While no one is sure what is going to happen on top of the Hudson Rail Yards, and the result is certain to be a sea change for the neighborhood, what’s going on underneath it is as important, but far less visible. In the southeast corner (at 31st and Tenth Avenue), there is an anonymous apparatus churning away. It is the outlet of the extraction unit removing rubble from the construction of Tunnel No. 3. Chronicled in The New Yorker a few months back (not archived online, apparently), and popularized by Die Hard III, Tunnel No. 3 is the lifeline for the New York of the 21st century. Planned decades ago, and under construction most of my life (while taking two dozen away), most of us will never see it, and never suspect its importance in our daily life. For the next decade or so, evidence of its making will be in the form of several intrusive sites where access shafts are driven. The exact points will remain under contention, since their apperance will be accompanied by the device currently in view, and blasting. Lots of blasting (there is an understated sign that explicates the signifying marks in the form of whistles and horns). It’s likely that very soon one is coming to the meat packing district. It will be about as welcome as a Jean Nouvel building, but if you go in for that kind of thing (most of my friends are resigned to the fact that coming across a hole in the ground will distract my attention for several minutes; once I ended up talking about the Verizon 10-K with an employee of Empire City Subway who was repairing a ruptured phone trunk line at 5AM), it’s an interesting diversion for a few minutes. Who knows, maybe Bruce Willis will come shooting out of the ground.
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Boreing.
While no one is sure what is going to happen on top of the Hudson Rail Yards, and the result is certain to be a sea change for the neighborhood, what’s going on underneath it is as important, but far less visible. In the southeast corner (at 31st and Tenth Avenue), there is an anonymous apparatus churning away. It is the outlet of the extraction unit removing rubble from the construction of Tunnel No. 3. Chronicled in The New Yorker a few months back (not archived online, apparently), and popularized by Die Hard III, Tunnel No. 3 is the lifeline for the New York of the 21st century. Planned decades ago, and under construction most of my life (while taking two dozen away), most of us will never see it, and never suspect its importance in our daily life. For the next decade or so, evidence of its making will be in the form of several intrusive sites where access shafts are driven. The exact points will remain under contention, since their apperance will be accompanied by the device currently in view, and blasting. Lots of blasting (there is an understated sign that explicates the signifying marks in the form of whistles and horns). It’s likely that very soon one is coming to the meat packing district. It will be about as welcome as a Jean Nouvel building, but if you go in for that kind of thing (most of my friends are resigned to the fact that coming across a hole in the ground will distract my attention for several minutes; once I ended up talking about the Verizon 10-K with an employee of Empire City Subway who was repairing a ruptured phone trunk line at 5AM), it’s an interesting diversion for a few minutes. Who knows, maybe Bruce Willis will come shooting out of the ground.