This should be an interesting picture for any New Yorker
More than eight million people live in New York City — 26,000 New Yorkers per square mile. The buildings are tall — many more than 70 stories — and the streets are busy 24/7. But did you know that the city bustles below ground, too?
More than 600,000 manholes give workers access to the world beneath the streets.
City water starts out in country streams upstate that flow into 19 reservoirs. The water is then run through more than 6,000 miles of water pipes to reach homes and businesses in NYC. Some pipes date to the 1800s, and more than 600 burst each year.
32 million miles of color-coded TV, telephone, and computer cable create the city’s huge communications network. Some telecom lines have been run through old water pipes.
New York has the largest network of electrical lines in the world — 90,000 miles snake under the city to distribute electricity to every light bulb at three million locations.
Seven thousand miles of natural gas mains deliver the resource that comes all the way from Nova Scotia, Canada, allowing New Yorkers to cook, dry their clothes, and heat their homes.
New York heats and cools 100,000 buildings using steam. 100 miles of steam pipes crisscross underground, delivering 30 billion pounds of steam every year. To make steam, water must be superheated to 1,000 degrees.
The subways run from 30 to 100 feet below ground. There are 277 underground stations.
More than one billion people ride the subway each year.
Twenty-six subway lines run on 450 miles of underground track.
Based on some of the reading I have done on NYC’s infrastructure, we are due for some major overhauls in the next twenty years.
This should bring huge energy savings (if done correctly) to the aging underground.
For the full story on the photo above check out THIS.
