The railway was to be owned by the city, and built and operated under
legislation unique in the history of municipal governments,
complicated, and minute in provisions for the occupation of the city
streets, payment of moneys by the city, and city supervision over
construction and operation. Questions as to the interpretation of
these provisions might have to be passed upon by the courts, with
delays, how serious none could foretell, especially in New York where
the crowded calendars retard speedy decisions. The experience of the
elevated railroad corporations in building their lines had shown the
uncertainty of depending upon legal precedents. It was not, at that
time, supposed that the abutting property owners would have any legal
ground for complaint against the elevated structures, but the courts
found new laws for new conditions and spelled out new property rights
of light, air, and access, which were made the basis for a volume of
litigation unprecedented in the courts of any country.

An underground railroad was a new condition. None could say that the
abutting property owners might not find rights substantial enough, at
least, to entitle them to their day in court, a day which, in this
State, might stretch into many months, or even several years. Owing to
the magnitude of the work, delay might easily result in failure. An
eminent judge of the New York Supreme Court had emphasized the
uncertainties of the situation in the following language: "Just what
are the rights of the owners of property abutting upon a street or
avenue, the fee in and to the soil underneath the surface of which has
been acquired by the city of New York, so far as the same is not
required for the ordinary city uses of gas or water pipes, or others
of a like character, has never been finally determined. We have now
the example of the elevated railroad, constructed and operated in the
city of New York under legislative and municipal authority for nearly