Who built the NYC tunnels?

Unlike other laborers, who toiled anonymously on bridges and buildings throughout the city, the sandhogs had an iconic status in New York City. Sandhogs, or underground subway tunnel miners, in New York City, 1903.



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Tunnel workers (affectionately known as 'sandhogs') dug through the mud by pneumatically pushing cylindrical shields through the river bottom. Those shields held back the earth, making way for construction of the thick tunnel walls, built of cast iron rings filled with concrete.

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The Atlantic Avenue Tunnel is officially the world's oldest subway tunnel. This tunnel was built in 1844 beneath a busy street in the City of Brooklyn (Brooklyn did not become part of NYC until a half-century later). The Atlantic Avenue Tunnel is a half-mile long and accommodated two standard gauge railroad tracks.

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Consider just the drinking-water supply, which after 180 years of nearly constant construction flings out giant tunnels that run as deep as 1,114 feet below sea level (crossing under the Hudson River near West Point) and 2,422 feet below the surface (of the Shawangunk Mountains) to draw from reservoirs in the Catskills ...

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Also known as the Cobble Hill tunnel, the half-mile Atlantic Avenue tunnel is not only the oldest subway tunnel in NYC but also the world. Running beneath Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue, it was first built in 1844 and was sealed off in 1861.

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An estimated 100 people died in the Malbone Street Brooklyn Rapid Transit disaster. Here's how the tragedy changed public transportation in America. At 6:14 p.m., on Friday, Nov. 1, 1918, hundreds of weary New Yorkers boarded a Brooklyn Rapid Transit train at Park Row in Lower Manhattan for the ride home to Brooklyn.

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To use this method, builders dig a trench in the riverbed or ocean floor. They then sink pre-made steel or concrete tubes in the trench. After the tubes are covered with a thick layer of rock, workers connect the sections of tubes and pump out any remaining water.

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The Tremont Street subway in Boston's MBTA subway system is the oldest subway tunnel in North America and the third oldest still in use worldwide to exclusively use electric traction (after the City and South London Railway in 1890, and the Budapest Metro's Line 1 in 1896), opening on September 1, 1897.

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The Oldest Subways in the World
  • London Underground History (1863) – the oldest tube line. ...
  • The Istanbul Tunnel (1875) ...
  • Chicago 'L' (1892) ...
  • Glasgow Circular Underground (1896) ...
  • Budapest's historic metro line (1896) ...
  • The Paris Metropolitain (1900) ...
  • The Berlin U-Bahn (1902) ...
  • New York, the subway that never closes (1904)


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THE world's deepest metro, underground station is the Arsenalna Station on the Kiev Metro in Ukraine, at 107 meters deep. The world's largest metro station is Union Square Station on the Dubai Metro in the United Arab Emirates which covers an area of 67,056 square meters.

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Technically called “Tunnel Street,” the three-block-long passage is the city's only underground street, according to 6sqft. It serves as a Broadway entrance to the 191st Street subway station, which, at 175 feet underground, is the deepest in the system.

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With its 24.5 kilometers, Laerdal tunnel is the longest in the world, traversing several mountainous formations between Laerdal and Aurland, in western Norway.

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The residents of Seneca Village persisted and fought to keep their community together; however, in 1857, the city used eminent domain to forcibly remove them. The village was eventually vacated and the city demolished Seneca Village, leaving little trace of the stories and people who had occupied it.

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The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is the longest tunnel in New York. The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is the longest tunnel in New York. It is a marvel of engineering, stretching an impressive 9,117 feet beneath the bustling streets of New York City.

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Derinkuyu, Cappadocia, Turkey Cappadocia city, located in central Turkey, is home to no less than 36 underground cities, and at a depth of approx. 85 m, Derinkuyu is the deepest.

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Cappadocia city, located in central Turkey, is home to no less than 36 underground cities, and at a depth of approx. 85 m, Derinkuyu is the deepest.

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