In 1904, the first rapid transit subway opened in New York City.

The last decades of the 19th century saw a flurry of inventive, creative, industrious activity in America. The city of New York was no exception, engaging in a wide variety of ambitious public works projects. Among these was the development of a rapid transit system, beginning in the 1870s, with elevated train lines that were financed with private funds. In 1894, the plans for a publicly funded subway line were approved, and construction on it began in 1900. In 1904, mayor George B. McClellan started the first train, and New York's first subway train was on its way. The first line was 9.1 miles long and had 28 stations. The next year, the line was extended to the Bronx, then to Brooklyn in 1908 and Queens in 1915. Today, although many of the original tunnels have been abandoned, New York's subway system is the most extensive in the world.

Xpeditions
Paris Scope (6–12) carries visitors through the city in a virtual version of the Paris Metro. At each station, visitors learn a bit of history and see how changes in the patterns of human settlement through time have shaped the Paris of today.

In Building A Greek Subway Museum (3–5), students investigate ancient Greek artifacts and artworks and design museum exhibits to be placed in an Athens subway station.

In Ancient Greece (K–12), students design a new subway station in Athens that will include a museum of ancient artifacts, artworks and ruins. For background information, they examine a map and an article about an actual Metro Museum in Athens. In addition, this activity contains links to related lesson plans, notes and resources for parents and additional learning activities for both older and younger children.

ARTSEDGE
The aim of Traveling Collage (K–4) is to enable students to combine a variety of media to create meaningful images from their personal context in conjunction with some form of transportation, such as a subway, from their community. Students focus on the elements of line and tone in their drawing; the elements of texture, shape and color in their torn paper work; and the principles of repetition, movement and balance in their finished collage.

Science NetLinks
In Making Objects Move (K–2), students study the motion of objects and then create a structure that can be used to move an object from one place to another. They are encouraged to observe and test their structures, revising them as needed. As part of this lesson, students also make many discoveries about how and why objects move.

EconEdLink
San Francisco Area Transit Strike (6–12) covers the San Francisco Bay transportation system and how the employees there went on strike. The lesson addresses the question of how people got to work while BART was on strike. Students make a list of all forms of transportation one can substitute for BART services and address the question of what happened to the price of the other forms of transportation during the strike.

In Who Pays for City Hall? (K–5) students learn that city governments provide goods and services by collecting taxes from citizens. Students discuss the different goods and services such as public transportation, fire departments, police departments and parks. They also learn about different ways cities raise funds such as income tax, sales tax and license fees.