The Atlantic Avenue Tunnel (or LIRR Tunnel) is an abandoned subway tunnel built in 1844, the oldest in the world, running beneath Atlantic Avenue for about 2750 feet between Hicks Street and Boerum Place. It had been sealed in 1861, fell into myth, and only rediscovered by the 18-year-old Robert "Bob" Diamond in 1981, who entered from a manhole at Atlantic and Court Street. |
The Atlantic Avenue Tunnel (or LIRR Tunnel) in downtown Brooklyn is an abandoned subway tunnel built in 1844, the oldest in the world, running beneath Atlantic Avenue for about 2750 feet between Hicks Street and Boerum Place. It had been sealed in 1861, fell into myth, and only rediscovered by the 18-year-old Robert "Bob" Diamond in 1981, who entered from a manhole at Atlantic and Court Street. |
It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1989.
Tours of the tunnel had been held, led by Bob Diamond, until October 2001, when the financial collapse of the BHRA forced Diamond to stop them. [1]
Walt Whitman wrote of the tunnel:
In March 1916, the FBI suspected German terrorists were making bombs in the tunnel, and broke through. They found nothing, installed an electric light, and resealed the tunnel.