Brooklyn Atlantic

I’m a photographer by hobby and have recently become interested in the NYC underground. I honestly don’t want to break any laws but I want the experience and the photos possibly more.
The big question: It’s «Closed» but what is preventing someone from popping the cover at say 3−4am on the best day for doing it and taking a look? This is what I want to know. Have they sealed the cover or put up a wall?

Anyone who has ever wanted to see a piece of NY history in its nittiest and grittiest fashion, would’ve come here to the Brooklyn Atlantic — a site home to the infamous Atlantic Avenue Tunnel. Discovered over 3 decades ago by a gentleman by the name of Bob Diamond, this underground landmark was home to what he has dubbed the world’s oldest subway tunnel.
Tours started at $ 15 a head and involved crawling down a manhole and through some narrow and claustrophobic underground paths. It was all but likely you’d get dirty from doing this and even more likely you’d come away with seeing a part of history that even the MTA doesn’t fully recognize.
When tours were still happening, Diamond would give lengthy but informative lectures /​discussions on how it all came about and how trains /​stations were conducted during a time in which Brooklyn wasn’t even considered part of NYC. It was dark (folks were encouraged to bring their own flashlight) but very interesting experience. Tourist or not, this part of NY that was untouched by time is a fun way to spend an hour of your day.
Diamond has since started the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association (BHRA), aimed to preserve the historic sites of the underground and provide public access to these tunnels. It seems new things are being discovered all the time (
), which makes this tour even sweeter.
But tours have been ceased for a little over a year now. I don’t know if my little review will ever make a difference in bringing back the Brooklyn Atlantic but it sure is worth trying. To give the people of New York a chance to marvel at its own history through artifacts that are upclose and personal, is an endeavor worth pursuing.

(Posting this in hopes that BHRA will be allowed to open the tunnel again soon…)
Though the price seemed a bit steep at first, we had a feeling it would be worth it for the once-​in-​a-​lifetime chance to explore this abandoned train tunnel. We tend to be attracted to activities that require signing legal waivers, and this turned out to be one of the most memorable… and it came with priceless bragging rights. (Oh, that Trader Joes? No, we don’t really shop there — but we did climb through that manhole and poke around in an abandoned tunnel *underneath* it!)
Like others have mentioned, it is literally a tunnel — there’s no rides, no (intentional) exhibits, no 3D glasses. But if you love history, archaeology, trains, or all of the above, you’ll LOVE this. Chills are inevitable… from the stories of scandalous acts that took place where you’re standing, yes… but also because it’s underground. Bring a sweater.

Abandoned train tunnels from the 1800’s FTW !
Unfortunately the NYCDOT has closed the tunnel again !!!

The oldest train tunnel in the city, with a story told by a man that could blow History Channel out of the water, and you get there by climbing down a ladder into a manhole in the middle of Brooklyn. I’m game.
I don’t want to give a lot of it away, so if you like mysteries, dark and cavernous spaces, and have extra time on Sundays, you’ve got to do this.
Here’s some tips though:
— Wear hiking shoes or boots. It’s a bit muddy down there in spots and if you’re the kinda guy that gets upset when someone on the subway scuffs your Puma’s, you’re gonna get your heart broken. Wear something with ankle support, super uneven ground down there.
— Flashlights. Every hand held, head lamp, mag lite, lantern you own, bring it. It’s pretty damn dark, and in case someone gets separated, you’ll be glad you’re prepared and you can lead the search party.
— Patience. Be prepared to wait. The line queues up outside the Trader Joe’s, and it takes a while to get everyone down the ladder. There’s a bathroom in there if you have to go, but nothing once you’re down the hole.

Awesome underground tunnel tour with Bob, the man himself who rediscovered this tunnel that was supposed to be permanently closed in the 1860’s. Bring a heavy duty flashlight and some comfortable shoes! For more info, visit

Amazing tour for NYC history buffs! Officially the world’s oldest subway tunnel, built in 1844, buried, then rediscovered in the 80’s. You enter by going down a manhole! Tours only $ 15. Don’t expect to «see» much, its more about the experience and listening to the tour guide (the same man that discovered the tunnel) tell the history of it and its discovery. He is quite hilarious.

Murder, mystery, and mayhem! All this and more from the Brooklyn Atlantic Ave Tunnel!
Want to see NYC from a new perspective? Like, underground? Who knew it was possible to go down a manhole (yes, an actual manhole in the middle of a busy intersection in downtown Brooklyn) and suddenly be surrounded intrigue and history? If you’re a jaded NYer thinking you’ve seen it all or a tourist who wants to do something that’s literally off the beaten path, then this tour is for you.
Warning: this tour is for nerds. Bob Diamond is an entertaining guide filled with knowledge and history about the tunnel. And he’ll give you info by the spades. As much info as the dirt shoveled out to create this tunnel. If you don’t like nerdy facts and history, well, too bad for you because this is seriously one of the coolest things I’ve done in NY. He has a wry sense of humor and friend and I highly the tour funny and informative. Now if only all of our classes could be taught this way. Bob Diamond is clearly passionate about this tunnel and thank goodness! Otherwise this tunnel might still be «missing.»
In terms of what to see, there’s really not much. It’s just a tunnel. BUT, what makes this tour worthwhile is Bob Diamond’s storytelling of the history of the tunnel, the science behind the making of the tunnel, and how he came to find this tunnel. Plus, there’s a little mystery at the end of the tour.
$ 15 for a two hour tour. Be sure to get to the line a little early (15 –20 min before the start of the tour) in order to be one of the first ones in. There are so many people who come to these tours that it takes a while for everyone to get in and Bob will start the tour when MOST of the people are in. I said MOST. If you’re at the end of the line, you’ll miss the beginning of his spiel and you don’t want to do that.
If you haven’t done this tour, go as soon as possible! When do you get the chance to go down a manhole!

«Going down a manhole in the middle of one of the busiest intersections in Brooklyn? Are you crazy?» This was a statement of one of the passersby as I descended down the hole.
I had seen so many people line up on random days outside of the Brooklyn Trader Joe’s wondering what in the world they were doing. My curiosity got the better of me, and I started googling random phrases like «court atlantic manhole» at work, worried that my computer was being monitored for NSFW images.
Finally, I came across the website for the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel Tour, the very first subway tunnel in the United States. The opportunity seemed so unique that I had to check it out.
So one morning I found myself climbing down a ladder into a manhole and wondering whether I would be hit by traffic first or fall 50 feet to my death down the manhole. Neither happened. As it turns out, the manhole only drops about 8 feet before you hit the ground.
Bob Diamond, the man who found the tunnel after many years of being buried and forgotten, tells a pretty incredible tale. I could have done without the dramatic reenactments. Ironically, I think that they really took away from the story.
Bob believes that there is a locomotive buried behind the wall of the tunnel and is on a crusade to try to get the city permits to excavate.
Things to keep in mind:
— The tunnel is always cool. Even when it’s hot and humid outside, chances are the tunnel will be nice and cool.
— Yes, bring a flashlight.
— Yes, wear sneakers or boots. The ground can be a little wet, even days after rain.
It’s a great tour — you really feel like an urban Indiana Jones, minus the whip, hat, and fear of snakes.

Atlantic Avenues Secret Tunnel was SUCH A GREAT & UNIQUE Experience!
For someone like myself who catches the 2&3 train on Atlantic Ave nearly everyday this was a MUST DO!
So here’s the run down:
WHAT: –What this is, is a cool relaxed urban underground tour. You literally walk into the middle of the street and climb down an open man hole (sewer), into a once «LOST» underground tunnel from the 1800s. You meet up with the gentleman who actually found the tunnel when he was a younger guy and he tells you A GREAT TALE of how he discovered/​explored this amazing place that everyone swore (even the experts) didn’t exist. In Just regular clothes, and armed with nothing but a flashlight this place is yours to explore.
WHAT TO BRING: Should bring a good Flash Light, Camera, Bottle of water, small snack and your sense of wonder and Adventure.
PRICE: $ 20-​$ 25 PAY CASH ON THE SPOT (worth every penny=)
(You will also have to fill out a release form, incase any injuries occur)
LOCATION: Atlantic Ave & Court St – Right in front of «Trader Joes Super market» (Building looks like a Bank)“
You can’t miss it because of the line of people that will be outside waiting to go on the tour.
TIME: (This underground tour is only hosted twice a month on the weekend). Which ever day they choose, they offer two tours during that day– 1 tour at 10am the other at 1pm (may change) Its good to show up on time but if your a little late its no biggy, as long as the line may be, they take the WHOLE group down at once, the only wait is for your turn to go down the ladder of the man hole.
The tour can take up to 2 hours, most of which is the tour guide talking and giving you the history of the tunnel.
MY ADVICE (especially if your a guy thinking of taking your lady friend=) — is to listen to the first half of the story and history of the tunnel, cause it really is a GREAT STORY, but after the first hour slowly make your way through the tour crowd, and inconspicuously venture off on your own. THIS MADE IT SO MUCH COOLER FOR ME. Walking down a long dark tunnel alone, with nothing but the distant echo of the mans voice speaking, the dirt floor, and your small circle of vision illuminated by your flash light. Feel free to look around as they have old ladders, phones, wheel barrels etc. (there’s no need to worry about getting lost, because its a straight tunnel that comes to an end, and can always turn back)
Once again this tour was worth every penny and I enjoyed every second of it, I highly recommend it to families, couples, friends, or sole adventurers. It is a great day in BROOKLYN.

i’m really surprised that this got so many 5s. this «tour» was a logistical nightmare and definitely did not meet my expectations.
we were told to arrive 15 minutes early so we could begin the tour right at 115. so we rushed over to the corner of atlantic and court to see about 200 people ahead of us in line. the website made it look like we’d be on the tour with 10 – 15 other people for a more intimate visit to the tunnel.
Maybe we would have started at 115 if there hadn’t been so many people, but we waited until 230 before it was our turn to go down the man hole cover on Atlantic Ave. By the time we got to there, we were in pretty good spirits and had forgiven them for making us wait in line.
So, we get down into the tunnel ready to explore and see things we’d never seen before, right? Uh, nope. We had to listen to this guy tell this awful, disjointed history of the tunnel and New York City. Every 100 yards or so he’d stop us for 15 – 20 minutes to tell some part of the history of the tunnel in a very informal fashion, while we just stared at the bricks wishing we could actually be walking around.
I get it. The point of the historical tour is to get the history of whatever you’re looking at, but the website made it look like we’d go underground and we could walk around and do our own thing. The problem was we waited forever to get underground, and now we’re waiting in 15 minute intervals for this guy to recite his dissertation from grad school.
We decided to bolt at the halfway point, along with about 10 other people. i wasn’t about to wait another hour to get out of the tunnel after that experience. On our way back out, we all just joked about how we wanted a refund because it sucked so bad.
The positives: you get to see the atlantic ave tunnel!
The negatives: you pay $ 15 to wait forever in line, and to listen to some guy recite his dissertation.

SO SO SO SO SO SO SO FUN! oh man, this was such a fun experience. i’m a glutton for saucy history, and this delivered big-​time.
you climb down a man hole, maneuver through an aperature in an old wall, climb further down some rickety old steps, and then listen to some amazing stories about the tunnel. bob, our story-​teller and tunnel discoverer, was pretty awesome. his stories were easy to follow, yet completely informative. if i retain even 10% of what he told us, i’ll be thrilled. the stories are really like something out of an old adventure novel. river pirates, 5 foot rats, poison gas, espionage. yeah, all covered. amazing!!!
the tunnel itself is dank, dark, creepy, awesome. wear sturdy shoes and bring a flash light.
if you’re looking for a really unique, history-​filled, ny experience, this is it.

totally awesome tour that takes you somewhere that you won’t be able to get in otherwise to see. The stories that are told behind it are great too. Really worth the investment to see the «hidden» tunnel. I think they are trying to collect funds with the tours to uncover the next part of the tunnel that may house an old train as well. I’d love to see that as well! Go to see the trolleys at Red Hook, they belong to Bob, it was part of his plan to re-​invent the rail system. Pretty cool.

This was an amazing experience — wear comfy shoes (no flip flops haha) and bring a flashlight and your imagination! Walking down the manhole was surreal but seeing the actual tunnel and being able to picture what Atlantic Avenue must have been like in the beginning of its existence was amazing.
Hearing Bob explain how he discovered this hidden gem was a great story and I always tell people about the tour! There were a few actors the day we went last summer doing a reenactment of life back when the railroad tunnel was in use — it was great.
I heard that they might excavate the area in the back which is supposedly where the train lies which holds the diary of John Wilkes Booth… it’s like a scene out of national treasure! Must see!

This was not as awesome as I thought it would be. But only because I had imagined there would be some difficulty, maybe, say, a tunnel full of rats or snakes, or, just maybe, some ducking out of the way of poison darts, or, at the very least, some running away from a giant boulder.
Alas, there is none of that.
There is, however, the fact that you’re going down a manhole in the middle of a busy intersection to get into a dark half-​mile long tunnel 40 feet underground, and then being told a great story about the tunnel’s history and rediscovery by the guy who rediscovered it. He is a great storyteller, and this is a great NYC experience.
It’s not very dangerous or dirty down there, but, you probably want to wear boots or sneakers and non-​fancy clothes. Bringing a flashlight is advised, though they light up the tunnel decently for you.

In this age of «tear down and rebuild», it is extremely rare to find a piece of living history like the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel. Perhaps because it is in Brooklyn and not widely publicized that this has remained somewhat of a local secret. However, I prefer to believe that it is the nature of Bob Diamond (who discovered it) and his hands-​on, gritty approach to imparting its story that keeps this place literally alive with the shadows of history.
The tunnel tour is about 3 hours. We arrived about half an hour early and it was absolutely worth the wait to be down the manhole first. Bob greets you as you emerge through the more recently enlarged hole in the concrete wall, 10 ft underground, and apologizes for the uneven construction of the 15 ft of stairs to the floor of the tunnel. Being among the first down, we had plenty of time to wander about and discover the tunnel’s secrets for ourselves with a camera and some flashlights before Bob started the tour. Bob’s narrative takes you to the three former air shafts in the tunnel and for the more adventurous, you can venture into the unlit half where there is possibly a steam engine behind a blocked up wall.
Each ticket is reasonably priced at $ 25 which includes this full afternoon activity and a beer at a local bar which was refreshing and again, completely in spirit to the homegrown attitude in which the tunnel was rediscovered. The ticket is also a worthy and needed donation to the BrooklynRail non-​profit which maintains the tunnel and organizes the tours. Below are a few things you should know:
1. Be prepared for humidity. While not overwhelming, the air is not in any way fresh or clean and the warmth makes it decidedly muggy. Not recommended for asthmatics or anyone with an acute mold allergy.
2. The tunnel is quite well lit so you do not need an industrial strength flashlight. Almost any flashlight will do.
3. Arrive early to be among the first in and be poised to keep ahead of the crowd when the tour is over. 150 people who need at least 30 seconds each to climb the ladder out of the manhole = a whole lot of your time in the dank air so try to be first!
4. Bring a good camera! I noticed a lot of people having trouble with the «point and shoot» variety. I was lucky enough to experience this with a pro and you can see the variety of amazing shots that this place has to offer (with a good eye, pure talent and some patience of course) on his Flickr account here:
This place is a great destination for anyone interested in history, urban explorers and photo-​types. Bob Diamond and
do an amazing job keeping this place authentic and «found» feeling and for a few hours they allow you to feel a part of it.

ive seen this before and im glad i got a reservation to get in.
i love that this place is a «dirty little secret» and i hope it stays that way.
its a bit of a challenge to actually come down a ladder into a manhole and crawl into the dirt.
a certainly good place to learn about ny history.
i warn you, after you go down the tunnel, there’s not much to do but take photos and listen to bob — who is quite the informative speaker. it tends to be long winded — you could get bored with the info that he feeds to you, but i assure you it is worth it.
fork up the 15 bucks, muster the courage to go down a manhole and pray that you get a reservation to get into the tunnel.

I enjoy learning about the history of NY — I often go on walking tours and read up on it. For the bargain price of around $ 15.00 you can descend to the inner depths of the BK underworld into the first subway tunnel.
If entering a manhole cover in the middle of Atlantic Ave is not cool enough wait until you 60 ft below ground level to the subway that used to pass timber from forests of Long Island to the bustling Manhattan seaport during the infancy of the LIRR.
The tunnel had been sealed and abandoned for a century and has been rediscovered in the 80’s. It is now open to the public. On the weekend we went, it was obvious that the tour (seamingly unknown) was immensely popular! There were at least 100 people who descended during our slotted time.
It is certainly an interesting experience that is unforgettable!

Did you know that this is the world’s oldest subway tunnel? Seriously! It was built in 1844 and has been here all this time right in our backyard!
It disappeared for years and was rediscovered by Bob Diamond in the 80’s. He’s actually the one that leads this informative tour and although he stopped doing them a few years ago, he’s decided to bring it back and has been doing it for the past couple of summers.
If you get the chance, go and do it! It’s something that even many native New Yorkers haven’t had a chance to do before. Plus you’ll learn something new, especially if you’re into New York history.
You begin your journey by literally descending into a man hole right in the middle of Atlantic Ave and from there on in you’ll stumble your way through the tunnel over broken stone/​bricks and the relics where rail ties once lay. All this is done of course with the aid of flashlights that you must bring yourself.
If you consider yourself an urban explorer this is definitely a prime example of urban decay, despite how well preserved it is.
From the tour we learned that National Geographic has become interested in the tunnel and may soon invest in exploring it further and verifying what possibly lies behind the far wall (I’ll leave that undisclosed since it’s part of the tour).
Check it out before it becomes too booked up to do so! It’s already starting to feel like that. I wasn’t able to get a spot for a tour and ended up having to wait a month. So call ahead and get in on it ASAP!
PS. Wear comfy shoes, Clothes you don’t mind getting dirty in (it was raining and muddy when I went down the manhole), and your trusty light saber… and by light saber I mean the less geeky flash flight.