Subway Centennial

[NewYorkYankee]

What would be so bad with that TLOZ? I dont see anything wrong w/ it.

[MidnightRambler]

Of course, that seems like the tamest child’s play compared with the specter of terrorism, which spooks subway riders in a way that nothing else ever has. Back in May 2002, Nicholas Casale—then the deputy director of security for the MTA—took a team of detectives on an exploratory trip. They entered three different ventilation and emergency-exit points for the subway, and climbed all the way down to the track. One of them was near “the portal,” the point where a tunnel heads out under the East River. Though the city had claimed to have instituted better security in the wake of 9/11, it was still possible for someone to plant a bomb in a place that would cause horrific damage: a tunnel that would flood with water.

“It would start flowing, and it’s not going to stop,” says Casale. “How much water is there in the East River and the Atlantic? And you can’t drop a diver down there with a cork.” Indeed, according to Casale, a recent assessment of the effects of a breach on the 63rd Street river tunnel found that it would cause thousands of immediate casualties.

I've always believed that the domestic terror threat has been greatly exaggerated for political ends, but after I first read the article, I've thought about this every time I go down there. It gives me the willies.