A Sweeping New History of the Second Avenue Subway Arrives as New York Enters Phase 2

Bestselling author Dan McNichol and former MTA program executive Bill Goodrich unveil the definitive story of New York City's most ambitious transit project — featuring more than 150 stunning photographs by renowned former MTA photographer Patrick Cashin.

NEW YORK, Dec. 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Big Dig Productions announces the release of Second Avenue Subway: Building New York City's Most Famous Thing Never Built, a definitive and vividly told story of the nearly century-long effort to deliver New York's first major new subway line since World War II.

Written by bestselling author Dan McNichol with former MTA program executive Bill Goodrich, the book traces nearly 100 years of exuberant beginnings, political reversals, engineering breakthroughs and the human perseverance behind one of the nation's most consequential infrastructure projects.

Featuring more than 150 never-before-published photographs by award-winning photographer Patrick Cashin, the book offers an unprecedented visual and narrative record of the subway's transformation from a long-promised idea into a world-class transit line serving nearly 200,000 riders a day.

A Story of Ambition, Setbacks and Astonishing Engineering

Second Avenue Subway captures the drama and ingenuity behind Phase 1:

• The installation of a 500-ton tunnel boring machine under busy Manhattan streets
   
• A city block frozen solid for a year so the machine could cut safely through unstable soil
   
• The excavation of a cathedral-sized cavern, three blocks long and 80 feet deep, while Second Avenue traffic continued overhead
   
• Grappling with miles of century-old utilities, fragile building foundations and the human complexities of working in one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in America

It also chronicles the bewildering and fascinating political forces that repeatedly halted the project, from the Depression and World War II to 1970s financial crises and battles among power brokers shaping New York.

Woven throughout is a deeply human story: the residents who endured years of upheaval, the engineers who refused to concede defeat and the legendary Sandhogs whose work beneath the city helped make the impossible possible.

Why This Book Matters Now

As New York advances Phase 2 of the line into East Harlem – the city's most transit-dependent neighborhood – the authors illuminate why Phase 1 was more than a local improvement: it enabled construction of Grand Central Madison, which cleared the way for the Gateway Program and its critical new tunnels under the Hudson River.

At a moment when Americans question our ability to execute complex public works, this story offers a rare example of what collaboration, determination and engineering vision can achieve.

About the Authors

• Dan McNichol is the author of six books on American infrastructure, including The Big Dig, and has contributed to The New York Times and NPR. He served as a transportation advisor in the White House and held senior communications roles on major U.S. infrastructure projects.
   
• Bill Goodrich is a former program executive for both the Second Avenue Subway and East Side Access megaprojects. He previously served as a construction manager on Boston's Big Dig and has more than 30 years of megaproject experience.
   
• Patrick Cashin is an award-winning former MTA photographer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Daily News, Times of London and more.

Availability

Second Avenue Subway is available at www.bigdigproductions.com/#order, Amazon and the NY Transit Museum Store.

Media & Review Copies

For media kit, see www.bigdigproductions.com/s/20251211-SAS-media-kit.pdf

For author interviews, review copies or events, contact:

Joe Stanford
[email protected]
202.701.0632

Social media: 

• Instagram (www.instagram.com/secondavenuesubwaybook)
• LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/company/big-dig-productions-inc)

About Big Dig Productions

Big Dig Productions (www.bigdigproductions.com) tells compelling stories about megaprojects and the people who build them, through publishing, speaking events and public outreach.

SOURCE Big Dig Productions