Beekman Street Subway Construction, 1917

There are a lot of things you never really think about when it comes to modern city infrastructure; water, gas, electricity are all just piped into our homes and we never have to worry about how (as long as the bills are paid).

Graham Parker and his friend Stewart Cauley found these amazing photos taken during the construction of the Beekman Street Subway in New York in 1917.

It's unclear whether these images show a collapse or an excavation; either way, the bewildering array of pipes and cables reveals just how huge an engineering challenge the subway construction must have been, and also how much we take for granted when it comes to the provision of modern utilities.

Via Boing Boing