The Transatlantic Mobility of Transport Technologies: the Americanization of Underground Railways (Boston, 1897 and Buenos Aires, 1913)

Abstract

This article reconstructs, from a transnational and cultural history, the way in which Boston and Buenos Aires early introduced a system of underground railway for urban public transport which was invented and applied originally in London (1863), becoming Boston the first in the Americas (1897) and Buenos Aires (1913) the first in South America with this transport system. It observes how ideas, capital, expert, technologies of transport circulate between Europe and the Americas. How material, political, and cultural aspects shaped urban infrastructures is also explored. Moreover, it discusses the contribution of the historical perspective to analyse the global circulation of infrastructures and its territorialization in cities between late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.

Keywords

• buenos aires
• boston
• underground
• technology mobility
• transnational history