Gustavo Lacerda

Today I took Bob Diamond's archeo-historical tour of the oldest subway tunnel in the world, down a manhole in downtown Brooklyn (thanks, LeeAnn). The tunnel was built by Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1844, and only operated for 14 years. Diamond rediscovered the tunnel in 1980, after many years in which it was only known as the stuff of urban legends. He told us a lot of fascinating history, including much corruption... some things never change, I guess. Perhaps the biggest lesson for me was how easily history gets lost if we don't document it, or let the documents get lost. As a blogger whose content is indexed by Google, I feel privileged that my words have a decent shot at being around for a long long time to come.

CuriousExpeditions.org - A Diamond Below: a blogger's report

Crime and Corruption in the World's Oldest Subway Tunnel: another nice account, with pictures.

Bob Diamond's site

kas2172 - The Tunnel Man

whatsbehindthewall - What's Behind the Wall

rocketboom with Ella Morton - Exploring the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, professional interview, conducted by a woman with an Australian accent