For 10 points, name this mass transportation system in America's most populous city.
After progress stalled on this project, its chief engineer went to China to build a J.P. Morgan-funded thousand-mile railroad through Hunan.  The Steinway Plan was a design for this system, whose "father", Abram Hewitt, got the government to subsidize it.  Before building the Cape Cod and Panama Canals, William Barclay Parsons led its construction.  Scientific American editor Alfred E. Beach built a predecessor to this system in the 1860s after lying to the legislature and saying he was making a (*) pneumatic tube network.  Vandals quickly defaced the "Great White Fleet" of this system, but later in the 1980s David Gunn helped fix its graffiti problem.  Paul Shaw wrote a book on the use of Helvetica in this system's signs.  Damage from Hurricane Sandy may require a long closure of the L line of this system.  For 10 points, name this mass transportation system in America's most populous city.
After progress stalled on this project, its chief engineer went to China to build a J.P. Morgan-funded thousand-mile railroad through Hunan.  
New York City subway [prompt on New York City rapid transport; prompt on Metropolitan Transportation Authority; prompt on MTA] 