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n2doc

(47,953 posts)
Fri Apr 19, 2013, 05:25 PM Apr 2013

Photos of Massive Underground Caverns Being Dug Under NYC


It’s obvious that building a subway station would consist of digging a very large artificial cavern under the earth, but actually seeing one in progress is pretty incredibly. And thanks to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Flickr stream, we can.

The MTA of New York has been building the Second Avenue Subway’s future 86th Street Station for some time now, and they’re keeping the public up to date on the stations progress through photos courtesy of photographer Patrick Cashin.

Here are a few of those photos:




Read more at http://petapixel.com/2013/04/18/massive-underground-cavern-being-dug-right-under-new-yorkers-feet/

I can just hear Glenn Beckkk now "The Obama Administration together with Mike Bloomberg is building secret caverns under NYC...."
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Photos of Massive Underground Caverns Being Dug Under NYC (Original Post) n2doc Apr 2013 OP
Simply amazing! nt Earth_First Apr 2013 #1
Wow... amazing pics. redqueen Apr 2013 #2
Very cool... SidDithers Apr 2013 #3
Underground NYC is a very fascinating subject Hugabear Apr 2013 #4
VERY cool! Thanks for sharing, and I can hear beckkk, too! nt babylonsister Apr 2013 #5
Early in my career (in the 1970's) I worked on City Tunnel No. 3 badtoworse Apr 2013 #6
Check out this video of some of the blasting being done: NYC Liberal Apr 2013 #7
Didn't they find a Dutch ship recently by digging around underneath? Wednesdays Apr 2013 #8
Why do I get the feeling Bane lives here? Initech Apr 2013 #9
Did you know Alfred Ely Beach built the first subway in the 1870's? It was lost to time for decades. KittyWampus Apr 2013 #10
Beauty and the Beast Catherine Vincent Apr 2013 #11

SidDithers

(44,228 posts)
3. Very cool...
Fri Apr 19, 2013, 05:35 PM
Apr 2013

are they using CATs to dig the whole thing? I would have guessed some sort of huge boring machine.

There was a good documentary on Discovery (I think) about the Niagara Tunnel Project, where a 40ft daimeter tunnel was bored right under the city of Niagara Falls, on the Canadian side. The tunnel diverted water from above Niagara Falls to the Adam Beck generating station, and returned it to the Niagara river below the falls. The digging was done by this ginormous boring machine, called Big Becky:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Tunnel_Project

Here's Rick Mercer's take on the TBM:



Sid

Hugabear

(10,340 posts)
4. Underground NYC is a very fascinating subject
Fri Apr 19, 2013, 05:51 PM
Apr 2013

I read a book awhile back - can't remember the name - about the extreme labyrinth of tunnels underneath New York, all the different abandoned subway tunnels, and how entire communities of people were living down there.

 

badtoworse

(5,957 posts)
6. Early in my career (in the 1970's) I worked on City Tunnel No. 3
Fri Apr 19, 2013, 07:00 PM
Apr 2013

It's a water supply tunnel that runs from Van Cortland Park in the Bronx down to 79th Street in Central Park then turns under the East River into Queens. The tunnel is 26 feet in diameter and at its deepest point (under Roosevelt Island) it is close to 1,000 feet underground. It was designed to withstand a direct hit from a thermonuclear weapon.

It was very cool working heavy construction like that, but it is also very dangerous. IIRC, the average at the time for that kind of tunneling was about one fatality per mile. When I left in 1976, we had lost 20 men in 12 miles of tunneling.

Most people have no idea how amazing NYC's infrastructure is. They take for granted that lights always come, water always comes out of the faucet and sewerage is properly treated. They'd be blown away if they knew what it takes to make that happen as reliably as it does. I'm in the electric power business; I know how it's done, but I'm still amazed that our power supply is as reliable as it is. Same goes for water, subways, etc.

Wednesdays

(17,249 posts)
8. Didn't they find a Dutch ship recently by digging around underneath?
Fri Apr 19, 2013, 07:05 PM
Apr 2013

A Dutch ship from the early settlement days of the early-mid 1600's, I think. Maybe they'll find more interesting stuff?

Initech

(99,915 posts)
9. Why do I get the feeling Bane lives here?
Fri Apr 19, 2013, 07:08 PM
Apr 2013

"So you think darkness is your ally. You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it!!!"

 

KittyWampus

(55,894 posts)
10. Did you know Alfred Ely Beach built the first subway in the 1870's? It was lost to time for decades.
Fri Apr 19, 2013, 07:11 PM
Apr 2013

No one remembered until a crew working on the modern one stumbled onto it while working. It was decorated like a palace.





Timeline:

1867 - Alfred Ely Beach demonstrates his pneumatic railway principles at the American Institute Fair at the Fourteenth Street Armory.
1868 - Digging begins in the basement of Devlin's Clothing Store on Warren Street.
1870 - February 26: Inauguration of the Subway.
1873 - Subway closed due to lack of riders.
1874 - Tunnel is converted to a shooting gallery and then to a storage vault.
1896 - Death of Alfred Ely Beach.
1898 - Destruction of Warren Street Station.
1912 - Reopening and destruction of the Beach tunnel by the workers digging the BMT tunnel on Broadway.

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