Author(s)

Robert Steven Diamond, Brian Garret Kassel

Brooklyn Historic Railway Association, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.

Generally hidden from public view, out of our daily thoughts, and literally under our feet, are myriad urban underground tunnels that make our modern megacities possible. From their ancient beginnings in antiquity, as a means of supplying fresh water and draining waste water from cities, underground tunnels evolved into a means of providing high capacity rail mass transit in our most densely populated urban centers. This paper provides a broad overview of the evolution of urban tunnels across a 6000 year time span and includes the specific engineering formulas/computations for the earliest 19^th century subways/infrastructure projects based on the Roman vaulted arch tunnel.

Subway, Subterranean Passageway, Ancient, Underground, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Cut and Cover, Cloaca Maxima, Cryptoporticus, Croton Aq-ueduct, Arch Tunnel, Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, London Railway, London Tube, Beach/Greathead Shield, 19^th Century Arched Tunnel Calculations

Diamond, R. and Kassel, B. (2018) A History of the Urban Underground Tunnel (4000 B.C.E. - 1900 C.E.). Journal of Transportation Technologies, 8, 11-43. doi: 10.4236/jtts.2018.81002.