Longtime Brooklyn residents or local
history buffs may be familiar with the abandoned tunnel under Atlantic Ave.,
dating back from the 1840's and rediscovered by a local resident in 1982.
From the MIT web site "The Atlantic
Avenue Tunnel,
as it is now called, was built in seven months in 1844 by the Long Island Rail
Road [Map] to relieve congestion in downtown Brooklyn. [Photos from a March
tour and a 1995 of the tunnel.] It was part of a rail network that eventually
took passengers to Boston. For mainly political reasons, it was closed not too
many years after it opened; the last train ran through it in 1859. In 1861, the
tunnel was sealed up. The tunnel is 17 feet high and 21 feet wide; the navigable
portion of the tunnel is from 1700 to 2000 feet overall.
In time, it became sort of an urban
legend, and many stories were born about it and what uses some people may be
putting it to. There were also various attempts to find it throughout the
years. In the early '80s, Bob Diamond heard about it, and became captivated.
[Images from Bob Diamond] He made it his mission to locate it, and through
several years of research and physical work, he entered the tunnel."
Photos can be seen at :
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=12s7evvm.6pu8j1a2&x=0&y=pclx19 -
click on 'View Photos'.
More details can be seen at
http://the-tech.mit.edu/~Subway/Tunnel/ and
http://www.forgotten-ny.com/SUBWAYS/tunnel/tunnel.html
Here I am climbing out - and on the right
is my wife climbing in.