The New York City Subway is the most geographically extensive system in the world; it is the fifth largest in the world in terms of overall ridership. The first lines were built in 1904, and many of the early stations were remarkably beautiful, with ornamental tile work and mosaics. It was not the first subway in the world, but it was the first in America, and it was the first anywhere to have integrated express and local service. The subway today has 28 separate lines covering 685 miles in track; the longest single line is the ‘C’ train, with a length of 32.4 miles. There are 6,247 subway cars in service, 490 different stations, nearly 50,000 employees, and more than 3,000 turnstiles.