by Gates, Moses
It’s amazing to me that something so ephemeral: In 2009, the latest year for which information is available, the Manhattan Bridge averaged 71,936 vehicular crossings a day. According to MTA schedules, as of June 2012, there are 136 D and Q trains, 114 N trains, and 103 B trains scheduled to cross the bridge each way on weekdays, for a total of 978.
ELEVEN
You can step off a platform: This area runs underneath zip codes 10002, 10007, 10012, and 10013. It connects the Chambers Street, Canal Street, Bowery, Delancey–Essex Street, Grand Street, Broadway-Lafayette Street, and Second Avenue stations, and in 2006 was serviced by the Sixth Avenue line (the B, D, F, and V trains), the Broadway line (the N and Q trains), and the Nassau Street line (the J, M, and Z trains). The V train no longer runs, while the M train is now routed through one of the formerly disused tunnels.
EIGHTEEN
At its worst, in the late 1970s, New York’s population: New York City’s population peaked at 7,894,862 in 1970, and declined 10.4 percent to 7,071,639 in 1980 before starting to rise again (as of the 2010 census, New York has grown to 8,175,133). By 2010, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Cleveland had, respectively, declined 54.8 percent, 54.9 percent, and 56.6 percent from their peak populations. St. Louis had declined 62.7 percent.
Sao Paulo has three full subway lines: Since the time of this story, São Paulo has invested heavily in its metro system, with one new line already added and another new line and several extensions under construction.
TWENTY-FOUR
“Pretend you’re French”: According to a 2005 European Union language survey, 89 percent of Swedes are conversant in English. Everyone we met spoke perfect, almost accentless English.
TWENTY-FIVE
It’s 386 square miles: The total land area of the five boroughs of New York is 302 square miles.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Our trip . . . how to swear in Russian: While Odessa has been part of the Ukraine since 1920, the city was founded by the Russian Empire and remains primarily Russophone. All the people we were with spoke Russian exclusively.
In the United States there’s a Tennessee state park: Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park in Benton County, Tennessee.
TWENTY-NINE
The street grid was surveyed and planned out: In 1811, as part of the “Commissioners Plan,” the island of Manhattan was surveyed in the current grid pattern up to 155th Street. The northernmost point of development varied across the island, but the first street to be laid out completely from river to river without interruption was 14th Street, which forms the northern border of the “old” New York City.
As the project is going on . . . GOOD magazine: http://www.good.is/post/urban-cowboys/.
The organizers just have an idea: I later learned more about how the organizers viewed the project. “The circumstances which originally brought us to the station, introduced us to each other, and formed our subsequent ‘working’ relationship over the past three years were completely circumstantial,” one told me. “The confluence of events which led to the gallery’s creation had no grand design, in fact we were unsure if the other person would continue even a few months into the project, let alone follow through over the course of a year and a half. And while we knew we were doing something cool from early on, what that would end up looking like was unknown to us.”
The other let me know, “For us, fun was everything. There was no vision. It could be argued that even now we don’t have a clear vision. We just wanted to do right by the people who trusted us, and the art they made. We wanted a challenge. The circumstances dictated what that was—not us. We compromised plenty. Our vision morphed, twisted, and changed almost on a daily basis. It still does.”
The gallery—which the organizers dub “The Underbelly Project”: Jasper Rees, “Street Art Way Below the Street.” The New York Times, October 31, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/arts/design/01underbelly.html?pagewanted=all.
The project ends in some mild graffiti-world drama: Interestingly, I later learned that, in a way, we were actually ultimately responsible for the whole thing. One drunken night, Shane had met a stranger in the bathroom of a nearby bar and ended up showing him the station. The guy was one of the people who ended up organizing the gallery. We found out about this connection only after the fact, when I recognized him in one of Shane’s photos from that night.
THIRTY-ONE
Rome was the Detroit of the Middle Ages: Rome peaked at about 1,000,000 people in the imperial era and fell to less than 50,000 during the Middle Ages. Detroit peaked at 1,849,568 million people in 1950 and as of the 2010 Census had 713,777 residents—a population decline of approximately 61.3 percent. Two more population declines of this magnitude would leave it with about 107,351 people, or 5.8 percent of its peak population.
I remember the old adage: Steve explains further: “Throughout our early trips, Moe and I were both struggling with the conflict in our minds of what we thought was cool and badass and what we thought was respectable and worthwhile. And now I don’t think there is a conflict between that. I think you can have an adventure and learn at the same time. I think you can show adventure and teach at the same time. And I think you can have an exciting life and be respectable at the same time. But at the time, what really worked between us was we both had that conflict of: Can you really be a good person and a respectable person if you’re also trying to be this crazy, cool guy?”
THIRTY-THREE
Despite the tens of thousands of homeless men: As this book goes to print, there are 46,773 people staying in the New York City shelter system. This does not include people not formally in the system. The January 30, 2012, Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE) survey conducted by the New York City Department of Homeless Services counted 3,262 people living without shelter throughout the five boroughs.
He had contacted Steve with the idea: This overall expedition ended up as the stories “The Wilderness Below Your Feet” by Alan Feuer, The New York Times, December 31, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/nyregion/02underground.html?_r=1, and “Into the Tunnels: Exploring the Underside of NYC” by Jacki Lyden, NPR, January 2, 2011, http://www.npr.org/2011/01/02/132482428/into-the-tunnels-exploring-the-underside-of-nyc.
Further Reading
Archer, Carolyn. Under Paris. Mark Batty Publisher, 2005.
Dougherty, Peter. Tracks of the New York City Subway, 2013 edition. Peter Dougherty, 2012.
Law, John. The Space Between. Furnace Press, 2008.
Ninjalicious. Access All Areas: A User’s Guide to the Art of Urban Exploration. Infilpress, 2005.
Solis, Julia. New York Underground: The Anatomy of a City. Routledge, 2004.
Vegezzi, Sean. I Don’t Warna Grow Up. Fourteen-Nineteen, 2012.
Walsh, Kevin. Forgotten New York: Views of a Lost Metropolis. Collins Reference, 2006.
Workhorse and PAC. We Own the Night: The Art of the Underbelly Project. Rizzoli, 2012.
