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The Atlantic Avenue Tunnel (or Cobble Hill Tunnel of the Long Island Rail Road) is an abandoned railroad tunnel beneath Atlantic Avenue in downtown Brooklyn, New York. When open, it ran for about 2750 feet (830 m) between Hicks Street and Boerum Place. The Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a railroad that serves the length of Long Island, New York. ...
For other meanings, see Brooklyn (disambiguation). ...
It was opened on December 3, 1844 and was finished by January 1, 1845, as an open cut--that is, a reinforced trench open to the sky. It was built to reduce the grade of the railroad line on its way to the South Ferry at the foot of Atlantic Street (now Avenue), from which passenger could catch ferries to New York County. December 3 is the 337th (in leap years the 338th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1844 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...
January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ...
1845 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...
Manhattan Borough,highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ...
Five years later a "sturdy brick arch" was placed over the cut, making it a true tunnel. As built, the tunnel was 21 feet (6.4 m) wide, 17 feet (5.1 m) high and 1,611 feet (491 m) long.
Insofar as it carried railroad trains under a city street, it could be described as a subway tunnel, though unlike a modern rapid transit subway, it had no stations. The similar Murray Hill Tunnel on the New York and Harlem Railroad was roofed over in the 1850s. The ends of the tunnel were sealed in the fall of 1861. This article describes subways as mass transit lines. ...
Metro and Subway redirect here. ...
The north end of the tunnel The Murray Hill Tunnel passes under Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York, New York, USA, just south of Grand Central Terminal. ...
An 1847 map of Lower Manhattan; the only railroad in Manhattan is the New York and Harlem Railroad. ...
// Events and Trends Technology Production of steel revolutionised by invention of the Bessemer process Benjamin Silliman fractionates petroleum by distillation for the first time First transatlantic telegraph cable laid First safety elevator installed by Elisha Otis Science Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, putting forward the theory of evolution...
1861 is a common year starting on Tuesday. ...
In March 1916, the FBI suspected German terrorists were making bombs in the tunnel, and broke through. They found nothing, installed an electric light, and resealed the tunnel. In the 1920s the tunnel was reportedly used for both mushroom growing and bootleg whiskey stills. In 1936, New York City police broke into the tunnel with jackhammers to look for the body of a hoodlum supposedly buried there. In 1941 the tunnel was again inspected by the federal Works Progress Administration to determine its structural strength. A few years later, it was once again opened, this time by the FBI, in an unsuccessful search for spies. During the late 1950s it was inspected by two rail historians, George Horn and Martin Schachne. The Works Progress Administration (later Works Projects Administration, abbreviated WPA), was created on May 6, 1935 with the signing of Executive Order 7034. ...
It fell into myth, but was rediscovered by the then-18-year-old Robert "Bob" Diamond in 1981, who entered from a manhole at Atlantic and Court Street. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1989. Robert Bob Diamond is an engineer, urban explorer, and historical Brooklyn transit advocate. ...
Walt Whitman wrote of the tunnel: Walt Whitman Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist born on Long Island, New York. ...
- 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.
See also
The Brooklyn Historic Railway Associations (BHRA) shop, trolley barn and offices are located in Red Hook, Brooklyn, on the historic Beard Street Piers (circa 1870). ...
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