Russos at LiveJournal posted an absolutely exquisite set of photographs (many HDR) of the deep underground in Moscow. Many relate to subway construction, repair and abandonment. Others seem to have deep subterranean natural caverns. Absolutely amazing views of things we never see. Thanks for EnglishRussia for catching these and doing some translation so English readers can appreciate what it is we are seeing. By the way, unless you read Russian (I will admit to not) use the English Russia link as it gives the full set as well. I am sure that they are available on the Russos site, but I cannot navigate the Cyrillic. There’s another set of photos at Russos which I don’t have translation for and sense it might even be an abandoned station. Interesting contrast to the abandoned TTC one that is expected to draw crowds.
On this subject, there is a continuing curiosity. There was the announcement this week that an abandoned TTC subway station in Toronto (Bay/Bloor I think) was going to be featured during the Doors Open weekend in the spring. Media outlets picked up the story and were eager to add other stories about what’s hidden underground that we don’t get to see. They advised to show up early for the doors open at the subway station as it was expected to be so very popular. Why the allure? Is it just the opportunity to be one of a chosen number that get to share a secret? Is there an innate interest in engineering achievement? Or is it just the deep human desire to know?
The catacombs in Paris or Rome continue to attract the curious. I found the catacombs pretty creepy myself and by the end was moving relatively fast to get out. The tour of the sewer system (almost as grand as the Moscow subway) also continues to be a prime tourist attraction in Paris. While I think there is a desire to belong to a select fraternity and there’s always a simple curiosity, there is something to the sense of grandeur of engineering that goes beyond human scale and perhaps subways manage this one – certainly they do as part of the bigger network. There is an enormous collection of web sites or pages realting to the unseen aspects of the urban experience. People recount their adventures getting into places that people are not permitted. On a side note I went off to find the webring relating to this and note that webrings may be fading in favour to automated pingbacks on blogs.