Moving Elevated Sidewalk in NYC

By the end of the Civil War, Broadway was extremely congested and kept getting worse.  What limited public transit there was consisted of streetcars and the rudiments of the elevated trains above 14th Street; downtown the streets were cluttered with horses, carriages and pedestrians.  Albert Speer operated a wine store near City Hall and came up with the idea for a moving sidewalk.  He envisioned a system of conveyer belts operated by underground engines, pulled by moving cables, and held up by five or six iron pillars on every block. The conveyor belt itself would be 16 to 18 feet wide and placed 12 feet away from buildings. Store and business owners had the option to place a walkway directly to the sidewalk; otherwise passengers would enter via stairs at street corners. Along the route there would be heated drawing and smoking rooms where riders could take refuge from bad weather.  Despite the fact that it was passed twice by the state legislature and attracted the support of public figures such as Horace Greeley, the project was doomed primarily because of its pricetag of $3,722,400.  It was vetoed by Governor John Dix.   The idea stuck; the first moving sidewalk was finally installed at the Columbian Exposition in 1893 in Chicago.