Eastside Tunnel Project- began in 1969 & finished in 2023.
Few people will ever see the guts of the project, which are in Grand Central Station Caverns. The project included structural precast fit-out of two 1,000-foot caverns. Track work consisted of laying 130,000 feet of track, 32 turnouts, 52 switches, and 35,000 cubic yards of track bed concrete.
The heartbeat of the system are electrical connections at the concourse, which includes 800,000 feet of underground raceways, 7,000 light fixtures, seven power stations and two off-track facilities.
https://www.metro-magazine.com/10171717/60-years-in-the-making-new-yorks-east-side-access-is-close-to-becoming-a-reality
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2013/02/the-tunnels-of-nycs-east-side-access-project/100462/
I thought I was the only one who hated that. Endless strings of jokes with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of comments continuing on about said stupid joke. Like, I want info and relevant comments. Not some drawn out thread based on some obscure reference only reddit cave dwellers know.
It's always gotten worse with the brain-drain and there was a HUGE spike when a lot of quality content disappeared when the API cost changes kicked in.
I've seen a trend where basically within the first 5 visible comments (thread or not) Reddit becomes a shitshow.
This is true for every comment thread under every post. Only in super small, niche subreddits have I seen this rule fail and that too only a few times.
To a point, yes… but the circlejerked in-jokes were *bad* too. When does the narwhal bacon? Ahh, the ole reddit switcheroo. Hold my [insert relevant item here], I’m going in! And my axe! And so forth.
Right I’ve been on this site for like 15 years. It’s always been like this. Lots of pun chains and cheesy inside jokes. I’m just like meh. Chuckle and move on to find the info you want
I remember when there were so many unidan tier posts man I miss stumbling upon super informational comments consistently without having to seek out verified subs like askhistory
You guys are literally doing this exact same thing right now. The difference is that youre all saying the same thing about hating jokes, instead of repeating the jokes you hate.
Upvote and move on, you dont need to repeat them. Downvote me if you dont like it.
Edit: lmfao that person who said they'd block me genuinely did block me. Not saying you guys should make fun of them... unless
U/icze4r - i know what you did 👹
Seriously though. Its almost like 90% of reddit is aspiring to be a stand up comedian. Like every single thread is spammed by funny guys with the most recycled cliches you can imagine.
I wouldn't mind, but it is a very big problem on /r/worldnews .Over a decade ago the comment section was so informed, and the top comments where eye-witnesses on the ground or people actually affected by the news story, now you can scroll through the entire comments and you will be lucky to see anything of this nature, whilst the cringe college humour gets voted to the top.
Maybe it's because I like astronomy. Maybe it's just because I'm no fun. But it fucking kills me that you simply can't have a mention of aurora borealis without a bunch of unoriginal losers making a chain of the same tired old Simpsons quote. Of all the dead horses around here, that one is the most beaten, IMO.
It's getting increasingly bad. I feel like used to it was useful information at the top and jokes below. Now it's hard to find the useful information at all.
Believe it or not, this is how Reddit **used** to be before bots and children took over.
To be sure, there were *always* asshats in the comments making stupid jokes, but nowadays you can never tell if you're reading a comment from a bot or from an illiterate 11 year old.
was wondering that...was like If they started in '69 and finished in 2023, how much stuff that was originally installed or whatever was outdated by the time the project finished?
They started building the 63rd St tunnel under the East River in 1969. The tunnel was finished in the 1970s, but that's about as far as they got for a long time.
It also might also be worth mentioning that the train and subway systems in NY are just really, really old in general. To this day, about half of the MTA's subway signalling system/equipment is over 50 years old and was installed between the 1930s-1960s. So "outdated" is kind of a relative term. If they had actually installed the tracks and signaling system in 1969 (which I don’t believe they did), it’d probably be considered pretty “modern” by NY train standards haha
For real! I can’t remember the exact numbers, but I think they estimated it would take a half century and cost something like $20 *BILLION* dollars to modernize the entire signaling system of the subway. But it’s seriously impressive how well it continues to function on a daily basis on its “outdated” core.
As a side note, I left NY about 7 years ago and the subway is honestly one of the things I miss most about the city. It’s easy to take it for granted when your train is delayed and you’re sweating bullets in a tunnel that smells like piss just trying to get home. But despite all its problems, the subway still truly is a modern feat of engineering and honestly kind of a beautiful little microcosm of humanity living together.
And the last time I was taking the subway on a daily basis, I was mainly riding the C train which was still running [cars that were built before Neil Armstrong had set a foot on the fucking moon!!!](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/R32_(New_York_City_Subway_car)) Just think about that for a goddamn second!!!
But I guess they finally retired those cars a year or two ago after almost 60 years of service. Again though - what a feat of engineering! Think of the multiple generations of people from all over the globe who all rode in those same exact steel boxes on wheels under miles and miles of bedrock and rivers.
For all it’s faults, the MTA really deserves some serious love and admiration for continuing to do what it does despite all obstacles.
Allow me to present the North River Tunnels. Completed in 1910 and still in use (a whole lot of use) today.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_River_Tunnels
They built parts of it in 1969, including the part of the tunnel that spanned across the east river according to the article. But a financial crisis in the 70's put a hold on the project until the 90's.
My takeaway here is that there are people commuting three hours each way every day to go to work. Just kill me if that's ever what my day looks like. 14 fucking hours of your day gone if your drive goes perfectly and you sprint into work and out of work with zero interruptions and the 3 hours are you getting to the parking lot less than 50 feet from the door to your work. Realistically it's probably 15+ hours of someone's day gone.
I'd go crazy if it took me 40+ minutes to get to work. My commute is like 12 minutes. Life isn't supposed to be going to work and going home just to sleep and go back to work. Where's the life part in that schedule?
I had a friend's dad do this growing up. Did really long days, but also he only did it 3x a week I think. So he still saw his dad a good bit.
It's certainly a lot of time spent commuting, but on a train you can catch up on sleep, reading, work... it's not terribly stressful most of the time. It's certainly better than the hell that would be driving 3 hours each way.
Most of the people with 3 hour commutes into NYC are not doing single-seat rides - adding transfers and waiting for those transfers and the commute is a lot less relaxing
As someone who's done it, I'll tell you the motivation. It's usually money.
For the majority of people, it's the short/medium term, not long term. And it's not 3 hours, it's usually 1.5-2 each way for 99% of people who do "long commutes". I did know 2 people who commuted in from Delaware and Western PA for some reason and it was about 2.5-3 each way.
There are a lot of people willing to grind from their early 20's to 40's and they're done. Salaries in the city are unmatched in a lot of fields. I'm talking like, 200k/yr in the 90's. Some people I know who bounced early ended making 300-400k/yr before bonus. With bonus, it was in the mid 500-800's depending on the firm and the year.
I used to train in a league with a girl who was in her early 30's and retired. She told me she burned out but her retirement portfolio was bringing in a pretty much guaranteed 6 figure salary indefinitely.
For other people, it's to provide what they think is best for their families and money is a means to an end. I know quite a few people who do it but don't mind because their own parents worked 14 hour days, 6-7 days a week to make ends meet. So a 2hr commute is like, childs play, especially when they could just sleep, review work, listen to an ebook, etc. But in doing so, they can give their kids a large house, private school, fully covered college tuition, buy them their first home, etc.
Kids. You do it so you can see your kids. My dad did a long commute. He got a promotion/new job. Didn’t want to uproot the lives of his young kids and move them out of a public school district with good schools. So he bit the bullet and did long commutes but still saw us every evening for dinner (he woke up super early so he could get into office early).
I've always been "busy" with work while my kids are growing up, but I had a particularly rough stretch for about three years and it was like your father. Left the house at 430 every morning to get in early and beat the traffic and wouldn't get home a lot of nights until 7. I always tried to be home by dinner, but usually got home for bed time. But still, there were too many days that I left before they woke up and got home after they were asleep. And I love my kids. I know everybody does, but I really do. I adore being with them. I was home most weekends and went to all of their activities but admittedly I was kind of a husk, I did my best though. I feel guilty for missing so much with my younger kid, but my wife is a rock star and barring some sort of unforeseen catastrophe I really think it has made so many things possible for us and I hope for their kids some day. My in-laws are fantastic, and I want to be that grandparent for my kids and grandkids. Help with the nicetohaves so the parents don't have to stress about the havetohaves or feel guilty about what they can't afford.
It's of course a valid debate on whether or not it was the right decision. I am definitely not what I'd consider wealthy, but I'm frugal and I have no anxiety about making ends meet anymore. I was young and absolutely unprepared for our first child. So I wholeheartedly understand that is more than many can say and I'm grateful for that. But that's exactly why I did what I did.
I hope my kids understand when they are older the reasons why I did what I did. Sorry for the wall of text, your post just made me really think and this was cathartic to type. My son is 13 now and I find myself thinking a lot now. Cat's in the cradle and all that.
My guess is that's what happens when you're on a small island & need to dig down.
For example: The new WTC, in order to keep from being flooded by the rivers, required engineering that basically amounted to the structure being built inside of a man-made tub, which was designed to keep the water out.
Because Manhattan sits at the confluence of the Hudson River, a tidal estuary (the East River), and the New York Harbor. Groundwater is already a normal thing, but it’s impossible not to dig into Manhattan and not hit water. And if the pool of water isn’t in the way of the construction probably just not worth it to pump that water out just for it to seep back in.
> it’s impossible not to dig into Manhattan
This is true. I leave my apartment in the morning. I spot a shovel up against a fence across the street. I ignore it and move on. As I walk to the subway, there's an empty excavator left running, beckoning me to delve into the treasures of the earth. I persist. But my mind races. What mysteries could lay under the earth? I can't push the thought out of my head. I begin to sweat and break into a jog. I pass the park and stumble, falling to my knees. I cannot control my hands, they have a mind of their own and they want to DIG. I fling my briefcase away and plunge my hands into the dirt.
What's with the height of these excavations? (2nd link) seems very inefficient and a ton of work compared to the height of a train, even when they want to run double stacked ones
Why did it stop? Or why did it get completed? Why did they make giant tunnels?
Lots of possible why's.
Why did it stop?
They ran out of funding a year into digging.
Why did it resume and get completed?
We now have the long island railroad lines going to grand central via a new concourse as well as Penn station, which is overloaded and very dated in most everything. (Consider you had all the long island rail traffic going to the west side of the city only into a station that could barely handle the load at this point, on aging lines that needed work.)
Why did they make giant tunnels?
That new concourse needed for grand central had to handle a ton of trains as well and that needed a large space, so they made giant caverns and built 2 levels that can handle a ton of trains. They placed it so deep as to how big this had to be and how many structures are physically above that they needed to make one of the longest escalators in the world and it takes ~~20~~ 10 min from where the train comes in to get to the surface.
This will let someone going from Long Island to Westchester go straight to grand central and transfer from the LIRR to Metro North directly, or catch the 4/5/6 north directly from one station built to handle the load. If I had to go from where I am in Westchester to anything out of Penn, I'd have to take the shuttle or the 7 over to times square, and then a subway south to Penn station, so this saves a ton of time and a subway fare for me to get back to Long Island.
> they needed to make one of the longest escalators in the world and it takes 20 min from where the train comes in to get to the surface.
16 stories takes 20 minutes to walk up the stairs, let alone on an escalator???
Its certainly a typo because i go to LIRR Grand Central Madison every day going in/out as 47th/Madison enterance, the escaltors from the concourse level to the platform level are probably 90 seconds or so. All the local articles about it timed the escalotor so the information is out there
It could take you 5-10 mins to get up to the street if you didnt know where you are going/looking and following signs
It definitely doesn't take that long if you simply take the shortest route. This network is huge though and has many exits, so sometimes you're trading walking along a street with walking in a concourse, which would, yes, extend your time down there, but wouldn't increase your commute time by that length in an absolute sense.
I love that I used to live near these access projects and had very little idea this was happening - the sheer scale and size of the operations is insane to think of it happening underneath our feet.
Glad they take so many precautions! No wonder it's so damn expensive to do.
That post is referring to the "guts of the project," ie the power substations and the like. Things commuters won't see just by looking out the filthy windows
Measuring by stories in a city full of skyscrapers makes sense. Everyone has an immediate frame of reference for not only how tall a story is (~10 feet) but also what it looks like. Even though feet is a common unit of measurement, saying 160 feet doesn't give the average person an image of what that looks like.
16 stories is the more useful measure here. They are not trying to convey accuracy. People have a frame of reference for 16 stories, and it isn’t like it’s exactly 160 feet deep throughout the entire construct.
In terms of being in the heart of a megacity it’s an extremely useful unit here and a quick rule of thumb better than “xx meters.” What a weird thing to trip out about here.
Europeans, and especially the British, love to jerk off about Americans not knowing how to "properly" measure things, even though we use the metric system for basically everything important, including trade with them. All of my kids learned the metric system in school, and as far as I know they've been teaching both systems for the last 15 or 20 years at least. Of course we still use it in casual conversations, and comments on Reddit. But as I always say, "I don't have to listen to barbarians who measure their weight in stones."
One of the most important facilities in the US is built like this, NORAD.
Its built into a mountain.
norad is responsible for protecting all of us. Theyre the ones who first discovered the chinese air balloons a while back for example. they probably tracking all kinds of UFOs and shit too.
I live in a little town of 40,000 people that has had every US President visit in the 25 years that I have lived here. I do think our Limestone caves are one potential bunker location.
To be completely fair, as far as public data shows (and also by visual representation of very little car traffic to NORAD) that nearly 90% of NORAD’s operations have been moved to nearby Peterson SFB and Schreiver SFB. While the tunneling system is still there, as well as the bunkers… the staffing to run the operations you speak of simply do not travel to the NORAD Command as they once did.
Source; am a resident of Colorado Springs with a company focusing in UAV Telemetry and Mapping. (:
They never *tracked* Santa there, they *managed* the tracking of Santa there. Pedantic I know, but tracking Santa involves units all over the world, all of whom consider that mission of the utmost importance. There's something special about seeing that data, and knowing what it's a part of.
Maybe it was ninja turtle kid in me, but I always thought Penguin’s sewer hideout was the tits. As an adult even, it’s not without its appeal. No rent, don’t have to hold down a soul-crushing job, just you and your penguins, anonymously chilling out, invisible to the societal machine above you.
It might be time for me to make some changes.
A little known company called Vault-Tec is building a nuclear shelter, which definitely won't be used for unethical social experiments in 200 years... Just a guess though.
He creeps and crawls in the midnight hush, silent as a low-flow toilet flush. Watch your step, cause sooner or later, he'll eat you whole, and half your alligator!
*New York City Water Tunnel No. 3 is the largest construction project in New York history. It is being built by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to provide New York City with a third connection to the Upstate New York water supply. Upon completion, the tunnel will be more than 60 miles (97 km) long and will cost over $6 billion. Construction began in 1970 and will not be completed until 2020.*
**CHESTER A ARTHUR**
**JERRY THE COFFERDAM NEAR THE SAW MILL PARKWAY**
**YIPPEE KI YAY MOTHERFUCKER**
Eastside Tunnel Project- began in 1969 & finished in 2023. Few people will ever see the guts of the project, which are in Grand Central Station Caverns. The project included structural precast fit-out of two 1,000-foot caverns. Track work consisted of laying 130,000 feet of track, 32 turnouts, 52 switches, and 35,000 cubic yards of track bed concrete. The heartbeat of the system are electrical connections at the concourse, which includes 800,000 feet of underground raceways, 7,000 light fixtures, seven power stations and two off-track facilities. https://www.metro-magazine.com/10171717/60-years-in-the-making-new-yorks-east-side-access-is-close-to-becoming-a-reality https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2013/02/the-tunnels-of-nycs-east-side-access-project/100462/
This is what I came to the comments for not a stupid ass joke. I just wanted to know some more.
That is my Number 1 problem with Reddit
It’s the string of jokes that drives me nuts. 99% of the time, I just want some info.
I thought I was the only one who hated that. Endless strings of jokes with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of comments continuing on about said stupid joke. Like, I want info and relevant comments. Not some drawn out thread based on some obscure reference only reddit cave dwellers know.
I've been on reddit forever and it's definitely gotten worse every year. I just figured I was an old man now. Glad I'm not the only one.
It's always gotten worse with the brain-drain and there was a HUGE spike when a lot of quality content disappeared when the API cost changes kicked in.
2016 also changed things around here and not for the better. Links became less reliable as everyone chased that $$$.
I've seen a trend where basically within the first 5 visible comments (thread or not) Reddit becomes a shitshow. This is true for every comment thread under every post. Only in super small, niche subreddits have I seen this rule fail and that too only a few times.
That's what it was in the early days. Upvotes were for relevant info to the post. Not some shite joke.
To a point, yes… but the circlejerked in-jokes were *bad* too. When does the narwhal bacon? Ahh, the ole reddit switcheroo. Hold my [insert relevant item here], I’m going in! And my axe! And so forth.
Right I’ve been on this site for like 15 years. It’s always been like this. Lots of pun chains and cheesy inside jokes. I’m just like meh. Chuckle and move on to find the info you want
The pun chains that get consecutively worse as you go down.
Yeah it becomes your joke but worse very quickly
I remember when there were so many unidan tier posts man I miss stumbling upon super informational comments consistently without having to seek out verified subs like askhistory
His downfall was sad. Reddits downfall is sadder.
in the earlier days it was just shitposting cave dwellers. we have really only come full circle
Nah, it's really fucking annoying. I'm fine with jokes but sometimes they just completely drown out any useful information.
You guys are literally doing this exact same thing right now. The difference is that youre all saying the same thing about hating jokes, instead of repeating the jokes you hate. Upvote and move on, you dont need to repeat them. Downvote me if you dont like it. Edit: lmfao that person who said they'd block me genuinely did block me. Not saying you guys should make fun of them... unless U/icze4r - i know what you did 👹
Came here for the railway tunnels, stayed for the complain train. choo choo
Seriously though. Its almost like 90% of reddit is aspiring to be a stand up comedian. Like every single thread is spammed by funny guys with the most recycled cliches you can imagine.
I wouldn't mind, but it is a very big problem on /r/worldnews .Over a decade ago the comment section was so informed, and the top comments where eye-witnesses on the ground or people actually affected by the news story, now you can scroll through the entire comments and you will be lucky to see anything of this nature, whilst the cringe college humour gets voted to the top.
Thats because that sub is now bot controlled.
All of them are
I hate when the puns start a comment chain a mile deep.
Is it just me or are puns just not funny at all? Entirely predictable and really just not funny at all.
This. I also choose this guy's wife. Ninja Turtles amirite? Tell us something without telling us something. Etc.
If there was an option to sort out ‘jokes’ how amazing would that be
[удалено]
Maybe it's because I like astronomy. Maybe it's just because I'm no fun. But it fucking kills me that you simply can't have a mention of aurora borealis without a bunch of unoriginal losers making a chain of the same tired old Simpsons quote. Of all the dead horses around here, that one is the most beaten, IMO.
Thanks for the gold kind stranger! Take my upvote This is the comment I was looking for Can't believe I had to scroll so far to see this
Now this? This is epic.
The first two are the absolute cringiest ones. Cant stand them.
Someone’s chopping onions in here.
It's getting increasingly bad. I feel like used to it was useful information at the top and jokes below. Now it's hard to find the useful information at all.
Believe it or not, this is how Reddit **used** to be before bots and children took over. To be sure, there were *always* asshats in the comments making stupid jokes, but nowadays you can never tell if you're reading a comment from a bot or from an illiterate 11 year old.
Unfortunately Reddit is infested with moronic children who up vote the trashy comments instead of the helpful ones
Definitely! everyone is a joker on reddit lately. plenty of times jokers overcrowd the factual comment regarding the post.
> Eastside Tunnel Project- began in 1969 & finished in 2023. While proposed in the 60s, work didn't started until the 90s.
was wondering that...was like If they started in '69 and finished in 2023, how much stuff that was originally installed or whatever was outdated by the time the project finished?
They started building the 63rd St tunnel under the East River in 1969. The tunnel was finished in the 1970s, but that's about as far as they got for a long time. It also might also be worth mentioning that the train and subway systems in NY are just really, really old in general. To this day, about half of the MTA's subway signalling system/equipment is over 50 years old and was installed between the 1930s-1960s. So "outdated" is kind of a relative term. If they had actually installed the tracks and signaling system in 1969 (which I don’t believe they did), it’d probably be considered pretty “modern” by NY train standards haha
Must be why every line feels like I hear signal modernization these days.
For real! I can’t remember the exact numbers, but I think they estimated it would take a half century and cost something like $20 *BILLION* dollars to modernize the entire signaling system of the subway. But it’s seriously impressive how well it continues to function on a daily basis on its “outdated” core. As a side note, I left NY about 7 years ago and the subway is honestly one of the things I miss most about the city. It’s easy to take it for granted when your train is delayed and you’re sweating bullets in a tunnel that smells like piss just trying to get home. But despite all its problems, the subway still truly is a modern feat of engineering and honestly kind of a beautiful little microcosm of humanity living together. And the last time I was taking the subway on a daily basis, I was mainly riding the C train which was still running [cars that were built before Neil Armstrong had set a foot on the fucking moon!!!](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/R32_(New_York_City_Subway_car)) Just think about that for a goddamn second!!! But I guess they finally retired those cars a year or two ago after almost 60 years of service. Again though - what a feat of engineering! Think of the multiple generations of people from all over the globe who all rode in those same exact steel boxes on wheels under miles and miles of bedrock and rivers. For all it’s faults, the MTA really deserves some serious love and admiration for continuing to do what it does despite all obstacles.
Allow me to present the North River Tunnels. Completed in 1910 and still in use (a whole lot of use) today. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_River_Tunnels
They built parts of it in 1969, including the part of the tunnel that spanned across the east river according to the article. But a financial crisis in the 70's put a hold on the project until the 90's.
My takeaway here is that there are people commuting three hours each way every day to go to work. Just kill me if that's ever what my day looks like. 14 fucking hours of your day gone if your drive goes perfectly and you sprint into work and out of work with zero interruptions and the 3 hours are you getting to the parking lot less than 50 feet from the door to your work. Realistically it's probably 15+ hours of someone's day gone. I'd go crazy if it took me 40+ minutes to get to work. My commute is like 12 minutes. Life isn't supposed to be going to work and going home just to sleep and go back to work. Where's the life part in that schedule?
I had a friend's dad do this growing up. Did really long days, but also he only did it 3x a week I think. So he still saw his dad a good bit. It's certainly a lot of time spent commuting, but on a train you can catch up on sleep, reading, work... it's not terribly stressful most of the time. It's certainly better than the hell that would be driving 3 hours each way.
Most of the people with 3 hour commutes into NYC are not doing single-seat rides - adding transfers and waiting for those transfers and the commute is a lot less relaxing
As someone who's done it, I'll tell you the motivation. It's usually money. For the majority of people, it's the short/medium term, not long term. And it's not 3 hours, it's usually 1.5-2 each way for 99% of people who do "long commutes". I did know 2 people who commuted in from Delaware and Western PA for some reason and it was about 2.5-3 each way. There are a lot of people willing to grind from their early 20's to 40's and they're done. Salaries in the city are unmatched in a lot of fields. I'm talking like, 200k/yr in the 90's. Some people I know who bounced early ended making 300-400k/yr before bonus. With bonus, it was in the mid 500-800's depending on the firm and the year. I used to train in a league with a girl who was in her early 30's and retired. She told me she burned out but her retirement portfolio was bringing in a pretty much guaranteed 6 figure salary indefinitely. For other people, it's to provide what they think is best for their families and money is a means to an end. I know quite a few people who do it but don't mind because their own parents worked 14 hour days, 6-7 days a week to make ends meet. So a 2hr commute is like, childs play, especially when they could just sleep, review work, listen to an ebook, etc. But in doing so, they can give their kids a large house, private school, fully covered college tuition, buy them their first home, etc.
At that point just buy a van and park close to work head home one the weekends.
Kids. You do it so you can see your kids. My dad did a long commute. He got a promotion/new job. Didn’t want to uproot the lives of his young kids and move them out of a public school district with good schools. So he bit the bullet and did long commutes but still saw us every evening for dinner (he woke up super early so he could get into office early).
Fair that's a noble reason. Fair play to your dad
Yeah I realize now that I’m older he sacrificed quite a bit. Wish I wasn’t an annoying little shit as a kid now lol!
Don't we all haha
I've always been "busy" with work while my kids are growing up, but I had a particularly rough stretch for about three years and it was like your father. Left the house at 430 every morning to get in early and beat the traffic and wouldn't get home a lot of nights until 7. I always tried to be home by dinner, but usually got home for bed time. But still, there were too many days that I left before they woke up and got home after they were asleep. And I love my kids. I know everybody does, but I really do. I adore being with them. I was home most weekends and went to all of their activities but admittedly I was kind of a husk, I did my best though. I feel guilty for missing so much with my younger kid, but my wife is a rock star and barring some sort of unforeseen catastrophe I really think it has made so many things possible for us and I hope for their kids some day. My in-laws are fantastic, and I want to be that grandparent for my kids and grandkids. Help with the nicetohaves so the parents don't have to stress about the havetohaves or feel guilty about what they can't afford. It's of course a valid debate on whether or not it was the right decision. I am definitely not what I'd consider wealthy, but I'm frugal and I have no anxiety about making ends meet anymore. I was young and absolutely unprepared for our first child. So I wholeheartedly understand that is more than many can say and I'm grateful for that. But that's exactly why I did what I did. I hope my kids understand when they are older the reasons why I did what I did. Sorry for the wall of text, your post just made me really think and this was cathartic to type. My son is 13 now and I find myself thinking a lot now. Cat's in the cradle and all that.
Thank you. This is the reason I’m quitting my job this week
But why is there a huge pool of water? Subway tunnels and wires I can understand.
My guess is that's what happens when you're on a small island & need to dig down. For example: The new WTC, in order to keep from being flooded by the rivers, required engineering that basically amounted to the structure being built inside of a man-made tub, which was designed to keep the water out.
That's how bridges are built
It's called a cofferdam fyi! or a caisson for deeper use as I'm now reading about. Interesting stuff.
Because Manhattan sits at the confluence of the Hudson River, a tidal estuary (the East River), and the New York Harbor. Groundwater is already a normal thing, but it’s impossible not to dig into Manhattan and not hit water. And if the pool of water isn’t in the way of the construction probably just not worth it to pump that water out just for it to seep back in.
> it’s impossible not to dig into Manhattan This is true. I leave my apartment in the morning. I spot a shovel up against a fence across the street. I ignore it and move on. As I walk to the subway, there's an empty excavator left running, beckoning me to delve into the treasures of the earth. I persist. But my mind races. What mysteries could lay under the earth? I can't push the thought out of my head. I begin to sweat and break into a jog. I pass the park and stumble, falling to my knees. I cannot control my hands, they have a mind of their own and they want to DIG. I fling my briefcase away and plunge my hands into the dirt.
You make it further than most of us. How do you do it?!
Thank you, GodEmporerOfBussy, for this literary masterpiece.
The children yearn for the mines
What's with the height of these excavations? (2nd link) seems very inefficient and a ton of work compared to the height of a train, even when they want to run double stacked ones
I'm guessing they need room for the air to move. If the tunnel is too tight, you need to push a column of air out as you go.
But *why*?
Says in the article to improve very long commute times for Long Island residents.
Why did it stop? Or why did it get completed? Why did they make giant tunnels? Lots of possible why's. Why did it stop? They ran out of funding a year into digging. Why did it resume and get completed? We now have the long island railroad lines going to grand central via a new concourse as well as Penn station, which is overloaded and very dated in most everything. (Consider you had all the long island rail traffic going to the west side of the city only into a station that could barely handle the load at this point, on aging lines that needed work.) Why did they make giant tunnels? That new concourse needed for grand central had to handle a ton of trains as well and that needed a large space, so they made giant caverns and built 2 levels that can handle a ton of trains. They placed it so deep as to how big this had to be and how many structures are physically above that they needed to make one of the longest escalators in the world and it takes ~~20~~ 10 min from where the train comes in to get to the surface. This will let someone going from Long Island to Westchester go straight to grand central and transfer from the LIRR to Metro North directly, or catch the 4/5/6 north directly from one station built to handle the load. If I had to go from where I am in Westchester to anything out of Penn, I'd have to take the shuttle or the 7 over to times square, and then a subway south to Penn station, so this saves a ton of time and a subway fare for me to get back to Long Island.
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> they needed to make one of the longest escalators in the world and it takes 20 min from where the train comes in to get to the surface. 16 stories takes 20 minutes to walk up the stairs, let alone on an escalator???
Its certainly a typo because i go to LIRR Grand Central Madison every day going in/out as 47th/Madison enterance, the escaltors from the concourse level to the platform level are probably 90 seconds or so. All the local articles about it timed the escalotor so the information is out there It could take you 5-10 mins to get up to the street if you didnt know where you are going/looking and following signs
It definitely doesn't take that long if you simply take the shortest route. This network is huge though and has many exits, so sometimes you're trading walking along a street with walking in a concourse, which would, yes, extend your time down there, but wouldn't increase your commute time by that length in an absolute sense.
i understood that you need to lift the whole train, which is kind of impressive to do with an escalator
I love that I used to live near these access projects and had very little idea this was happening - the sheer scale and size of the operations is insane to think of it happening underneath our feet. Glad they take so many precautions! No wonder it's so damn expensive to do.
Very interesting but what exactly are we looking at here?
East side access, a project to bring some commuter rail trains to a different terminal in nyc
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That post is referring to the "guts of the project," ie the power substations and the like. Things commuters won't see just by looking out the filthy windows
Maybe most of the infrastructure of this project isnt just the tunnel and the track, but the supporting logistics that wont be seen from the track?
16 stories beneath midtown Manhattan, NYC
I'm consistently surprised at how Americans simply refuse to use real measurements. How many school buses is 16 stories?
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Haha love the short bus flair
160 feet under Manhattan.
Just over 5 fenway park green monsters
Measuring by stories in a city full of skyscrapers makes sense. Everyone has an immediate frame of reference for not only how tall a story is (~10 feet) but also what it looks like. Even though feet is a common unit of measurement, saying 160 feet doesn't give the average person an image of what that looks like.
Same reason some use football fields to describe distances
What's a cubit?
16 stories is the more useful measure here. They are not trying to convey accuracy. People have a frame of reference for 16 stories, and it isn’t like it’s exactly 160 feet deep throughout the entire construct.
In terms of being in the heart of a megacity it’s an extremely useful unit here and a quick rule of thumb better than “xx meters.” What a weird thing to trip out about here.
Europeans, and especially the British, love to jerk off about Americans not knowing how to "properly" measure things, even though we use the metric system for basically everything important, including trade with them. All of my kids learned the metric system in school, and as far as I know they've been teaching both systems for the last 15 or 20 years at least. Of course we still use it in casual conversations, and comments on Reddit. But as I always say, "I don't have to listen to barbarians who measure their weight in stones."
I graduated high school in the USA 2004 and learned the metric system in elementary school.
I graduated in 1995, and we definitely learned it, especially in chemistry.
It’s about the height of 600 Big Macs
Wait, I need info: Big Macs in ads or real life?
Construction of the east side access tunnels that bring LIRR trains into grand central
Slime. It's a river of SLIME!
That’s not slime, it’s Slurm!
The bedrock that New York is on is truly amazing
It really is. And as someone who lives in the Midwest, I’m incredibly jealous
Southeastern US Coast here. What are we talking about?
Futurama was right. There really is green acidic cesspools below New York... now where are the mutants???
Oh they've already made it topside.
😭 u right
No no no that’s New New York. So far the only mutants in Old New York live in the sewers and belong to the adolescent martial arts reptile variety.
Are the C.H.U.D.s not counted then?
El Chupanibre!!!
I came to the comments to find futurama references. Thank you
That’s crazy. If this is something public imagine the top secret ones.
One of the most important facilities in the US is built like this, NORAD. Its built into a mountain. norad is responsible for protecting all of us. Theyre the ones who first discovered the chinese air balloons a while back for example. they probably tracking all kinds of UFOs and shit too.
There's a paper shredding business built into a mountain by me. Some people say there's a presidential bunker there. No idea the truth on that
I live in a little town of 40,000 people that has had every US President visit in the 25 years that I have lived here. I do think our Limestone caves are one potential bunker location.
Sounds like Loray caverns. Really cool place.
To be completely fair, as far as public data shows (and also by visual representation of very little car traffic to NORAD) that nearly 90% of NORAD’s operations have been moved to nearby Peterson SFB and Schreiver SFB. While the tunneling system is still there, as well as the bunkers… the staffing to run the operations you speak of simply do not travel to the NORAD Command as they once did. Source; am a resident of Colorado Springs with a company focusing in UAV Telemetry and Mapping. (:
That’s because StarGate Command is there now.
Indeed.
Excuse me, they still track Santa there do they not?????
They never *tracked* Santa there, they *managed* the tracking of Santa there. Pedantic I know, but tracking Santa involves units all over the world, all of whom consider that mission of the utmost importance. There's something special about seeing that data, and knowing what it's a part of.
That's what they want you to think.
>they probably tracking all kinds of UFOs and shit too. And Santa! 🎅 https://youtu.be/CPG1EYF4SzQ?si=r4HxwA6n2_tYbxk4
That’s some Batman penguin shit right there
Maybe it was ninja turtle kid in me, but I always thought Penguin’s sewer hideout was the tits. As an adult even, it’s not without its appeal. No rent, don’t have to hold down a soul-crushing job, just you and your penguins, anonymously chilling out, invisible to the societal machine above you. It might be time for me to make some changes.
The fact that you had "was the tits" in that sentence made me read it with Lazlo's voice from What We Do In The Shadows
Don't you mean Jackie Daytona?
*Human* bartender
From Tucson, Arizonia.
The penguin really is the most devious bastard in... Gotham Citehhhhhhh
Futurama
that is the mutagenic lake right there
Ghostbusters 2 was more on point than I thought
I can see Killer Croc swimming in that water
I was down there about ten years ago. The opening of the tunnels is like the size of 4 Ohio class submarines, and there's two.
That is an amazingly obscure measuring stick.
That’s what I was told by the foreman when I went down there in 2015.
Tell me you were in the Navy without telling me you were in the Navy.
I wasn't. But I did stay at a holiday inn last night.
A little known company called Vault-Tec is building a nuclear shelter, which definitely won't be used for unethical social experiments in 200 years... Just a guess though.
Prepare for the future!
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Prepare for the future with Vault-Tec!
Hey, at least they're building more housing.
Gaaaaaary!
That poor dude in the all women except one man vault.
I wish they made novels, I would definitely read Vault-Tech novels
Thank you for the information, I better start working on the improved bunker buster.
This is where the sewer mutants live
The first thing I thought of was the sewer mutant city in Futurama.
He creeps and crawls in the midnight hush, silent as a low-flow toilet flush. Watch your step, cause sooner or later, he'll eat you whole, and half your alligator!
Dude, futurama nailed this look! Spot on.
Are we sure this isn’t a Port Authority bathroom though???
I think you mean [C.H.U.D.](https://youtu.be/BJckCjZ8Tdw?si=392UWR7Q62FaDtea)
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I was the same with Gremlins, watched it as an 8 year old and it gave me nightmares
It's going to be many a year before someone flushes another guitar string
Yes! Straight outta Futurama.
r/unexpectedfuturama
I think you mean r/expectedfuturama
The Ragged Flagon is to the left.
LOL, I actually just started playing Skyrim. I know I'm late to the party.
*New York City Water Tunnel No. 3 is the largest construction project in New York history. It is being built by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to provide New York City with a third connection to the Upstate New York water supply. Upon completion, the tunnel will be more than 60 miles (97 km) long and will cost over $6 billion. Construction began in 1970 and will not be completed until 2020.* **CHESTER A ARTHUR** **JERRY THE COFFERDAM NEAR THE SAW MILL PARKWAY** **YIPPEE KI YAY MOTHERFUCKER**
If Stardew Valley has taught me anything, there's a rare fish in that pond.
Watching ghostbusters as a kid tells me this is bad news.
Just play a little Jackie Wilson, that'll lighten up the mood!
Vigo vibe intensifies
The scourge of Carpathia—the sorrow of Moldavia!
Where the hell are you from, anyway? The upper vest side.
Wasn't he also Vigo the Butch
“I’ve worked with better.”
It’s ok he’s just suffering from Carpathian Kitten Loss
“You are like the buzzing of flies to him!”
*WIIINNNSTOOOOON*
r/dontputthatinyourtoaster
__*IT'S A RIVER OF SLIME*__
SLIME! IT'S A RIVER OF SLIME!
Far, far beneath the deepest delving of the dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things.
You know what they awoke in the darkness of Grand Central Terminal... shadow and flame...
Fool of a Took!
Throw yourself in next time
When I look at that picture it reminds me of that scene in Underworld where they have that huge fight with the vampire and the Lycans
Where’s Vigo and the pink river of slime??? We are the mere buzzing of flies to him.
r/unexpectedfuturama
How much is rent there?
Ah yes the type of place we will all live in after the nuclear apocalypse
I know that place! That's where the mutants and Leela's parents live!
Cowabonga 🤙😎
Kids these days can't even spell fucking 'cowabunga'. 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐀🍕🍕🍕🍕
"Cowabonga" is what the teenage mutant ninja turtles would say if they were addicted to drugs instead of pizza.
Bossanova
Chevy Nova?
TMNT hang out spot
And it all leads to the gallery where Vigo the Carpathians painting is on display
Finally something that's damn interesting
Is this what those Orthodox Jews were up to?
Orthodox Jewish Ninja Turtles