In the early 1900s, automobiles, streetcars, and trains were competing to move people around a growing city. With population density on the rise, city government attempted to alleviate congestion by building the Rochester Industrial and Rapid Transit Railway, which opened in 1927. While the railway primarily utilized surface arteries and the recently drained Erie Canal bed, it came to be known as the Rochester Subway for the underground section that ran beneath Broad Street.
