Rare Bird, Inc. | Articles : UnderCity.org

	Web Reviews From 1997 to the present, President/Creative Director, Jim Cota has been writing informative reviews of Web sites and other internet related issues for the Indianapolis Business Journal. If you've missed the articles in print you can catch up on past stories here. Articles are reprinted with permission of the Indianapolis Business Journal, copyright 1997 - 2005, IBJ Corp.

Of Places Dark, Deep, and Forgotten

Some people go places others don't; some go places others won't. It's a minor distinction, to be sure, until you begin to think about the places in question. Personally, I don't have a lot of fears. I'm not afraid of heights, water, caves, etc. But I absolutely can't stand that feeling of being trapped. Remember being a kid and someone bigger would sit on your chest and do that "Chinese Water Torture" where they'd just sit there incessantly tapping on your chest or forehead? Yeah, that's the feeling I hate.

So it was truly with on odd sensation of interest and repulsion that I recently found myself spending a little time on a web site called UnderCity. I hesitate to tell you too much about it, preferring that you just experience it for yourself. But I will tell you this: every city, college campus, building complex, military base, institution, or other collection of buildings has a secret; and most often, that secret is below the ground. I distinctly remember rumors about the tunnels below my college alma mater and the day a few friends and I ventured in… I remember sitting on a railroad trestle that stretched across a wide river in the middle of the night and feeling the rumble of a coming train… But nothing I ever did compares to what photographer Steve Duncan and his friends have captured on film.

Billing himself as a "guerilla historian in Gotham", Duncan has taken his camera to some of the most intriguing and bizarre locations you've ever seen. Long abandoned tunnels beneath New York City, an old physical plant at Columbia University (including photos of an aging cyclotron, the very particle accelerator that split an atom for the first time in the western hemisphere), sewers, asylums, Paris Catacombs, and numerous bridges have all captured his attention, and his camera recorded it all.

In fact, some of the most amazing pictures aren't in the tunnels below ground, but from the bridges above. The pictures from the top of the George Washington Bridge are impressive, but the photos from the Manhattan Bridge are simply breathtaking.

Each photo contains a description of the location and event, and most are accompanied by some historical perspective. Including the odd but true story (and corresponding photos) of the secret tunnel that links Grand Central Station to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Or more directly, links to an elevator that leads to a secret door within the hotel itself, reportedly used by FDR as a private conveyance to the hotel. The story is a fascinating tale littered with interesting tidbits. When encountered by a rail worker at 2am while looking for the legendary track, one of the explorers asked him, "How many levels are there here, two or seven?" The worker responded, "Fifteen." Fifteen levels below the ground. Wow.

There is also a collection of photos taken by three professional photographers chronicling some of the urban exlporing they've done. These photos are excellent, but lack the accompanying text that makes UnderCity so compelling.

So next time you find yourself daydreaming and need to take a few minutes to get away, point your web browser to UnderCity.org and submerse yourself in the secret and forgotten world below (and above) the ground.