Cable Building (New York City)

The Cable Building sits at the corner of Broadway and Houston Street as a relic of the era when mechanical power moved transit. Before the rise of electric subways, the Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railroad Company operated a massive underground system of continuous steel cables that pulled streetcars along their tracks. This building served as the powerhouse for that network, housing two enormous steam engines and four winding drums that kept the cables in constant motion twenty four hours a day.