Miami-Erie Canal.
The Miami-Erie Canal was almost never used at that time, so lossing the canal
was no major loss.
Many ideas came and went
but the plan that was built came in 1914.
The last step to getting it built was voting.
80% of the people voted for $6mill project.
Sadly, WW1 blocked the construction from being stated until 1919.
The canal was drained and workers
dug about 6-10 feet to have room for the tunnel.
Due to inflation
and economical changes, the subway was reduced in size.
Soon, in 1923, the subway was finished.
But they ran out of money to add the tracks and run cars.
It was estimated it would cost another $10 mill to finish it.
Then came the great depression in 1929. After that, WW2 came.
In the mid and late '40s plans came to finish the project.
Because of the automobile people showed no support and the project was forgotten
in the 50s.
There have been ideas to complete in the last 50 years, but none were done.
During the construction
of 1-75, the city destroyed most of the tunnel for the interstate.
The remaining 2 miles include 3 stations.
