 By 1949 , Queens and Lower Manhattan residents complained that the Second Avenue Subway would not create better transit options for them . A year later , revised plans called for a connection from Second Avenue at 76th Street to Queens , under 34th Avenue and Northern Boulevard , via a new tunnel under the East River . Connections would also be made to the Long Island Rail Road ( LIRR ) ' s Rockaway Beach Branch . New York voters approved a bond measure for its construction in 1951 , and the city was barely able to raise the requisite $ 559 million for the construction effort . However , the onset of the Korean War caused soaring prices for construction materials and saw the beginning of massive inflation . Money from the 1951 bond measure was diverted to buy new cars , lengthen platforms , and maintain other parts of the aging New York City Subway system . Out of a half @-@ billion @-@ dollar bond measure , only $ 112 million ( equivalent to $ 1 @,@ 021 @,@ 000 @,@ 000 in 2015 ) , or 22 % of the original amount , went toward the Second Avenue Subway . By then , construction was due to start by either 1952 or 1957 , with estimated completion by 1958 at the earliest . Because many people thought that the bonds were solely to be used on the new subway , many people accused the New York City Transit Authority ( NYCTA ) of misusing the bonds . 
