Papers get nostaligic as groundbreaking nears

This groundbreaking for the Second Ave. Subway took place in 1972. It was the first of what will be at least three such ceremonies for this ill-fated line. (Courtesy of Neal Boenzi/The New York Times)

Thursday is fast approaching, and those of us eagerly expecting the Second Ave. Subway can rejoice for Thursday is Groundbreaking Day. Or the third groundbreaking day, if historical accuracy is your thing.

So with this momentous day for the city’s subway system fast approaching, the newspapers are starting to get all nostalgic on us with retrospectives on the other groundbreaking ceremonies for the Second Ave. Subway line.

The Times started things off today with a giant A1 article on the history of the line and the groundbreaking ceremonies. It’s a must-read if you want a succinct history of the Line That Almost Never Was. The best part is a tongue-in-cheek take on this week’s ceremony:

Gov. Eliot Spitzer and a host of dignitaries will descend through a sidewalk hatch at Second Avenue and 102nd Street, a block south of the spot where Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller and Mayor John V. Lindsay held a groundbreaking in October 1972. They will go into a never-used section of a three-decade old subway tunnel, stretching from 105th Street to 99th Street. The governor will give a speech, hoist a pickax and take a few cracks at the concrete wall, symbolically beginning the construction where it left off in the 1970s.

As Times reporter William Neuman notes that the project may actually be completed this time, former Mayor Ed Koch shared the best quotation of the day. “I have no recollection of that day,” Koch said. “I do have a recollection that the Second Avenue subway — the first shovel went into the ground when God created the earth.”

Over in the tabloids, The Daily News investigated the remnants of the first attempt at building this subway line. A five-hundred-yard stretch of tunnel from 99th to 105th Streets has lain dormant and forgotten since the early 1970s, but soon, it will again see life. As Pete Donohue wrote:

All but forgotten for two decades, the 99th St. tunnel had fallen into disrepair in the early 1990s because of a lack of ventilation and water damage. The MTA has spent about $15million to rehab the tunnel and install ventilation systems.

So as we look back with nostalgia on a project barely started and never completed, feelings of optimism are permeating the air. It’s an exciting time for subway buffs and transportation wonks.

But don’t worry: Politicians will still be politicians. And as with any ceremony bathed in pomp, the people that don’t get invited will complain and make a big stink. New Yorkers wouldn’t have it any other way.