Background
The New York 'Freedom' or Amtrak tunnel is possibly the jewel in NY's crown. Known in exploring circles, and briefly the public eye, the tunnel holds varying sentiment to many. Originally, this same line ran North South along the river, providing frieght runs. In the 1930s, it was deemed unsightly and less vital to the community than riperian vistas, so was banished underground, in a massive cut and cover tunnel that runs from 125th St. down to 73rd St. It's a concrete bohemoth, the tunnel of 12 meters wide and 3.5 meters high is studded by giant RSJ ribs at fixed intervals. Grilles, doors and vents frequently punctuate the tunnel, making it an ideal squat after it was abandonned in the 1980s. During this time, until 1991, when the tunnel was repossesed by Amtrak, it housed up to 150 homeless. From accounts and recollections, it was much more than a boozed out hobo with a crumpled tinny, but a thriving shanty town. The lives of these people were documented in two books: The Tunnel, and The Mole People. While the latter was a blend of fiction and errant fantasy, it served to capture the public imagination more than its counterpart, and its author and stories were given brief limelight. After the repossesion, Amtrak simply evicted the occupants, and bulldozed the tunnel clean to make way for its rail services.
The name 'Freedom' is hard to pinpoint - some sources attribute it to the name of a graffiti crew that painted some of the murals in the tunnel [Freedom Chris], others take the rather bohemian standpoint that it was the idea of freedom this tunnel represented. More commonly, however, it's agreed that the name come from the final chapter of the tunnel's history, painted in an amazing panorama in the tunnel: "in December 1995, the forgotten men of the tunnel received city housing. They've just begun to move. =Freedom= 1995".

July 31, 2006
Normally the distance between how a city is represented on film/tv to reality is yawning - with on exception - New York. From the instant dsankt and I set foot into New York, everything we'd ever seen about NY made sense. The place has a palitable heartbeat and vibe - from the overweight black women abusing their skinny white boyfriends in the MTA, to the street parties, this place has feeling. We were staying in 143rd, the latin district. Having lugged out bags through the MTA and the sticky NY summer afternoon heat, we turned the corner to be greeted by a toothy grin with a half naked kid wrapped around it, as he pried open a fire hydrant to the delight of his equally tiny friends, as his parents watched on from the inside of their open vans, stereos blazing hiphop.

Whilst all of this has nothing to do about the Freedom tunnel themselves, it does help to sketch in the blanks about NY. Having become regulars at the pizza shop around the corner within just one day, we set our sights firmly on some exploration.

125th St. is the heart of Harlem. We navigated our way past hobos and high class jazz clubs, finally crossing the highway and seeing our prize: the Amtrak portal.

Scurrying over the fence and down the slope, we paused briefly at the threshold of the tunnel, savouring the mix of nervousness and anticipation.. and then dived in.

The tunnel itself is really something. Whilst there are only two lines running down the center, the dimensions are staggering. It's dark, and the air is cool and tinted blue by the fumes of diesel. The darkness is punctuated by beams of blue light that desecend from the light shafts and give the gravel and rails and eerie glow.

The frequency of trains is about 40 minutes. Whilst you wouldn't want to get hit with a full speed Amtrak train, the tunnels are so spacious, you'd have to be completely stupid to become a victim. The chug of the diesel locomotives strikes chords with the tunnel, and the once placid tunnel becomes alive with the roar of engine and protesting rails as the trains thunder past.

To me, the tunnel itself was more impressive than the murals - which is saying something - the pieces dotted along the system are amazing - and the piece de resistance, the 'Freedom' mural is incredible. Click here to see the full thing.

Having seen three trains, we'd probably been under for 2 hours or so by the time we reached the southern portal. All the trains had been coming direct, and save for the one bend halfway down the tunnel, they were painfully easy to spot. In the last 200m before the exit lies the only section of rail that was well lit and tightly fenced to the lines. 50m into our march, I turned on a whim: there was the unmistakable light of a train bearing down behind us. There was nowhere to hide, so laden with cameras, tripods and bags, we started our flight, realising just seconds into it that the train was much, much to close for us to reach the end of the tunnel - so we pushed ourselves against the fence and lay down, as the bohemoth roared just a few feet away from us.

Exhilarated and shaken, we rode the adrenalin to jump a 10' fence followed by a 12' spiked fence to swoop into the nearest metro to take us back home. What a birthday present!