Public transportation: You either love it or hate it. Between fair hikes, long delays and getting jammed into a car full of smelly people with oversize luggage...sometimes you would rather just swim across the river to get to where you're going. You might sit cozy in your seat with your Beats by Dre blasting around your neck, but did you ever wonder where all that extra money you're paying is going?
Fourteen stories below all the NYC hustle and bustle, The MTA has been quite busy digging massive holes into the earth for the ongoing East Side Access Project. This 8 year long effort will at long last allow the Long Island Rail Road to connect to Grand Central Terminal. To dig these tunnels they've been using two gigantic earthworm-like machines that are 22-feet long, weighing in at a cool 200-tons. The machines managed to dig close to 6 miles through solid bedrock before breaking down, left to rot since it would be too expensive to get them out. This of course means more delays, but the project is set to be finished (fingers crossed) by 2019. The MTA interestingly has a Flickr account which they update pretty frequently to show progress on projects like this. These pictures are both amazing and bizarre...How strange is it that this is going on under your feet every day?
Photos: Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Patrick Cashin