The 1966 Biological Attack Against The New York City Subway System

From June 6th to June 10th, 1966 the United States Army conducted a biological attack against the city of New York Subway system. 

The New York Police Department, New York City officials, the Transit Authority, nor other US government agencies were informed of this. It was a total stealth attack. I would compare this attack with the sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system. And like any military operation, this was well planned out and well conducted. 

Subway lines and the time of day were chosen for the maximum effect on citizens riding on the New York City subway. They chose the Midtown subway lines and Lexington, 6th and 7th Avenue and also the 8th Avenue lines. 

At that time the commuter ridership would be over a million. They also calculated the total volume for the local stations which ranged from 13,000,000 cubic feet and the largest station would have over 18,000,000 cubic feet of volume.

There were two methods of introducing the bacteria. One is by throwing light bulbs filled with bacteria on the subway tracks. The other method of introducing the bacteria involved disseminating 40 G of bacteria through the street metal grades that provide ventilation for the subway system. 

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The biological agent they chose is a bacteria called bacillus subtilis var niger. This was considered a nonharmful bacteria. The personnel (agents) they used for this operation were given bogus identity cards that indicated that they were doing some type of study in the subway system.

In only very few cases were they challenged by commuters or any bystanders who were curious about what was going on. In the light bulbs containing the bacillus they also contained 30 G of charcoal to darken it so that it would not appear on the subway tracks. On each day of the attack, they measured the temperature and the humidity of the stations. They left no parameter unchecked for their stealth attack.

At that time in the 1960s June would have been a warm month and the windows on the trains would be open and the overhead fans would have been operating. They also evaluated the best time to conduct this attack which is one and a half hours during morning rush hour and 1 and 1/2 hours during evening rush hour. 

A full report of the Army attack is here and obviously, many parts were obfuscated or deliberately hidden. This attack information came to light due to a Freedom of Information request however, sources from the hacker group “Anonymous” indicate some of these attacks are still ongoing and not being communicated to the general public or city officials. The next question to ask is what were the Army's findings.

Very simply they found that the New York City subway is particularly vulnerable to a biological attack. After the attack was conducted agents from the Army conducted air sampling of different subway stations.  They did this by having air pumps hidden in leather bags that contained inline air filters. These filter sample collections were run in eight separate subway stations.

Their findings were that the samples had the highest concentration within the first 20 minutes and dissipated rapidly afterward. The filters were sent to Fort Detrick for assessments, which were performed on the filter paper to assess the population of the bacteria colonies.

Today we are often told ‘If you see something say something”. This may have helped subway riders who were particularly vigilant, but again this was a stealth-type attack and people may have just not been alert to it. Most likely today people are looking for bombs or suitcases that are left unattended. 

Another consideration today is subway cars are sealed and the windows are closed. So bacillus thrown on the subway tracks might not have a penetrating effect as it did in 1966. Also worth noting is that although subway personnel and police have gas masks for events such as this, they would only be helpful in cases where the attack is visible. 

An attack by Anthrax bacteria does not show any medical signs or illness for 1-7 days. The gas masks that the subway police and transit personnel would be useless in a stealth-type attack. 

What about an actual attack that happened on the Japanese subway system, the sarin attack? In this case, the gas masks would be useful because they would know immediately that the system was under some type of chemical attack. The gas was visible and the effects were almost immediate so the subway personnel and police could have effectively orchestrated a rapid dispersal and evacuation of the subway Riders. 

This attack was conducted by a religious fanatical group and caused many fatalities. The group studied the subway system and planned it out carefully however there was one mistake that they did make. They introduced the attack with packets filled with sarin into the subway cars themselves. Sarin is actually heavier than air if they introduced it to the subway ventilation system and it sank into the subway system they could have used the higher dosage of sarin and would have put their own people at less risk of the sarin gas.

A stealth-type attack is very viable against the New York City subway system.  Even an anthrax attack that is detectable on specialized devices would be difficult to ascertain its direction or magnitude (vector). 

In a later article, I'll illustrate a stealth-type chemical / radiological attack against a subway system.