New York Telephone - Infrastructure

Infrastructure

The company went underground in a big way in the 1920s, creating expensive new outside plant that fixed its geometry for the century to come. New cable ducts brought more reliable service to customers. They converged at approximately twenty wire centers, which were connected by larger trunk cable ducts running along the East and West Sides of Manhattan. The locations were a mile or two apart (2–3 km), close to concentrations of office workers without paying prime prices for land. At each wire center a new central office arose, usually designed by architectural firms that later joined HLW International, to house telephone switchboards, panel switches and other inside plant, and technicians, clerks, operators and other workers. The largest of these was also the corporate headquarters, at 140 West Street on the Lower West Side, about a kilometer (half mile) from AT&T HQ at 195 Broadway.

The Manhattan and Bronx parts of the underground empire are owned by the Empire City Subway Company subsidiary. Similar construction, on a smaller scale, went on in Brooklyn, Buffalo and other urban areas. Suburban and rural service also expanded, mostly with aerial cable or open wire plant and Strowger switches.