Though few citizens owned automobiles when Mayor Hunt first planned rapid transit in 1910, their increasing usage helped fuel critics' arguments against a subway system. They began referring to the project as "Cincinnati's White Elephant." Even so, the "temporary" hiatus on construction was expected to end after the economy got better, and many Cincinnatians, including Seasongood, hoped that the subway would finally be completed. Attempts at revival There have been many attempts to complete the tunnels, but the reasons why the subway was never completed or used for another significant purpose are unclear. In 1936 the city commissioned the Engineers' Club of Cincinnati to produce a report on how to use the unfinished rapid transit property. The report could not find any use for the tunnels other than what they had been designed for. Because the city's needs had changed from twenty years earlier, the report suggested that the subway "should be forgotten". In 1939 the tunnels were researched for possible automobile traffic, but were found to be unsuitable for that use. In 1940 the city sought the advice of several experts to settle once and for all the fate of the subway. The report recommended placing all streetcar and trolley transportation underground (i.e., a subway), but Cincinnati already had too many other expensive public projects underway. In any case, the plan was put on hold yet again when the United States entered World War II in 1941. During World War II the city was focused on wartime rationing, so completing the subway was not a high priority. The tunnels were suggested as possible air raid shelters, but the idea was never implemented. Underground storage of commercial and military supplies was also proposed as a use for the tunnels, or as a pathway to bring freight into the heart of the city, but both ideas were rejected because they would delay bringing mass transit to Cincinnati. After the war ended the City Planning Commission decided to not include the subway in its plans. Instead, the commission would use the loop's right-of-way as pathways for Interstate 75 and the Norwood Lateral. Then, in the 1950s, a massive water main was laid in the northbound tunnel to save $300,000 by not digging a new tunnel for the water main. According to the engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, a redundant water main was installed during the construction of Fort Washington Way so the water