I went on the Atlanic Tunnel tour back in 2008. I still remember climbing down that ladder in the middle of Atlantic Ave with cars wizzing past me. Bob Diamond led the tour and actually got actors to come down and re-enact events related to the history of the tunnel. I talked to him about the mythical locomotive rumored to be hidden behind the wall, and I almost offered him my number and my free time to help out if he ever needed volunteers to come with shovels to dig it out . I feel lucky to have met him.
As kids, me and my brothers discovered a concealed crevice that opened into a cavernous abandoned train tunnel in Brooklyn. Although it' was 60 years ago, I still remember the fascination, and the excitement - believing we were the only ones who knew of it's secret existence. - Blessings
you are exactly right the us government controlled the tunnel systems in nyc for years just like a communist country it’s really sad and bs at the same time
I stumbled upon a tunnel, some 450’ long between two buildings out in the desert of El Paso, Tx. One of the buildings, long abandoned, was part of a tuberculosis sanatorium.
@@DavidBrown-bp4iq most of the time I misspell because my brain is moving faster than my fingers and then I forget to proofread. Mostly because I'm in a hurry.
The photo of the Waldorf at 15:39 is of the original hotel at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue, the site of the Empire State Building, not the current Waldorf on Park Avenue north of Grand Central Terminal.
Wow that's just fascinating like the work done in New York alone makes me feel like they were already rear like some of the mudfleed videos etc blow them mind x
While many tunnels are constructed due to a need for concealment, many are also constructed due to a lack of suitable ground other space to be used for the purpose of the tunnel. many are also built for the sole purpose of protection from the weather or other items from the sky.
Tunnels were not forgotten, that is absurd. These tunnels are a monumental feat of engineering and brickwork. Where did all the bricks come from? There was a limit to how many could be produced until 1895. These tunnels were already here, plain and simple.
Why do you feel like you have to add artificial specks and scratches to old pictures and videos? I don't need to be told they are old images, at least not like that.
Why wouldn't they turn those old post office buildings into affordable housing?? Doesn't New York desperately need that? Or any housing, just don't let it rot. So many things I don't understand About govts.
There are also Tunnels in all Armories around NY, which are interconnected and are also connected to all major Cathedral in the 1800. Example is the Brooklyn 13th regiment “pro patria armamus” building linking to the Bedford Ave armory and the Eastern pkwy & Forth Hamilton facilities
The "FDR Car" myth has since been debunked. While he may have actually used track 61 to get to/from the hotel, the car left down there was nothing more than a Metro North work car. It was pulled out about a year ago, and it's now up at a railway museum in Connecticut
"GHOST STATIONS"?... YUP! You're right. The first "subway" in Manhattan was actually right next to CITY HALL. It was run with trains pushed by a PNEUMATIC system. A giant fan literally blew the cars threw the tunnel. It, of course didn't prove practical. However? Part of that tunnel WAS incorporated into the actual, new, electric powered subway. Riders can still see it if they look closely through the windows as the train passes by it. Also? The MTA has a window set in the pavement where curious visitors can look down into the retired , forgotten tunnel.
the city hall station still exists and every so often there are tours. (with a long waiting line to sign up) There are still some trains going by the station as well, but since the lights are usually off there's not much to see.
I think you're confusing tunnels. The pneumatic tunnel ran on Broadway on the west side of City Hall and was completely obliterated with the construction of the Broadway subway line (today's N, R, W trains). The City Hall station that runs beneath City Hall is still there, but not open to the public unless there's a tour, and is generally used to turn southbound #6 local trains back north.
Seriously, City planners everywhere actually make a point of deliberately siting University Campuses or Schools and Parks specifically wherever Mental Asylums, Work Houses and graveyards had once stood. Liverpool University is near me and this is the case here. Bit weird innit?
I saw a documentary news story in 2021 about a New York man who discovered old documents about a Steam locomotive that ran in a tunnel under Manhattan NY. The story goes on that the locomotive remained under Manhattan in a tunnel that was sealed up. He thinks he knows the location of the tunnel, which must be accessed by a street manhole as he claims the tunnel is sealed. He entered the tunnel without city permission and thinks he found a sealed wall he thinks the locomotive hides behind but he has not succeeded in getting permission or clearance to take down the wall he thinks the locomotive hides behind.
I think this has to do with the Atlantic Ave tunnel in Brooklyn... they touched on it on the opening story, I was surprised that the narrator didnt mention the possible hidden locomotive.
@@Honeydwarf85 ... it may look totally intact but after 50 - 100 years down below I doubt it's even close to serviceable. IOW, most of the moving parts no longer move due to rust.
While the incident you mention in 1845 may be the first usage of a 'cut and cover' construction for a railway tunnel, the building of tunnels with the 'cut and cover' method goes way back with known example from the early Roman period and some that could be even older.
People live in those tunnels, trust me. I lived in N.Y. in the early 90's. I'd see people going home in2 those tunnels over, & over again all over the boroughs.
Great video! So which tunnels appeared in "Ghost Busters II." & "TMNT 2?" I'm sure they were fictional but I was fascinated by both stories that had abandoned subway lines and stations, as a kid.
There's a lot of abandoned N.Y.C.T.A Subway Tunnels, some still with tracks and are used for car storage for rush hour trains. I've even heard about an abandoned tunnel linking the Staten Island Rapid Transit (SIR) with the BMT 4Th Ave line (N & R Lines) at 59Th St in Brooklyn. From what I've been told, the Tunnel exists but no track was ever installed. This was because New York Governor Smith, back in circa 1918, defunded this project and ordered the portals on both sides to be sealed with concrete. Rumor had it that Gov Smith owned shares of Stock in the Pennsylvania Railroad. The PRR was the arch rival to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the B&O was the "Parent owner" of the SIR. You could still see evidence of where the Staten Island Tunnel would have connected the two lines at both the Brooklyn and Staten Island sides. At 59Th Street, if your waiting for a train in either direction, look at the tunnel wall of the local tracks and you'll see where the tunnel portal was covered with concrete. On the Staten Island side, if you take a ride on the "Toonerville Trolley" as the locals call the SIR. When your on the train travelling to Tottenville, looking to your right, departing the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, just before the train goes through the 1880's built rock wall tunnel underneath the old Coast Guard Station, there's a "newer" concrete slab that you'll see next to the existing tunnel portal. That's where the other portal was sealed off in the late 1910's early '20s. From what I understand, there's a proposal to finish this tunnel that was started about a hundred years earlier. This is probably because since 1991, the St George to Tottenville portion of the Staten Island Railroad has been an "isolated" rail line, no longer being connected to the National Freight Rail Network since freight activity on the North Shore Sub had been abandoned in early '91.
It was old City Hall Station, built in 1904, in Ghostbusters 2. The station is still there & there are occasional tours, but it’s not often. I was lucky to see it in person. Feels like being transported back in time. The Staten Island to Brooklyn tunnel, was never connected. The approach into the river was dug out slightly into the water on both sides, but was shut down before it got too far. A shame that shady politics & business interests, kept it from being fully realized.
The "FDR Car" was never his car, it's a baggage car that used to be used to carry mail and luggage on passenger trains, when that chapter of its life was up, it was used for "Maintenance of Way" work where track workers would use it to store tools or whatever they needed before eventually being put in that track for storage and was left there since it stayed out of the way in that location.
FDR used this secret and sealed off means to gain access to the hotel, away from curious eyes, because he didn't want the American people to see him helplessly ensconced in a wheelchair, especially after he shamelessly, maliciously and with vicious criminal intent, manoeuvred our country into WWII by getting us bombed at Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese.
Usually, the problem is the liability. Deadly gases can collect in tunnels. People who work in tunnels for the city usually need special confined space training and carry special equipment.
I didn't remember that McCarren Park had a pool. I guess it was a concert space still when I was there in the early mid 2000's. It was magical to see in its former glory--great upload! Thanks It's History :)
We have train tunnels in Preston UK, looking very similar. Even to width, stone lower and brick arch. It even runs below the new police station. Apparently, they may re open it.
You missed the Gimbel's tunnel, which used to connect Penn Station to the 6th Avenue subway, as well as the 6th Avenue tunnel, in which you could walk from 34th St to 42nd St.
I remember the 6 ave tunnel from 42 to 34st. A woman was assaulted in that tunnel. She must have sued the pants off the MTA ,because soon after that the MTA closed ALL the subway walk thru tunnels possible.
I remember reading the story about the Atlantic Avenue locomotive, I had an email conversation with the guy who ran it and he said there was no possible way for him to access it, he died recently too
When I was a kid in the 80s going to elementary school blocks away every year we would get to take a tour of The Atlantic tunnel the tour guide was convinced that it had simply been run into a side tunnel and walled up
It was taken over by the English after the Dutch lost a war back in the mid 1660's. It was a territorial concession. The English then renamed it after The Duke of York. Not many people know this part of history.
It has been documented elsewhere, that the trackage under Park Avenue and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel was used for FDRs entourage and security detail in private rail cars to drive his limousine onto a freight elevator, going directly to the Presidential Suite at the hotel, when he visited NY from Washington, DC during his Presidency. Obviously, the railcars used for this purpose would not have been left at Grand Central Terminal.
As a former Station Supervisor with the London Underground your post is very interesting. London had a lot of help from you guys back in the late Victorian period. All the cut and cover lines are a direct link between our cities sub surface rail systems.
You NEED to watch Dark Days. It's a documentary about people who used to live in the Freedom Tunnel section in the mid 90s Amazingly eerie and humbling doc.
I saw it....Amtrak took it over, and a station shell was built on 61st or 62nd St with the anticipation of running Metro North's Hudson line through Penn Station.
Grand Central Terminal is the Trains and Grand Central Station (inside GCT) is the Subway. A train terminal is basically a dead end track. Trains only enter the station but don't pass through to continue on tracks to another station.
@@Johnny_Tambourine Technically, Grand Central Station is the Post Office. 42nd St - Grand Central is the Subway station. Most people call Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Station, which was the name of the previous station, which was replaced by GCT over 100 years ago.
Depending on how you define a "Subway" the Cobble Hill Tunnel is the oldest in North America but not the world. The Wapping Tunnel in Liverpool, UK was bored through sandstone deep under the city in the 1820s for rail traffic between there and Manchester. The whole line was not underground but it can arguably be considered the blueprint for all other "Subway" enterprises in the 1800s. Their engineers showed it could be done. Liverpool also had the first electric "El" train in the world before developments in NY and Chicago.
Thanks for this info, I was surprised that New York had an underground railway tunnel before the UK and now your reply seems to confirm that the UK was to all intents and purposes a world first. Most interesting video though.
@@TheMercian London opened their first subway in 1863, almost 2 decades after the Cobble Hill tunnel described in this video. But what I'm saying is the Wapping tunnel is even older than both of 'em.
@@TheMercian Not really... it depends on the definition. Those other tunnels have no underground *stations* along their length... thus the Metropolitan Railway (now part of the London Underground) is the first.
When I was a boy, my friend lived in a pre-revolutionary house in Jericho, Long Island, NY and in the cellar was a tunnel used for escaping if needed. My friend and I tried to open the gate to explore, but his father would not unlock it, he said it was dangerous.
Bob Diamond's tours of the tunnel (via that manhole on Atlanic Ave) were well known and had been going on for years before it was finally closed down. What happened was that he allowed a party to happen inside the tunnel, which raised the ire of the fire department because there was only 1 exit out of the tunnel. Because of that violation, he lost the right to hold events in the tunnel and the tunnel was resealed. He never did find out if a locomotive was buried at the other end.
I've personally been in the tunnel system of a long abandoned hospital. The former 12-story main building itself has been long demolished, but some of its outer campus buildings including the old powerhouse still remain. What also remains is its extensive underground tunnel system. I also know of someone who was investigating an extensive long abandoned underground tunnel system when they gained access to the sub basement of a building. I don't remember if the sub basement had power, but they said it was largely untouched including restrooms. The big type of round sink found in old industrial installations, locker rooms and storage areas and mechanical areas with boiler and water handling equipment. Interestingly, when attempting to go up the steps they found the stairwells to be filled with rubble. Same with the elevator shafts. They also found one section of the basement with much newer foundation pilings and a "waterfall" of now dried concrete that had poured from above running down one of the walls. As it turns out, the building that the sub basement had one served had been demolished unbeknownst to the demolition crew or the builders of the new building that sat on one corner of the old property the sub basement actually survived the demolition and remains intact to this day.
Yeah I’ve been to New York City many times; I just love it there; Many awesome people and lots of stores to shop in ; The subway is also awesome to ride 👍
I got to go on one of those Atlantic Ave tours and still have the (very old) videos on my channel. They're in my old RU-vid video archives playlist if you want to find it.
Bob Diamond past away some weeks/months ago - in a novel that stimulated Bob there was a link connecting the Atlantic Ave tunnel with John Wilkes Booth - look it up
These are not "lost and abandoned." This is where the zombies live. And the Turtles. And Lex Luther. And The Beast. And people wonder why NYC is so weird....... 😱😵 And peopl
Bloomingdale Rd. is in White Plains NY, not new york city. On Bloomingdale Rd. There is a mental health hospital which was once known as Bloomingdale insane asylum. Oddly enough, there is a Bloomingdale's department store on Bloomingdale Rd. in White Plains.
We used to go every year when I went to elementary schools in the 80s (I went to ps29 blocks from the cobble hill tunnel) and it was just as you described,he would just pop the unlabeled manhole cover and we would just walk around down there
Bottom part of a tunnel is built with huge rocks, top is finished with brick, 2 civilizations made and used them and it wasnt us, we did not build those tunnels, they were dug up.
You can see part of the last tunnel from one of the park Avenue corner, there's some part of the sidewalk replaced by metal fence and you can see part of the tunnel
There are no blueprints for alot of these tunnels! Several.years ago, there was a gentleman, who would lead tours of visitors down there. He'd pop open a manhole in the middle of the street and before the light would change, they'd all.skiddadle down there..I really should have gone! I will regret that all my life. I should have signed up for that little tour.
With all the tunnels and subways underneath New York, why do the buildings on ground level remain standing? It seems to me they should fall down under their own weight.😢😮