Question for New Yorkers ?
 

When I see New York in films and on TV at its night time, theres always loads of smoke or steam or stuff coming out the manhole covers...

What actually is that, and why is it there ?

You're hoping for steaming poo aren't you? :Oh crap

It's from the subways.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_steam_system

here you go sir :)

jamaican hot boxes their all over the city.

Interesting question. I lived there for 25 years and never thought to investigate. Nice thread.

Thankyou. Very interesting - Anther one of life's little mysteries solved :)

Oh, OK, it isn't from the subways.

:)

I remember the first time I went there, checked into hotel, walked out and walked over a steaming vent. Really felt like I was in a movie!

Fucking tourist.

Maybe it's the mole people.


I lived in Times Square for the better part of 20 years and used to walk through midtown in the mornings and see people come up out of the grates in the sidewalk sometimes. There are actually quite a lot of people that do live under the streets in NYC. In the 80's I spent some time in the subway tunnels photographing graffiti and I met all sorts of people down there.

Some cunt stole my 30D in Times Square 5 years ago. Pisser was, I'd been there 5 days, and had a memory card full of amazing pics, inc the cherry blossom at Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and all sorts of cool shit.

The camera was insured and I got a 40D as a replacement, but couldn't get the pics back. I wish he'd just taken the camera and left the card!

He was a clever cunt though. I was in a coffeeshop and had the camera bag strap wrapped around the chair leg, so it wouldn't be nicked (haha). So the copper said that he would have come up with a blade, slashed it, and left.

Fucker.

What's really exciting is when they blow up, which happens a lot more often than you might imagine. The infrastructure under those streets is archaic and the amount of high-pressure water pipes and other dangers laid right next to dilapidated electrical conduit is staggering.

I used to write Graffiti in the 80's, there was a whole hidden city underground. Check out the movie "Style Wars" if you haven't seen it.