the city of philadelphia is gritty old yet alluring it's one of the few places in america
where the essence of time is so boldly demonstrated by centuries of urban decay
hidden below street level are untold secrets secrets such as a nearly century old network
of tunnels that sit adjacent to the current subway system some of which are totally abandoned these
tunnels tell a story of innovation good intentions and crime let me introduce you to philadelphia's
forgotten underground concourses i'm your host ryan socash and you're watching it's history
philadelphia has always been well equipped and ahead of the curve with regards to transportation
at one point in time a streetcar line ran down nearly every single street of the city's central
district even today it's one of the few cities in america to utilize efficient european style
surface lines considering that it should be no surprise that when it came to the construction
of the expansive subway network the city elected to approach the challenge in a very innovative way
let's start in 1883 when the market street subway construction began and not long before the growing
system would become electrified by 1905 the west part of the subway system was already open for use
and it was an instant hit for locals who could now move around parts of the city at ease the
other noticeable effect was a reduction in street congestion the plague of all cities
with these two factors at hand and a general trend for underground transportation emerging around the
nation there was a strong demand for a continued expansion but expansion came with a major paradox
gridlock of the city you see back then subway systems were typically built using a cut and
cover technique which required demolishing existing streets or sometimes even entire
buildings to dig a massive trench where tunnel would be laid before being covered once again as
no one wanted to evolve this type of inconvenience an interesting proposal was made to build utility
tunnels where construction material workers and equipment could all move below the earth leaving
other vital city logistics to continue mostly uninterrupted these are the tunnels that would
ultimately become the concourses by the 1950s a certain value was recognized in this real estate
and under the leadership of executive director of the philadelphia planning commission edmund
bacon not only did the city begin to exploit these tunnels but they were actively expanded
the hope was that middle class visitors would venture into the subterranean world using them
as a passage to avoid bad weather but also as a place to do their shopping
to really capitalize on this idea an entire underground mall named the gallery opened in 1977
this helped draw attention to the other shops and vendors that were already located underground the
commuter section of the tunnel would be completed by 1984 altogether bringing an additional three
and a half miles of tunnel and hidden corridors under the city at one point many of philadelphia's
buildings were directly accessible by tunnel the police had an underground unit but even back then
there were many abandoned elements of the system some of the tunnels were never even open to the
public to offer you a scope of their size they ran from 8th to 18th street and from south to walnut
and locust street and although we might not go as far as saying they were a celebrated part
of the city they were a certain factor of daily life for philadelphians that is until 2012 when
philadelphia i mean philadelphia saw a surge in crime according to a septa survey from 2012 it is
easier to track crime on street level than in the tunnels there has also been speculation that poor
radio connectivity and the fact that a female police officer was attacked in the underground
led to a decision that many portions of the underworld should be closed off and sealed these
more recent closures added to the sections located between arch street and ray street along the east
side of broad street that have been abandoned for nearly 40 years would at a minimum suggest
that a major part of the city of philadelphia will be falling into the hands of the past
it is astonishingly difficult to find photographs and detailed information about the majority of
the abandoned concourses however the section under arch street might just give us the best
overview on this topic as a whole the abandoned art street line was originally meant to be
a part of a greater delivery system which was to be called the center city loop the loop would
have been connected to the broad street subway and would have traveled past broad street and
fairmount avenue to ridge avenue and then 8th street furthermore it would have traveled from
south walnut or locust street past 19th eventually turning east on arch street and then connecting
back to the broadway street line the part of the tunnel that ran from 8th street to market to 15th
and locus has sat unused for 20 years this section of tunnel was never used for transportation
purposes and became a haven for something else entirely graffiti according to thefillyvoice.com
if you didn't already know it philadelphia is known as the birthplace of modern graffiti
and it all started with a legendary artist named cornbread who allegedly tagged walls in the 1960s
to get the attention of a girl he liked many areas of the abandoned concourse are covered in graffiti
the art evolves in style as time passed and some of the oldest traces date back to the 1980s
although graffiti is vandalism it does become interesting as a historic
monument with the passage of time much of the graffiti also features a unique
hand style that's trademarked to philadelphia graffiti art apparently many well-known artists
have traveled from around the world to add their work to the walls of the abandoned
tunnels under the city of philadelphia that most people don't even know about
for the past 30 years septa has been leasing the concourses from the city
and although many of them are on use today there are ideas to recapture the magic of the space
the ideas range from a farmer's market to places for public art exhibitions or a return
to the original concept of a shopping center it needs to be pointed out that unlike some of the
tunnels we have already covered on this channel the concourses of philadelphia are not entirely
forgotten they can be made easily accessible most importantly there is a will for them to be used
but i suspect that only time will be the judge thanks so much for watching its history
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