Holing Through
1929
da Loria Norman (1872 -1935)
Oil on canvas, 29 X 46
Signed lower left: da Loria Norman / 1929
Gift of the artist, 33.42

 

On march 14, 1925, at St. Nicholas Avenue and 123rd Street, work began on the Independent (IND) Subway, the last major addition to the New York City subway system.¹ This first portion of the Eighth Avenue line, running from 207th Street and Broadway to Vesey Street (later the location of the World Trade Center), opened on September 10, 1932. By 1940, additional sections of the line extended into Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, replacing some of the old elevated lines, opening new areas of the city to rapid transit, and improving existing service to parts of Queens and Brooklyn.²

This view depicts the critical moment when the two teams of workers (frequently referred to as "sand hogs" because of the soft dirt they worked in), tunneling from opposite ends as they built the fifty-nine miles of the IND line, broke through the wall of earth remaining between them. Despite the dangerous conditions suggested by the extensive structure of supporting beams, the workers appear nonchalant as they prepare the tunnel bed for the new transit facility. The somber underground setting is illuminated by naked light bulbs.

Born Belle Elkin Mitchell in Leavenworth, Kansas, da Loria Norman was a self-taught artist. From the mid-1880s to 1914 she lived in England, where she began to paint in earnest after the dissolution of an unhappy marriage. Her work includes book illuminations and miniatures executed in watercolor and gold leaf; large murals on both plaster and canvas; landscapes and mystical paintings in oil and watercolor; fine-silk picture embroidery; and illustrations for magazines and books. She also taught art in New York City.

Notes:

  1  The name "Independent" signified that the line had no connections with the existing subway lines, the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) and the BMT (Brooklyn Manhattan Transit).

  2  According to Clifton Hood, 722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992), p. 212, the IND was intended to be the "people's subway." To emphasize this point, the line's inauguration was held in the open at John Hancock Park, with the proceedings broadcast over WNYC, the New York City radio station.