New York Underground: The Anatomy of a City

by Julia Solis

Overview

Did alligators ever really live in New York's sewers? What's it like to explore the old aqueducts beneath the city? How many levels are beneath Grand Central Station? And how exactly did the pneumatic tube system that New York's post offices used to employ work?

In this richly illustrated historical tour of New York's vast underground systems, Julia Solis answers all these questions and much, much more. New York Underground takes readers through ingenious criminal escape routes, abandoned subway stations, and dark crypts beneath lower Manhattan to expose the city's basic anatomy. While the city is justly famous for what lies above ground, its underground passages are equally legendary and tell us just as much about how the city works.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781000143614
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/28/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	296
File size:	45 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Julia Solis is a writer and photographer who lives in New York City. She is the founder of two arts organizations: Dark Passage and Ars Subterranea, both of which are dedicated to exploring and exposing New York's underground passages.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. A City Built on Treacherous Rock Part 1: Utilities 3. Struggling for Fresh Water 4. In the Wake of the Croton Maid 5. An Alligator Marks the Sewers 6. A Maze of Pipe Beneath the Streets Part 2: The Subway System 7. The Secret Subway of Alfred Beach 8. Welcome to the Subway Crush 9. Ghost Stations 10. Silent Tunnels Part 3: Trains into New York 11. Moving Trains Below the Hudson 12. The Rise and Fall of Penn Station 13. The Mysteries of Grand Central Part 4: Historic Rail Tunnels 14. An Overview 15. The Lost Tunnel of Atlantic Avenue 16. The Freedom Tunnel Part 5: Underground Passageways 17. Playgrounds of the Underworld 18. Tunnels for the Masses 19. The Tunnels of Seaview Hospital 20. The Labyrinth Below Columbia University 21. The Graffiti of Dead Soldiers Part 6: Building Foundations 22. New York's Largest Foundation 23. Unusual Foundations 24. Breweries, Speakeasies, and Wine Cellars 25. The Crypts Beneath New York's First Cathedral 26. The Attraction of the Underground Bibliography, Index, Image, Credits, About the Author

What People are Saying About This

Want to know what's amazing underneath New York City? Start digging into Solis' anatomical report on the Big Subterranean Apple.
—Robert Sullivan, Author of Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants

Editorial Reviews

The subways are only part of the story that Solis tells. Herself what might be called an urban spelunker -- a person who loves to explore urban undergrounds -- she provides a tour of everything in New York from sewers and water mains to railroad tunnels and secret wine cellars built (most famously, at the "21" club) during Prohibition.
— The Washington Post

Jonathan Yardley

Does your library really need another book on New York City? Well, yes, and how about these two different and unique looks at the Big Apple. Solis, a local photogra-pher and writer, goes beneath the streets to present readers with a fascinating glimpse of the architectural wonders few ever chance to see. She features not only the subways but also bridge supports, abandoned rail stations, aqueducts, viaducts, and maxes of tunnels beow Chinatown. In the process, she covers such topics as whether or not there are giant alligators living in the sewers and the devastating effect that the 9/11 attacks had on the underground structures. Above ground, Dunn and Hood, freelance journalists based in New York City, also go beyond the usual landmarks to bring readers humorous accounts of places often overlooked in standard tour guides. How about, for example, checking out the building that has incorporated Art Deco figures of rats climbing up ropes? Or the giant Macy's sign that doesn't belong to Macy's? Will you ever think of the UN in the same way once you read about the land it was built on and its bloody history? This is a fun book to bring along with your Frommer's for a quirky, irreverent, and just plain nutty look at a great city. Both books are highly recommended for all public libraries.-Joseph L. Carlson, Allan Hancock Coll., Santa Maria, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

"Want to know what's amazing underneath New York City? Want to know about all the stuff that you'd never guess is below Manhattan, including everything from secret subway stations to cave crickets? Then start digging into Julia Solis' anatomical report on the Big Subterranean Apple, which is dark and deep and, despite eight million people living on top of it, largely unknown." - Robert Sullivan, Author of Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants

From the Publisher

All of these fascinating titles consider New York City as more than just an exterior. Throughout Greenberg's black-and-white photo essay on the city's aqueducts, storage systems, tunnels, tubes, and artificial grottos, I couldn't help but marvel that this was only the city's water system. Add the layers of sewage, rail, electricity, and gas honeycombing underneath, and what's left holding up the city? Solis has an entire chapter on Grand Central Station, where my Amtrak train came in, as well as material on tunnels, abandoned stations, the foundation of the former World Trade Center, and crypts (like the one under St. Patrick's Cathedral). Silver's 2000 update to the now-classic 1968 edition contains over 100 new photographs of all sorts of places that no longer exist: churches, restaurants, public spaces, gardens, Tammany Hall, and the Park Avenue Hotel. ." Douglas Lord, "Books for Dudes," Booksmack! 10/7/10

Library Journal - BookSmack!