America's Largest Abandoned Subway - Cincinnati Subway Explored! 

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When I was a kid back in the 50's, I use to play in those tunnels with my friends. We lived just a few blocks away from an entrance. As kids, we use to build a small fire and make believe we were camping the forest. Someone spotted the smoke and called the fire department. Many years later, as a fighter myself, I met a Captain who told me he went on several calls like that. I never told him it was me.

Im surprised how far people will go just to spray paint a wall. That's dedication.

I'm a new railfan and this is blowing my mind that Cincinnati had subway infrastructure. Man if that was completed it could have really made a big difference.

Things not to do in a place like that: Yell hello if you aren't ready for an answer

The absolutely scariest thing you could possibly hear in that tunnel is the echo of the sound of a new padlock banging up into that steel box and clicking shut in the distance behind you.

I always feel bad for the people that spend hours and hours everyday working on these big projects, only for it to later be canceled or demolished.

“We knew our chances of getting in this way were slim.” *opens door*

As a Cincinnatian who’s spent they’re whole life dying of curiosity about the subway, this was so cool to see! As a city, we still lack decent infrastructure and I firmly feel it’s held us back as a city.

would be more scared for crack junkies than actual ghost in that tunnel

Actually did the same exploring back in the early/mid '80's in this when I was in college. The gate was very flimsy back then. The water main was there. The fallout shelter was actually in pretty good shape and was still somewhat stocked. There wasn't the graffiti.

I am genuinely surprised you guys didnt run into anyone down there.

The stations, found on the walls, are used by engineers and surveyors to measure distances along a path. 130+00 means 13,000 feet. The numbers kept dropping the deeper you went, so the concrete wall at the very end might have been station 0+00 = 0 feet. So that segment of subway tunnel would have been roughly 2.5 miles long.

Imagine being down there and you suddenly hear the subway surfers theme playing in the distance

So just a fun fact, I lay pipe for a living, and At 6:20, as far as water mains go, they are actually in good shape. America’s pipelines are all 60 years old on average, in desperate need of repair. They are covered in plastic as an attempt of further protection. Laying that line through a subway would actually be far easier than digging it up and going through the ground, trying to navigate the pipe through the literally hundreds of other utilities such as gas mains, fiber optic, electric, Cox, and AT&T lines. . That is your basic CMLC concrete lines water main. You won’t hear any water running through them as they are fully pressurized and running at 100%. The only time you’ll hear anything is when you have space or air in the line, which will allow for water splashing or the “water hammer” effect. Typically the only time you see pipe that isn’t underground like that is when you would have the pipe crossing a bridge or across a river or stream. Water lines and other utilities have to follow roads and highways, as roads will take the pipe anywhere the people are, just like the roads. Since they decided to run the water line through the subway, they would have had to install tons of pumps and sump holes, in order to drain the water if a pipe bursts. However, that appears to be a 24”-36” water main, and if it were to burst, that entire subway would be filled with water insanely fast, so multiple pumps would be necessary and tied into the city power grid, with a separate discharge pipeline, to carry the water to a lake or river.

Just imagine being stuck in the middle of that without flashlight, you have to really plan ahead of this type of exploration

I highly anticipate the days where we can have videos like this about stuff like space stations, asteroid mining outposts, abandoned research facilities on other planets, etc. Abandoned stuff deep beneath the earth has a certain charm to me, and I think that giant abandoned stuff in space would have a different kind of charm. I any case, I'll still have to wait quite some time....

I'm from Cincinnati and the subway was always a huge mystery to everyone that lived there. It's always crazy that you can still see some of the entrances from the highways and such. Such a shame they weren't able to finish it.

It’s creepy to think that they probably unknowingly encountered individuals down there who just stayed quiet and motionless

13:33, just casually ignoring the message on the wall "Don't wake it up"

Man, seeing these out-of-towers run around OTR at night time is nerve-wracking

20:55 That's no Satanic ritual, that's a ritual to summon Stan, from accounting

"At night, when we can be more bold in our search" And then walks up to an open door and gets in

I am amazed. Seriously, this vid is amazing. My second wife's father is the source of my amazement, God rest his lovely soul. He was an insurance inspector in the southwest corner of Ohio. I was an agent of an Ohio Valley power plant that dealt with insurance inspectors. From our first meeting we were able to enjoyably share both sides of the industrial insurance experience. At our second or third meeting (his daughter and I lived on the other corner of the state) he began telling me about tunnels dug into the Cincy hills, back in the late 1920s, and that there were insurable reasons for him to inspect them. He did talk about some parts were previously used as CD (Civil Defense) shelters in the 1950s , maybe even into the 1960s. I recall him stating that some areas were used for storage, and other areas for reasons he did not explain. In the vid, seeing the fiber optic assets there now, I understand. My former FIL, rest in peace mi amigo, was only telling me the truth. Insurance inspectors will insist on crawling into the depths of intestines to prove the insurability of any asset. My former FIL and all industrial insurance inspectors have my respect. Inspectors took me to places I'd rather not see again, and allowed me to make a great living doing so. The paperwork wasn't all that bad on top of the endless other duties; the company was happy and the insurers were happy. I feel very honored to have heard my FIL's descriptions of Cincy's tunnel system, and of its alternative uses over time. Alas, my time with his daughter ended very quickly, and my interactions with her dad ended in kind. He was a very intelligent and understanding man, and that makes him wise. Godspeed, Jim. I am absolutely certain that there is a report written by Jim in a file somewhere telling the insured to "immediately limit public access to subterranean assets." This video is broadcastable quality. If you kids aren't making six figures in production yet, well, that ain't right, you're that good.

Everybody gangsta until you hear the sounds of traction motors rumbling, a Wabco AA-2 horn blasts through the tunnels, echoing off the walls. Sparks appear in the distance, and a bright headlight shines through. Its here. You get out the way as a big maroon interurban car passes, with gold lettering "Cincinnati and Lake Erie". It vanishes before your eyes. The ghost of what could have been.

This was actually quite beautiful. I wish cities, towns, and governments would give guided, scheduled, LEGAL tours of these amazing pieces of our history. It's a shame that it's ignored, hidden, and forgotten. Kudos to you guys for bringing this to us.

"Hail Stan" Those poor worshippers summoned the wrong dude from Hell. They summoned Satan's derpy brother.

As someone who used to roam those streets at night (back in a different life) there are many many reasons that is locked up and prevented from being entered. If you think it's rough down there in certain areas at night then you couldn't imagine what it would be like if those same folks were in an abandoned subway. I've been robbed downtown as well as many others. I've had my face busted up needing stitches multiple times unprovoked of course. I had my upper jaw broken, my maxilary my orbital socket broken teeth broken. I had 4 different facial fractures from an attempted robbery. I've been through some unimaginable things down there, some of which only me God and the devil know about. I will be taking those secrets to the grave. Thier are things that go on downtown that very few people know about. If you know, you know. Be careful. God bless

Binge watching older Proper people explores ❤

I live in cincinnati, I CANT BELIEVE THAT DOOR WAS UNLOCKED

The pipes Artyom! The pipes, they sing!

I used to live in Cincinnati from the 1960's through the '80's, so I heard all kinds of things about the subway. But this is the first time I've ever seen the inside of the tunnels. Thanks a lot. One thing I heard more than once about the subways, other than they ran out of money before they they could finish them, was that the reason they were never open is because they found out before they could open it, that the tunnels were too narrow for the subway cars they were planning to use. In order to use the tunnels, they would have had to enlarge then first. Never found out if that was true.

i guess it never came to mind that at any given time security/ police could come by and just lock that door you went into without realizing you were inside and then you'd be trapped.

Really need to go back and set up a train whistle and high powered light triggered by a motion detector

I took this tour with friends around 1975 when I was about 15 years old. We had baseball bats with us! LOL One of our friends had been in there before and drove us down there. We parked in white castles or was it daily donuts? at 1 in the morning and walked across the street just like you did. Flimsy broken gate made it easy to get in. We walked the whole thing, the air was very stuffy. There was no graffiti and no trash. It felt like we were one of the few that had seen it then. There was metal drums and plastic liners for emergency that someone had put down there. The large pipe was there then. Everything was in so much better shape then. Duhh it was 45 years newer then.

You should have brought one of those insanely powerful flashlights. Get a picture of the "depth" of the tunnel!

Everytime I come across something about the Cincinnati subway l just get pissed that it was never finished. Instead, I have the pleasure of dealing with the ever present road construction all around the city.

Imagine if they went back to the entrance and it was locked

What if someone remember they forgot to look the door and came back to lock it while you were inside. That's the kind of shit I always worry about hah

Wow that was so much fun and so interesting!! I was born and raised in Cincinnati.. I always wanted to go check those out.. but never did.. I'm 52 now.. ty so very much for a most excellent tour! How neat to see it finally. God bless. Be safe 🙏

I've drove past this for years often wondered what it looked like. Thanks for doing this.

Glad that this channel doesn't have titles like " Exploring Slenderman Subway at 3 am challenge"

13:34 - graffiti says “Don’t wake it up”. Either a great IT reference or a creepy-ass warning.

Imagine having to call 911 for an emergency down there and realizing you have Sprint

There are also remnants of a understreet network of tunnels that exisited when there were many many breweries in Cincinnati, one section I know ran under ELm Street, but who knows if it is still there. Business and breweries use the tunnels to move supplies and goods, avoiding the pedestrian, horse and early vehicle traffic.

I've lived in Cincinnati my whole life, and I've never heard much about the Subway tunnels here. By the way, the markings that say "Sta. ## + ##" is a surveying thing. They use it for the wastewater and stormwater treatment systems, including culverts, bridges, manholes, and I guess subway systems. It's a way for the construction workers to ensure they line up the structure correctly, and it helps with locating things like manholes. Here is an example; I am currently working on a huge box culvert that will go up in Dayton, Ohio. The entire culvert is going to be like a mile long, and some of the precast pieces have different lengths on the one side than the other, so that a gradual radius can be achieved. Anyway they build the culvert in different stages, so this one is Phase B, Part 3. It begins at STA. 73 + 01.95 and I still have to determine where it will end. The number just means 7,301.95' but with just that number it's pretty much useless, but if you also know that with six precast pieces of box culvert (specific ones) that the next station should be STA. 73 + 38.08. My job is to figure this out using CAD. I know most people probably think this is boring, but I know people might be curious.

just gloss over the fact that the Satanic drawing Said "Hail STAN"

I just found out that another Cincinnati subway tunnel was completed and probably still exists. This tunnel is in Norwood, running for about 3000 feet just south of Harris Ave. from an underground station at Montgomery Rd. to a portal that was visible on the property of the Zumbiel Box Co. Apparently, the portal "was covered up" when the plant was razed 10 years ago after Zumbiel moved.

I think I said this before, but I'll say it again... you guys are great! Clear, clean, and simple video tours of very cool places I'd never know about or be able to get to. No fancy, goofy, childish attempts at superficial entertainment in your videos. Bravo! And THANKS!! I'm a starving writer, so I cannot sponsor you. Perhaps one day.

12:51, That random teal stuff in the middle is actually oxidation of copper. When copper oxidizes due to it “Rusting“, It produces a bluish green type of color. This is indication of copper breaking apart.

The Office of Civil Defense was started by FDR in 1941. It became an agency of the United States Department of Defense from 1961-1964. It was abolished in 1979 and became FEMA. So that bottle is over 50 years old

The build up from the water running down the walls reminds me of the New York City subway system. The older New York City subway system lines have the sharp turns for the reason mentioned-it followed the street. The newer lines are tunnel-bored so they can make large radius turns. New York City still has unused tunnels underground. The newest ones are under 2nd ave which were built in the ’70s. Recently, some of them opened for phase 1 of the 2nd ave subway, but other abandoned sections remain.

All of us 80s/90s kids from Camp Washington used to explore these tunnels. They were never locked. There's another access point just north of this one near Frisch's.

What would be real scary is you just hear an echo of a train and people at the subway station, but nothing is there

I’m glad this channel does proper titles and introductions and isn’t like “DONT WALK INTO AN ABANDONED SUBWAY AT 3AM (GONE WRONG!!!)”

wow this was so anxiety provoking. I wanted them to get the heck out. I hoped the door would not be locked behind them meantime!

I actually use to live very near that entrance you guys took way back when I lived off central parkway. I never tried to go in but was always tempted to. This was awesome to see something literally in my own backyard.

The grafitti gives a good clue how many other unauthorized visitors have been there.

Missed oppurtunity to sing the halo theme.

Thanks for sharing. Watched this one for the second time whilst in lockdown. There is nothing more that screams FREEDOM than these urbex vids. :)

I lived near Cincy for 27 years and this video warms my heart. Thank you! 💖

The Exit Door graffiti very deep into this tunnel, is my favorite graffiti featured in this video.

I see you Found Our Hangout... You totally missed the Tunnel that takes you to the Labyrinth of Tunnels that was the old Cincinnati Sewer System..

I went thru tunnels when I was a teenager. Thanks for the stroll down memory lane!!! Stay safe keep exploring

I’m from and live in Cincinnati, love to see this!!! Thank you

19:05 The most polite graffiti artist ever.

For future reference in order to go in during the day at your leisure, just wear hard hats and orange vests and clip on ID looking name tags, and don't forget to bring clip boards to complete the " city worker " look. It's amazing what you can get away with if you just look official, don't ask me how I know.

This is probably the creepiest location I’ve seen you guys visit! The sounds, the darkness…wow😮

Learning about this abandoned project blew my mind. Thanks for the visual exploration.

Can’t believe you guys didn’t come across anyone else while down there!

As a native Cincinnatian, I was aware of the Cincy Subway, but no where else that I've seen so far, showed more than a little of what was there. Your exploration was very well done, thanks guys.

That was really fascinating! I'm very surprised how easy it was to get into and that there are no homeless encampments there.

The Proper People This was Awesome, I have explored a whole lot when I was young but never anything Like This WOW Thank You Both!

Those deep clusters of graffiti are signs that there is (or was) another entrance nearby.

I used to like to do mini explores when I was in my 20s and 30s. Nothing like with you guys do, small abandoned houses and buildings. My crown jewel was an abandoned yacht turned restaurant. It had flooded out in the lower compartment and was still in the water. Now that I’m in my 40s I love to live vicariously through your videos and enjoy all the strange, creepy and cool places you both explore. I look forward to every video. Your channel rocks!

These videos are so professional and well done. Should be a TV show at this point.

Thank you for exploring this piece of history. I found this intriguing and engaging at the same time. I really like these kinds of videos which survey abandoned places. Keep doing the great work.

Cleveland has a abandoned subway system with the old cars still in it plus ticket booths.

I live in Cincinnati and never knew it was that easy to get in. They do tours like once a year and the waiting list is insane. Awesome video!!

Great video. Lived in Cinci for about 16 years now and knew about the system but not in this detail. Such a shame it's been abandoned for so long. There was talk about trying to pick the project back up but ended in them adding street cars a few years ago. City's infrastructure is horrible so a subway would be a fantastic addition

Nice job guys. Very physical adventure you guys performed for our entertainment, much appreciated.

I'd be scared to walk around in there honestly at least without like 5 other ppl... that's spooky as hell

I don't know how everyone feels about it but I feel that the echos of the upper traffic is creepy down there in the abandoned subway. I don't think that I could do that with my wheelchair at all.

I was born and raised in Cincy and there are SO many stories about that old subway.

I live outside the Dayton area and had heard about the large unfinished Cincinnati subway because the tunnel entrance you went into can be seen on interstate 75. Thanks for doing this very interesting video. I love to explore abandoned places but would never have the nerve to go in there and definitely wouldn't feel safe going the entire tunnel. Thanks for doing it! Awesome video!

Looks like Cincinnati would have finished the subway system after the depression ended! It would be a much welcomed transit system for the people of that city to use daily!! Tragic that it's just there in darkness.... unused.

I wish the city could rebuild and open these tunnels again one day! They might require smaller trains and more building but at least the infrastructure is already there. The city is fortunate they began building in simpler times because to do something like this to say, Dallas, would be difficult with how big the city has grown over the streets, land, etc.

You guys are awesome. I am in a wheelchair and can't explore anymore so I enjoy watching your videos. Do you ever come across hostile people? Thanks for doing what you do.

Amazing explore. Thanks for the video

I explored this in the 80s while a student at UC. A lot of people in our dorm had civil defense barrels as laundry baskets or tables. There used to be a phone jack you could plug into and call anywhere anytime. It was crazy to pop out near the kroger building in the middle of the night. The I75 entrance was quite open at the time. Sad to see it still not so used. Wonder what it would take to get something rolling there? So it goes-

I'm really surprised no homeless people live in that tunnel like they do in New York

Near the end of the tunnel which is some where around Sycamore st, there is an old entrance to the subway from the Hamilton County Courthouse. The old wooden door is still there and later on it was partially bricked in.

Another awesome adventure you guys have taken us on. Thank You.

By the way the notation you guys saw (STA 130+00) is what is called stationing in Construction, and is used for most "long" projects be they railroads, highways, sewers, etc. It's used as a milepost which would allow referencing specific locations along the length of the project. The number before the plus indicates the hundreds of feet along the roadway centerline, the numbers after the plus are fractions of a 100'. Essentially Sta. 130+00 is 13000 feet from beginning and Sta. 40+23 would be 4023 feet. Difference between stationing and dimensions is that stationing always follows the curve of the road/track, while dimensions are typically Line of sight/straight shot distances. Just figured this may come in handy, if you notice the stations going down, you can tell how long the tunnel will go on for. Stay safe guys

I toured the abandoned subway in 1970 with some college buddies. We walked the whole tunnel it took almost 3 hours. The batteries in our flashlights died just as we exited.

SOOO Cool!Thank you for showing me that!

i love when they get to the private place and the one guy takes the other guy fully and they make slushy on the one guys back and its perfect slush

9:35 please tell me I'm not the only one hearing *"help"*

What I love about this channel is not only is that they really explore and not fake it is that they tell you some facts about the place and why it was abandoned.

You can go down in these tunnels once a year through the Cincinnati museum legacy tours, but they don't take you all the way to N-75. You have to sign a waiver to go in, because that water pipe is the main for the city. They shut it off for the tour as long as the reservoir is filled. If it was to burst, they said it would fill the tunnel up in like 5-10 minutes. I've done the tour, freaky to be in the tunnel for sure!