Lincoln Tunnel Ventilation Tower, 491 11th Avenue, NYC, 2025.

[mattblaze@federate.social]

The Lincoln Tunnel, opened in 1937, is a multi-tube automobile tunnel that connects midtown Manhattan with Weehawken, NJ under the Hudson (North) river. To provide fresh air and remove dangerous car exhaust, three ventilation towers (two in Manhattan and one in NJ) exchange the air in the tunnels approximately every 90 seconds.

Infrastructure is heroic.

I didn't notice the "Camera Use Prohibited" sign until it was too late. I guess their secret is out now.

[mattblaze@federate.social]

Manhattan boasts six large ventilation towers serving the four automobile tunnels that cross the Hudson and East Rivers: two each for the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, and one each for the Queens-Midtown and Brooklyn Battery Tunnels.

All sport an industrial art deco design reflecting their early/mid 20th century construction. Their large scale and lack of windows lends them an air of mystery; the exterior of the Battery Tunnel building was used as the secret HQ in the Men in Black films.

[mattblaze@federate.social]

There are also ventilation structures for the various railroad and subway tunnels that cross the NYC rivers, but their smaller size makes them less prominent. (The electric trains that use these tunnels don't produce exhaust that has to be as aggressively vented as in an automotive tunnel).

Let me just mention that photographing buildings from across the major avenues during the day in midtown Manhattan is like playing a video game in "extreme hardcore" mode.

[float13@masto.hackers.town]

@mattblaze

It wouldn't hurt to add some more ventilation to the subway tunnels though... There was a study years ago that found the black carbon in air levels in the subway were something like 3x at street level iirc...

[photo55@mastodon.social]

@mattblaze Men in Black?

[cvvhrn@sfba.social]

@mattblaze HAHAHA been there and done that with those signs

[mattblaze@federate.social]

@Photo55 Different tower; see the thread

[cvvhrn@sfba.social]

@mattblaze This is totally FAKE NEWS we all know this is a cover for the entrance the MIB HQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnxtJ4468fM

[mattblaze@federate.social]

@cvvhrn That's the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel! This one is totally legit, I swear.

[cvvhrn@sfba.social]

@mattblaze Exactly what I would expect a MIB agent to say lol

[cvvhrn@sfba.social]

@mattblaze Look all I know is I dropped into the Subway and no monsters, no rats, nothing.

[mattblaze@federate.social]

@cvvhrn That's the decoy subway we show to tourists.

[faraiwe@mstdn.social]

@mattblaze Sir, we need you to look at this blinking light.

[cvvhrn@sfba.social]

@mattblaze Man I was jipped then. i want to see a rat dragging oversized food or at the very least a human appendage

[photo55@mastodon.social]

@mattblaze ah yes.