Subways under the East River are much on everyone's mind in these post-Hurricane Sandy days. Avery Classics owns a rare portfolio of plans for an unbuilt subway line that would have run from the southern tip of Manhattan to Brooklyn, published by the Manhattan Underground Railway Company, ca. 1891.

The portfolio includes maps of the areas that the proposed line would have connected, as well as plans, sections, and elevations of stations along its route.

It was donated to Avery by Andrew Alpern, whose collection of architectural drawing instruments is part of Avery's Department of Drawings and Archives.