Bob Diamond is a fascinating guy. As a 19-year-old Pratt engineering student in the early 1980s, he made it his goal to discover the long-rumored subway tunnel under Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn (the oldest of its kind in the world). Using nothing but the public library’s resources and his own moxie, he discovered what many researchers and historians assumed was apocryphal — the fated half-mile long tunnel, still in terrific condition. Diamond continues to lead tours of the site monthly — accessible via a manhole on the street (!) — where he discusses many of the tunnel’s legends, covering bootlegging, pirates, and John Wilkes Booth. I finally went yesterday and can confirm it’s well worth the long lines and $15 admission fee.
“The old tunnel, that used to lie there under ground, a passage of Acheron-like solemnity and darkness, now all closed and filled up, and soon to be utterly forgotten, with all its reminiscences.” - Walt Whitman, on the tunnel
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