On October 7, 1897, New York City witnessed an unusual spectacle: a black cat shot through the city’s newly inaugurated pneumatic tube mail system—a decision that would be both a testament to the system’s robustness and an eccentric experiment in feline aerodynamics. Postal lore records how this inaugural test, conducted by the United States Post Office Department, included a live cat stuffed inside a cotton sack, alongside symbolic items like a Bible and the Constitution.

The tubes, stretching 27 miles beneath the bustling city and capable of propelling canisters at speeds of 35 miles per hour, were designed to revolutionize mail delivery. From the minute the system roared to life, it was clear this was no ordinary mail run. As the cat hurtled beneath the city streets, the postal officials above waited with bated breath. According to Howard Wallace Connelly’s recollections, the cat emerged alive, though understandably dazed, from its high-speed subterranean journey. It briefly darted around the room, likely contemplating its newfound status as the first feline tube-traveler, before being gently corralled into a waiting basket.

This curious incident was a whimsical chapter in the history of New York’s pneumatic mail system, which would continue to operate until 1953, carving through distances that once took 40 minutes by wagon in as little as 7 minutes. While the system itself eventually gave way to more economical transport methods, the tale of the cat remains a purr-fectly peculiar footnote in postal history, proving that in New York City, even the smallest creatures could become trailblazers.