Under Brooklyn

There is a (no-longer) secret tunnel in Brooklyn!  Bob Diamond confirmed the existence of an abandoned subway tunnel under Atlantic Avenue in 1981. 

In the late 1970s, Diamond was an engineering student with a taste for New York transit lore. He first heard about the tunnel’s possible existence on a radio show, which hosted a discussion about a book called The Cosgrove Report by G.J.A. O’ Toole.  The report suggested, among other things, that lost pages of John Wilkes Booth’s diary are hidden in a train car buried in a secret tunnel beneath Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

This tunnel is unique for reasons other than its forgotten-ness.  In fact,

• The tunnel, consisting of approximately 12 blocks of track, became the world’s first “grade-separated” transportation or “subway” when it was built in 1844.
  
• The tunnel should have been destroyed.  Electus Litchfield was paid $130,000 to fill the tunnel when it was declared a nuisance in 1850, but "instead simply capped its ends, sealed its manhole covers, and forged documents to state that the tunnel had been completely refilled."
• The train supposedly trapped inside the tunnel has yet to be found, but Diamond is confident it, along with another 6 blocks of tunnel, are behind a stone wall.
  

In related, interesting news, the tunnel was built to help solve the problem of trolley-pedestrian collisions.  These accidents were apparently so common that the original name for the Brooklyn Dodgers was the Brooklyn Trolley-Dodgers (!).

Diamond conducts 1.5-hour tours of the tunnel, and there is a documentary called, "What's Behind the Wall?" about Diamond's quest currently in production.


Thanks, PSFK.

Both the top "Atlantic Ave Tunnel Tour" image and the bottom "Atlantic Ave Tunnel Tour" image by silatix.

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