February 07, 2005

What's under New York? Four questions for Julia Solis

When a fire of unknown origin brought part of the city's subway system to a halt in January, New York's attention once again turned to the mystery of the underground. Most of us travel underground everyday, yet the spaces are dark and filled with the unknown. NewYorkology turned to one of the city's experts for a few thoughts on the subway fire. Julia Solis, the author of New York Underground: The Anatomy of a City, answered a few questions by e-mail.


You've been exploring underground spaces for years -- how much has security really improved since 9/11?

There has been a noticeable increase in security everywhere, from Grand Central Terminal to the subway stations with underwater tunnels. From what I can tell, it has tightened particularly around bridge towers and anchorages. You can't entirely stop someone walking off the platforms into the subway tunnels unless the area is being monitored around the clock. But a lot of people have had problems even taking photos of the system, let alone wander around the tunnels, which is a good indication of how things have changed.


In your book New York Underground, you say that up to 700 homeless people lived in the tunnels under Grand Central Terminal a decade ago. How frequently do you see people in the tunnels these days, and do you think they pose a danger to the system?

The tunnels which used to be frequented by the homeless are not places that I've been to in a long time. I do know that the Freedom Tunnel has been pretty much cleared out and that most of the trash is gone. Grand Central has been outfitted with a number of fences to the off-limit areas and employees are on the alert. Of course someone who knows the system will still find their way around. Regardless, I don't think the homeless are any threat.


Based on what you've seen underground, care to take a guess on what could have caused the fire at Chambers Street that put the C train out of service?

Obviously whoever was chasing the CHUDs out of the tunnels went a little wild with the flamethrowers. It happens.


What is the strangest thing you've seen in a NY subway tunnel?

The large autobiographical pages by the graffiti writer REVS. The first time I came across one it blew my mind that someone would make it his mission to write up such a bizarre anecdote in a subway tunnel. It was only later that I found out the master plan behind it, namely to write a sequential page in every tunnel in the system.

February 7, 2005 09:42 AM in Architecture

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