i N Biggest Ttunmim!! m tine WrM Fred'K. Boyd Sfeveimsoini ili2 J! 1 !Jrf -- aaaHaaH Anr:f I i I U'llPiSL Ai-wSf "" aaaaaaHaaaaaaH aaaaaaUattiaCttaaaaH --i&jz&g' .ik vlU x aaH& B 'aBrafeaaH ;W -J ' - amHBlH vaa aaar?aK.uaaaBm .?? ,jMR;vr X Haaaaavy-avaaaaam &UR aYaV&mw ' aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas saPMr aaaaaW, awawawawawawawawawan Sffi" SraaY aaaaaaaaaaaaaj ir!3LjCaaaaavC MHBHHHHH Kf " HHh,"'PmS Alexander ., President FHnjxL. Hb9R E. '1 Rapid (BaBfe.K yK. Transit aHaaVaaLafl .Pmvoard AaaaaEPaVHIH aaKiv v LamA MBHBHHH n..l- ru.w.. xt IBK" JH J Au,;u,t Delmont. John D. McDonald. I aaaaaaaaaaMtt ; lH J ... . -w-i . 1 UA. KVB 3 The Financier i nu vuninicigr I Hp. . ..-&. 3 aaaaaYa' aaaav J alaawawawaYa ' VaYaYaYaYaYaYaYaYay x A LITTLE more than four vcars ago John B. McDonald, a New York' contractor, sat in the banking house of August Belmont on Nassau street. He had in his hand a contract for building the New York underground railroad on a bid of S35.ooo.ooo. Pre vious to this the rapid transit commissioners had been uji and down "The Street " searching for a man strong enough financially and daring enough speculatively to Kick such a colrssal en terprise. At lest it w.n a spectacular propositi in The citv had driven a hard ba-gam. the multi-million-iires sniffed at it The Manhattan Elevated and the Metropolitan Street Railway Company turned it down. So it was with other financiers. One after another shook his held. When the subway was mentioned they suddenly remembered that it was their busy day. From all along the line of money kings came the same answer: "It is putting goxl dollars into a hole " All save one. "I'll think it-over," said Belmont. Forty-eight hours 'later lie sent for the con tractor. "I'll go into it." said the Nassiu street banker. That is the financial story of the building of the greatest underground railroad in the world. August Belmont risked his entire fortune on a business cnture tliat some of the biggest capitalists of America feared to undertake. "How did you hive the nerve to go into it, Bel mont?" asked a friend the other day. " I think I am a good deal like a" little dog tliat I used to own while at Harvard." said Belmont. "He wasn't much on the fight, but if another dog tackled "William Barclay Parsons, Tlie Engineer him he would get hold f a hind leg and stick. I liad faith in this thing and I had faith in McDonald. I got my leg hold, and I hung on " After a few months more of waiting, the underground railroad will be complete. Today its success is assured It is acknowledged to be the greatest financial undertaking and the most remark able engineering feat in history It is more than a I'cal achievement. It is national, yes, international, in its scojie, for it lias revolutionized the rapid transit problem of the great cities of the world. In a nutshell, here is this vast rapid transit system - Extending from the Battery at the southern extremity of Man hattan island to Bailey avenue and 230th street on the west side in a long sweep of thirteen and a half miles of four, three and two tracks, and forty eight miles of single track; from 100th street and Broadway under Cen tral park, to the eiist, under the Harlem river to Bronx park and iSind street, a distance of seven miles, or seventeen and a half miles of single track. This is the Manhattan division which the contractor is about to turn over to the oerating comiuny To Brooklyn another great system is liemg pushed rapidly toward completion. It leaves the main line in Manliattnn at the foot of Whitehall street, near Battery park, and plunging under the East river, enters Brooklyn at the fool of Joralemnn street, running with two and three-track systems to Atlantic avenue, a distance of two and three-tenths miles. Thus, spreading out from the heart of the metroji olis. like a gigantic spider-web. are more than sixty five miles of single tracks, covering a distance of twenty-five miles of sjiacc to be traveled by 'trains. Mere figures arc inadequate to express the extent of this system. Never in the history of the world lias there lieen such a subway as this. The oldest tunnel of which mankind lias knowledge was built three thousand years .-go by a king of Babvlon It ran under the Euphrates nvcr. connecting the r-vd palace with the temple of Bel us It was a sh.. -w-hole in the ground comvired to this great undertaking of New York. Compared to it the famous catacombs of Rome are a series of rabbit burrows. In 1S03 when the Simplon tunnel, which pierced under the Alps and connected Switzerland with Italy was begun a JPJMTTan MM 1 111 .t -s--r - . - aaaaaaaaaaEaaaaaaaaaEaaaaaaaaaaaValaaaa Jaaaaaaaai aaaaaaPaaaaaaaaaaaaaHaW- aaaaaaaaaVa aaair raVAKaaaTaaaaSaaaV .VtL slVB BAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalalaaaaa . Group of Capitalists, "Whose Combined Rating "Was Estimated at Five Billion Dollars, to Whom Was Accorded the First Trip Through the New Sub-wax- .Among Those Present Were August Belmont, George Gould. Jacob H. Scruff. Clarence Mac Kay. James Stillman. John D. K.ochefe11er. Jr., Andrew Freedman, James Speyer. Valentine Snyder, Perry Ddmont, 'William 11. Moore. Daniel Laroonl, Cornelius Vanderbilt und George Cromwell