Fun pass

Clare, here is the story I was telling you today: Brooklyn's forgotten subway, the world's first. How's this for an opening:

"Unbeknownst to the thousands of people who walk and drive along the busy streets of downtown Brooklyn every day, they are treading on a 170 year old secret. At 17 feet high, 21 feet wide and 1,611 feet long, it is a big secret indeed, and one filled with greed, murder and corruption. Not long ago, M and I had the chance to go down a manhole in the middle of Atlantic Avenue and find out more. What we found was truly unbelievable."

And

"Using the cut and cover method, the street was dug up for roughly 12 blocks, a wooden frame was built, a barrel vaulted brick roof put in, and the street relayed, all in the astonishingly short time of seven months. The work was done almost entirely by Irish immigrants. When the Irish workers were told by a British contractor they would have to miss church and work on Sundays, according to an 1844 Brooklyn Eagle article, an Irishman pulled a gun, shot the Brit, and the group buried him behind the wall of the tunnel-where presumably his body still resides today."

Try and beat THAT fare, Clare.

For more about the tunnel's history, how it was rediscovered and what secrets lie within it, follow this link right.......here.