and Queens County Railway for a similar monopoly in Queens. The IRT prepared surveys and plans from scratch. For the proposed tram service under the East River, the plans for the tunnel were modified for dedicated tram operation. The tunnel's trackbed was raised, the gradient increased, and the route shortened. The tunnel was to turn at a loop at the corner of 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan and go as far as Vernon Boulevard in Queens. There, the tram of the New York and Queens County Railway was to be connected via a ramp. These three underground stations were Lexington Avenue in Manhattan and Jackson Avenue and Van Alst Avenue in Queens. The total cost amounted to $8 million. The city objected to the tunnel project multiple times and after several disasters nearly stopped it. The westernmost of the four shafts for the tunnel was in Manhattan and was numbered #1, while the easternmost shaft, in Queens, was numbered #4. Construction began on July 14, 1905, when shaft #4 was sunk; shaft #2 on the opposite shore was sunk by September 1. Shaft #3 was sunk in the Man-O-War Reef, a granite outcrop in the East River that was expanded and renamed Belmont Island. Four workers were killed in a 1906 shaft accident under Belmont Island. The tunnel was holed through on May 16, 1907, and was completed in September of that year, after 26 months of construction. Buildings for the tunnel's construction had been erected on Belmont Island; these stayed up until at least 1918. Fifty tramcars were made available for operation through the tunnel. They possessed a -long and -wide all-steel superstructure with double-sided semi-open entrances at the ends. Power was drawn from an iron rail on the ceiling, to which the car roof's -high pantograph would attach. The cars were also fitted with rod pantographs for street operation. The first trolley trip in the Steinway Tunnel was scheduled for September 20, 1907, but was postponed due to a power failure. Shortly afterward, trolley cars ran through the tunnel as part of a demonstration run. On September 29, 1907, a short circuit on the overhead wires caused a small fire, and the tunnel was shut down. Belmont did not have a franchise to operate a transit line. The concession to operate the tunnel had expired on January 1, 1907, and the city of New York was