History
Planned since the 1960s, construction of the Metro was not officially launched until the late 1990s mainly because the city did not experience an urgent need for an underground system in addition to the stalled construction due to lack of sufficient funding. Another factor was the depth at which the construction works had to be carried out: being one of the oldest cities in Europe, Sofia contains many historical layers underneath its central areas. Evidence of antiquity can be clearly seen at the Serdika Station which exhibits a wealth of unearthed Thracian and Roman ruins and modern architecture. During the construction of the enormous complex of the National Palace of Culture two stations forming part of the then future Line 2 and their connecting tunnels were built.
The construction of the system began from the route that sees the highest volumes of passenger traffic, that can easily reach up to 40,000 at rush hour.
Read more about this topic: Sofia Metro
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“When the coherence of the parts of a stone, or even that composition of parts which renders it extended; when these familiar objects, I say, are so inexplicable, and contain circumstances so repugnant and contradictory; with what assurance can we decide concerning the origin of worlds, or trace their history from eternity to eternity?”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty and death of public opinion.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)