What Lies Beneath These Streets

Library Notes

Amy Notarius

 

The busy streets and bustling sidewalks of major metropolitan cities can be fascinating to residents and tourists alike. But what lies beneath these streets and sidewalks is just as interesting. In Beneath the Metropolis, Alex Marshall explores these underground areas.

The systems that make civilized life above ground possible, such as subways, water and sewer systems, and utility lines, exist deep below these cities.  Yet they rarely receive public attention until something goes wrong to cause a disruption in service.  Marshall examines the systems of twelve major cites, from New York to Sydney.  Each city receives its own chapter, and each chapter begins with a cross-section illustration of the city's underground systems.  In each short, readable chapter, Marshall traces a city’s development from its earliest settlers to modern-day infrastructure.  In some cases, traces of ancient city planning can still be found in a city’s current design. Present day Rome and London, for example, reflect their early Roman origins in certain design aspects. 

Social, political, and geographical forces dictate the development of most underground systems.  It took Chicago, built on a swamp, 150 years of engineering feats, such as rerouting a river and raising the entire city a story higher, before it could provide effective water and sewer systems to its residents.  New York's huge immigration and industrialization growth in the early nineteenth century demanded a new way of providing for the mobility of its huge population. Despite the obvious need, fierce battles raged over whether a subway should be built and who would pay for it. New York's first subway opened in 1904, and today roughly five million people ride every day. 

Other underground initiatives arise because the huge cost and demand for real estate above ground force projects requiring a large amount of space to be built underground.  This is the case for the French National Library in Paris, where eleven stories sit below one of Paris's newest subway stations. Part of the British library in London now exists in an eight-story building entirely underground.   

Marshall's research includes interesting historical sketches and photos, like that of a concert taking place in a London subway station where people were forced to take shelter during WWII air raids.  It's a fascinating look at a world we depend on but rarely see.  Check it out at Rowan Public Library today. 

Amy Notarius