{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3338",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 3338,
    "subject": "Tunnels beneath the city",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2002-07-08T04:36:11+00:00",
    "last": "2002-07-08T04:36:11+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0207-1312@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dan Rabin",
        "address": "wolfe-lists at danrabin.com"
      },
      "date": "2002-07-08T04:36:11+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Tunnels beneath the city",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I was recently reminded that Chicago has abandoned tunnels that \nunderly most of the central business district (read about it at \n<http://www.ameritech.net/users/chicagotunnel/tunnel1.html>, \n<http://www.irm.org/railwire/rw162a1.html>).  I was struck by the \nsimilarity to Viron's tunnels, and especially by the fact that the \nChicago system was used to haul away coal ash, and the Viron system \nfor ash from sacrifices.  The Chicago tunnels also have water in them \nto varying depths, have access to the city hall, and are lined with \nconcrete (\"shiprock\").  On the other hand, the tunnels were *not* \nbuilt mainly for the purpose of cooling Chicago :-).\n\nThe existence of these tunnels was (it is alleged) largely forgotten \nafter their abandonment after World War II, but a railroad-enthusiast \npublication by Bruce Moffatt in 1982 \n<http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=1&ti=1,1&Search_Arg=F \norty+Feet+Below&Search_Code=TALL&PIDT24&CNT%&SEQ 020708002451&SI \nD=1> brought them to the attention of at least that audience, and \nthey made news in 1992 when the Chicago River breached the system \nowing to a construction accident and flooded many basements in the \nLoop.\n\nThe latter incident was too late to have influenced the writing of \n_Long Sun_; if Wolfe had these tunnels as a model, he must have known \nof them beforehand.\n\nYours railroad-enthusiastically,\n\n   -- Dan Rabin"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}