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Video: Diving Into Surprisingly Pretty Sewer Tunnels Beneath Bushwick

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Steve Duncan, left, and wastewater, right.

Beneath New York City lies a vast network of abandoned tunnels, caverns, nooks and crannies that the average joe will never see. But urban explorer Steve Duncan is not your average joe! As you'll see in their Undercity series, he and filmmaker Andrew Wonder really like getting dirty below grade. This week they visit the stunning Knickerbocker sewer extension underneath Bushwick!

So what's the deal with those tunnels? Glad you asked! Back in the 1880s Bushwick was one of the nation's capitals for brewing—a process which makes lots of wastewater. Initially much of that wastewater was being pushed into poor Newtown Creek, which even then had serious pollution. So a sewer extension was built under Knickerbocker Avenue to bring the water directly to the East River. Interestingly, the new sewer was one of the first to be built using a precursor to the modern tunnel boring method (as opposed to the "cut-and-cover" method). The process was so cutting edge it made the cover of Scientific American!

You can read a bunch more about the sewer (and how Duncan got in it) right over here. And, just for kicks, here's a nifty map of its run:

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Comments [rss]

  • WarOnMugs

    Why does no one ever seem to know where Bushwick is?

    Hey, Garth! This means you. Look at the map attached to the dude's video, and the locator at the beginning of it. He goes into the manhole at Kent Avenue in South Willyburg. You know that street with the dedicated bike lanes, where you can work up some speed before dodging Hassid baby carriages on your fixie? Yeah, that one.

    But anyway, he's not in Bushwick. Or really even close to it. At least two miles away, by my count. He is simply talking about tunnels that run FROM Bushwick to the East River, which is a lot closer to where he is.

  • Colin Fowler

    Wes Anderson look-a-like.

  • Eazy E

    Wonder what the environmental footprint of those sewers was?  Obama012.

  • smalll

    I watched enough to learn that he doesn't come from here. 

    He really needs to go back to Ohio.  

    I know, I know, it's getting a little repetitive.  It's just that a lot of people really need to go back to Ohio. 

  • The mid-westerners can be annoying, but the fact is that New York City probably would not have become the country's biggest city if it had not been for the Midwest.  Are you familiar with the story of the Erie Canal?  Prior to the Erie Canal,  Boston, New York, Philly and Baltimore were all about the same size population wise.  Had the Erie Canal not been built, Philly would probably have beaten out NYC as the biggest American City. 

    When the the Erie Canal was built, there were no such things as planes, trains and automobiles.  There was no practical way to get over the Appalachians to the natural resources of the Midwest.  The Canal connected the Midwest with NYC.  The small villages of  Toledo, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago became big cities.  NYC became the home port for the Midwest.  Goods from New York, New Jersey, the American eastern seaboard, Europe and South America flowed into the Port of New York and to the Midwest.  The products  of the Midwest made the reverse trip.  NYC took its cut both ways.  Why do you think it's called The Empire State?

  • No, the hard working immigrants that arrive from other countries by boat is what made NYC great.  The canal was built so you could sell your stuff to New Yorkers.  Now you just use Etsy.  Beleive me, if everyone from Ohio went home no one would miss them except the landlords in Brooklyn

  • EnglebertFlaptyback

    Like you even know where the hell Ohio is.  I like NYC, but I swear to god, you people are the most provincial bunch of whiners I've ever seen.

  • Thats because NY is the center of the universe. Everyone else just does it wrong and we are there to point this out.

  • Then as now, Bushwick Sewers Built for Beer Water.

  • chuzzlewit

    "freeze there buddy -whatcha doing with the crowbar?"
    "um,...exploring?"

  • FutureMan

    / GUY CRAWLS // /// ALL DAY // ///

  • Crawling around in sewers is incredibly dangerous unless you are trained to do it. 

    BTW, those sewers were all built with muscle power.  The men who worked construction back in those days had difficult short lives and they were paid very little.  Next time you go past a cemetery say, "Thank you."

  • robingee

    Dead people can't hear. Silly.

  • robingee

    Dead people can't hear. Silly.

  • The undead can hear..........they can type as well.

  • UnrepentantFenian

    Well played.

  • colonelcasey

    Pretty brave (or insane) to go in there without a wetsuit, Tyvek suit, or something that covers most of your body.

  • jisnotused

    FUCKING YUPPIE HIPSTER. IM SO MAD.

  • Because he's white, in Brooklyn and wearing flannel? Not once did he mention his 401K or the fact that the Pains were so much better before they had that sellout Flood overproduce their shit.

  • Well Yah!
    You sir are a hipster.  First off you are defending them, you have the ironic bad facial hair, you have a non-job and want to be "artist" and are interested in "urban archaeologists / photographers"  When , exactly, did you arrive from the Midwest?  How much is your monthly parental gentrification allowance?  Why do you need a $3,700 MacBook pro to post on Gothamist?  When riding you bike why don't you stop at read lights? Name 3 bands I never heard of and why even you will not be listining to them in a week?

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