by Norman Berdichevsky

The failed terrorist plot to use car bombs in central London and in Glasgow airport almost on the eve of the July 7^th anniversary of the successful attacks on London’s underground two years ago sent a new collective shudder up and down the spines of many New Yorkers who have been fearing precisely the same sort of attack against the subway. The two systems in operation since the end of the 19th century have been an integral part of the two cities economic and social life and a veritable part of the two nations’ folklore. They have played a crucial role in maintaining and even increasing the primacy of the two great metropolitan centers of the English-speaking world. Although often contrasted as distinctive microcosms of their national environments, the two systems have drawn increasingly closer together. more…