Cobble Hill Tunnel#Rediscovery

{{Redirect|Atlantic Avenue Tunnel|the active Long Island Rail Road tunnels|Atlantic Branch}}

{{Infobox NRHP

| name =Atlantic Avenue Tunnel

| image = Atlantic Ave Tunnel.jpg

| caption = The tunnel in 2009

| location= Brooklyn, New York City

| coordinates = {{Coord|40|41|25.6|N|73|59|42.5|W|type:landmark_region:US-NY|display=it}}

| locmapin = New York City#New York#USA

| built = 1844

| architect = Asa Stebbins

| architecture = Roman, Italianate, Queen Anne

| added = September 7, 1989

| refnum = 89001388{{NRISref|2008a|dateform=mdy}}

}}

The Cobble Hill Tunnel (also known as the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel) is an abandoned Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) tunnel beneath Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City, running through the neighborhoods of Downtown Brooklyn and Cobble Hill. When open, it ran for about {{convert|2517|ft|m}} between Columbia Street and Boerum Place.{{cite web|url=http://www.brooklynrail.net/proj_aatunnel.html|date=December 2017|title=The Atlantic Avenue Tunnel|access-date=August 1, 2009|archive-date=March 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210329191412/http://www.brooklynrail.net/proj_aatunnel.html|url-status=dead}} It is the oldest railway tunnel beneath a city street in North America that was fully devoted to rail.{{cite web|url=http://www.psfk.com/2009/03/notes-from-the-underground-the-secret-tunnels-of-brooklyn.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120910071301/http://www.psfk.com/2009/03/notes-from-the-underground-the-secret-tunnels-of-brooklyn.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 10, 2012|title=Notes from the Underground: The Secret Tunnels of Brooklyn|last=Hilger|first=James|date=March 23, 2009|publisher=psfk.com|access-date=April 8, 2009}}[http://citynoise.org/article/8748 Citynoise: Oldest Subway Tunnel in the World] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303181702/http://citynoise.org/article/8748 |date=March 3, 2016 }} Retrieved April 8, 2009.{{efn|There are two tunnels on the Park Avenue main line in Manhattan that are older, but were used by horse-drawn carriages rather than true railways. A tunnel stretching {{Convert|596|feet|meters|abbr=}} was completed through Prospect Hill, one of the highest points on the East Side of Manhattan, between 92nd and 95th Streets, in 1837.{{Cite web|url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2547.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2547.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Park Avenue Historic District Designation Report|date=April 29, 2014|website=nyc.gov|publisher=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission|access-date=December 31, 2018}}{{Rp|5–6}} In addition, the Park Avenue Tunnel between 33rd and 40th Streets in Manhattan, was opened in 1834.{{cite web | title=PARK AVENUE TUNNEL | website=Forgotten New York | date=December 6, 2012 | url=http://forgotten-ny.com/2012/12/park-avenue-tunnel/ | access-date=January 21, 2019}}}} It is also deemed the oldest subway tunnel in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records.{{Cite web|url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/93225-oldest-subway-tunnel|title = Oldest subway tunnel}}

Construction and operation

Originally built as an open cut, construction began in May 1844, and opened for use on December 3, 1844, but was not completely finished until mid-1845. It was built mainly to satisfy public demand for creation of a grade-separated right of way for the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad (later Long Island Rail Road) on its way to the South Ferry at the foot of Atlantic Street (later Atlantic Avenue), where passengers could catch ferries to Manhattan.{{cite web|url=http://www.brooklynrail.net/images/aa_tunnel/new_research/oct_09/events_leading_to_tunnel_creation.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.brooklynrail.net/images/aa_tunnel/new_research/oct_09/events_leading_to_tunnel_creation.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Events That Led to the Creation of the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel|publisher=Brooklyn Historic Railway Association|access-date=October 29, 2009}} The construction of the cut also lowered the LIRR's grade through Cobble Hill. Around five years after opening the cut was roofed over, converting it into a tunnel. As originally built, the cut was {{convert|21|ft|m}} wide and {{convert|2517|ft|m}} long. Once roofed over, the interior height of the newly created tunnel was {{convert|17|ft|m}}.

In exchange for building the cut, the City of Brooklyn granted the B&J permission to operate its steam locomotives on Atlantic Street west of Fifth Avenue (then Parmentier's Garden/Gowanus Lane), all the way to Brooklyn's South Ferry (the present location of Brooklyn's Pier 7). Prior to the cut being built, the LIRR's western terminus was Atlantic Street at Clinton Street. Train cars were hauled by teams of horses along Atlantic Street from Clinton Street to Parmentier's Garden, where steam locomotives were attached. While the cut was being built, the railroad operated to a temporary terminal at Pacific Street and Henry Street.

The Cobble Hill Tunnel was part of the first rail link between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts. The railroad connected Lower Manhattan via the South Ferry to Greenport on the North Fork of Long Island; a ferry connected Greenport to Stonington, Connecticut, where a rail link continued to Boston. This avoided some difficult construction of bridges over the rivers of southern Connecticut. In 1848, the New York and New Haven Railroad Line was completed through Connecticut, providing a direct, faster rail connection from New York City to Boston. The Cobble Hill Tunnel and the Long Island Railroad remained the primary means of access to most of central Long Island from Manhattan and New York City.

The ends of the tunnel were sealed in the fall of 1861. The similar Murray Hill Tunnel on the New York and Harlem Railroad was built as an open cut around 1836, roofed over around the 1850s, and is now in use for automobile traffic.

Closure controversy

In 1861, the New York State Legislature voted to ban railroad locomotives from within the limits of the City of Brooklyn. A tax assessment was ordered on all property owners along Atlantic Street (today Atlantic Avenue), to defray the costs of the closure. It was undisclosed at the time that New York State Governor John A. King was a major shareholder in the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad (later the Long Island Rail Road) and therefore had a conflict of interest and stood to benefit by the compensation payments to the railroad from the tax assessment.{{Citation needed|date=February 2009}}

Dormancy

Walt Whitman wrote of the tunnel:{{cite web|title=Crossing Brooklyn LIRR Tunnel |work=Forgotten NY |url=http://www.forgotten-ny.com/SUBWAYS/tunnel/tunnel.html |access-date=February 9, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081226062020/http://www.forgotten-ny.com/SUBWAYS/tunnel/tunnel.html |archive-date=December 26, 2008 }}

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; however, there will, for a few years yet be many dear ones, to not a few Brooklynites, New Yorkers, and promiscuous crowds besides. For it was here you started to go down the island, in summer. For years, it was confidently counted on that this spot, and the railroad of which it was the terminus, were going to prove the permanent seat of business and wealth that belong to such enterprises. But its glory, after enduring in great splendor for a season, has now vanished—at least its Long Island Railroad glory has. The tunnel: dark as the grave, cold, damp, and silent. How beautiful look earth and heaven again, as we emerge from the gloom! It might not be unprofitable, now and then, to send us mortals—the dissatisfied ones, at least, and that's a large proportion—into some tunnel of several days' journey. We'd perhaps grumble less, afterward, at God's handiwork.

In March 1916, the Bureau of Investigation suspected German terrorists were making bombs in the tunnel, and broke through the roof of the tunnel with jackhammers. They found nothing, installed an electric light, and resealed it. In the 1920s, it was rumored to be used for both mushroom growing and bootleg whiskey stills, even though there was no access into the main portion of the tunnel. It became an object of local folklore and legend. In 1936, the New York City Police Department unsuccessfully attempted to enter the tunnel, in order to look for the body of a hoodlum supposedly buried there. In 1941, it was rumored to have been inspected by the federal Works Progress Administration to determine its structural strength, but there is no evidence of this. A few years later, it was once again rumored to have been opened, this time by the FBI, in an unsuccessful search for spies; however, there is no evidence of this. During the late 1950s, it was sought by two rail historians, George Horn and Martin Schachne, but they did not gain access to the tunnel itself.{{cn|date=August 2022}}

Rediscovery

Having fallen from public notice, the tunnel was rediscovered in 1980 by then 20-year-old Bob Diamond,{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/28/nyregion/bob-diamond-dead.html |title=Bob Diamond, the ‘Tunnel King’ of Brooklyn, Dies at 61 |first=Clay |last=Risen |newspaper=The New York Times |via=nytimes.com |date=August 28, 2021 |accessdate=February 24, 2024}}{{cite web |url=https://untappedcities.com/2014/02/11/abandoned-atlantic-avenue-tunnel-cobble-hill-brooklyn/ |title=Abandoned Atlantic Avenue Tunnel in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn: The World’s Oldest Subway Tunnel |first=Phillipe Martin |last=Chatelain |website=untappedcities.com |date=February 11, 2014}} who entered from a manhole he located at Atlantic Avenue and Court Street,{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-brooklyns-forgotten-tunnel/142039409/ |title=Brooklyn's Forgotten Tunnel |first=George |last=DeWan |newspaper=Newsday |date=September 17, 1980 |accessdate=February 24, 2024 |via=newspapers.com}} crawled a distance of {{convert|70|ft|m}} underground through a filled-in section of tunnel less than {{convert|2|ft|m|spell=in}} high, and located the bulkhead wall that sealed off the main portion of the tunnel. With the assistance of a Brooklyn Union Gas Company engineering crew, he then broke through the massive concrete bulkhead wall, which is several feet thick. Diamond thereby opened access to the main portion of the tunnel, and began to popularize the tunnel as an antiquity. He led tours of its interior for his Brooklyn Historic Railway Association, from 1982 until December 17, 2010,{{Cite web|url=http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Brooklyn-Underground-Tunnel-Tours-Are-Now-Six-Feet-Under-112103379.html|title=Brooklyn Underground Tunnel Tours Are Now Six Feet Under|website=NBC New York}} when the Department of Transportation terminated his contract, citing safety concerns.[https://www.theverge.com/2014/2/5/5280920/tunnel-vision-bob-diamond-fights-for-the-atlantic-avenue-subway Tunnel vision: how an obsessed explorer found and lost the world's oldest subway] - The Verge, 2014 The tunnel has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1989.

The History Channel series Cities of the Underworld ran a segment ("New York's Secret Societies") on the tunnel in 2008.{{Citation|title=New York's Underground Societies {{!}} Cities of the Underworld (S2, E9) {{!}} Full Episode {{!}} History|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc344Z7peS8|language=en|access-date=2021-09-03}}

References

Notes

Citations

Further reading

{{cite web |title=The Atlantic Avenue Tunnel |work=Brooklynrail.net |url=http://www.brooklynrail.net/proj_aatunnel.html |access-date=July 31, 2009 |archive-date=March 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210329191412/http://www.brooklynrail.net/proj_aatunnel.html |url-status=dead }}
{{cite web |title=Urban Underground Passageways An Historical Overview |work=Brooklynrail.net |url=http://www.brooklynrail.net/images/aa_tunnel/new_research/the_urban_underground_tunnel_draft_7_23_2010.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.brooklynrail.net/images/aa_tunnel/new_research/the_urban_underground_tunnel_draft_7_23_2010.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date=July 27, 2010 }}
{{cite web |title=Early Transit in New York City |work=NYSubway.org |url=http://www.nycsubway.org/faq/earlysubway.html |access-date=October 29, 2005 }}
{{cite web |title=The Atlantic Avenue Tunnel |work=New York City Subway Transit Scenes |url=http://wt.mit.edu/Subway/Tunnel/ |access-date=October 29, 2005 |archive-date=February 6, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070206121810/http://wt.mit.edu/Subway/Tunnel/ |url-status=dead }}
{{cite web |title=Brooklyn Historic Railway Association and Atlantic Avenue Tunnel |url=http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/bhra.html |access-date=October 29, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418073537/http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/bhra.html |archive-date=April 18, 2009 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}
{{cite web |title=A Long-Lost Tunnel in Brooklyn |work=LI History.com |url=http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs515d,0,6961092.story |access-date=April 17, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013083617/http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs515d%2C0%2C6961092.story |archive-date=October 13, 2008 |df=mdy-all }}
{{cite web |title=Cobble Hill (Atlantic Avenue) Tunnel History |work=RapidTransit.net |url=http://www.rapidtransit.net/faq/nyc/AtlanticTunnel.html |access-date=October 29, 2005 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141010080245/http://www.rapidtransit.net/net/faq/nyc/AtlanticTunnel.html |archive-date=October 10, 2014 |df=mdy-all }}
{{cite news |title=The Tunnel Rats of Atlantic Avenue |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/nyregion/thecity/15tunn.html |access-date=April 29, 2009 |first=Yonette |last=Joseph |date=February 15, 2009 }}
{{cite web |title=The New York Moon – Undertone – Music video in the tunnel |work=nymoon.com |url=http://nymoon.com/pubs/undertone/ |access-date=May 20, 2009 }}
[http://www.arrts-arrchives.com/tunnel.html The Atlantic Avenue Tunnel (Arrt's Arrchives)]