015 Tunnels

Mirrored from brigidkeely.com/wordpress.

Forty feet below street level, beneath the water mains and electrical lines and telecommunications lines, there are 62 feet of tunnels and connections. Freight in the form of packages, deliveries, and coal (as well as removal of rubbish and ash) were moved beneath the streets from their construction in 1906 until their closure in 1959, and cool subterranean air was drawn upwards to cool movie theaters and businesses.

In 2002, Joseph Konopka was arrested on terrorist charges after being discovered secreting containers of cyanide and other dangerous chemicals in an unused storage area in the CTA’s Blue Line. The entrances to the unused freight tunnels were then welded shut, to the disappointment of urban explorers and the relief of those who know what non-human entities continued to use the tunnels.

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