On Saturday night a friend of mine who grow up in Saint Louis took me to a pretty incredible spot in DT Saint Louis. Earlier in the night over a couple of beers he claimed that off of Tucker there presently exist abounded Subway tunnels that run the length of Tucker. He claimed that you can view these tunnels from a small park off of Tucker near the headquarters of the Post Dispatch. To my amazement he was not lying & indeed there appears to be a network of tunnels. What really impressed me was the actual size of the tunnels . It appeared that the tunnels run parrell with Tucker up until Cass Avenue .

I?ve lived in Saint Louis for nearly 5 years now & I had heard nothing of a preexisting Subway system prior to the Metro link. Basically I?m curious to find out a little more information about the uses of the tunnels , & if anybody can relate there experiences of going down into the of tunnels underneath DT Saint Louis.

The tunnels you are referring to were used to supply the Post-Dispatch and the Globe Democrat. Actually Tucker just north of the PD to O'Fallon is actually a bridge. We discussed this a while back, but you may be interested in what was said



http://urbanstlouis.com/urbanstl/viewto ... 0&start=15

Those tunnels were once used to bring commuter train traffic into downtown from Illinois. The Globe-Democrat building was originally a train station (notice the engine relief in the front facade). A couple of years ago Channel 9 did a program on many of the tunnels and caves under the city, it might be a fascinating viewing if you can get a copy.

Just got back from Chicago, where I love their double-decker streets, like Lower Wacker and Lower Lake Shore Drive.



Maybe instead of the extended touchdown for the new Mississippi River bridge under Tucker and west to 14th Street, the City could consider reutilizing these tunnels as a way to move new bridge traffic underground. Cars bound for points south of Washington, like Market Street, would take the tunnel and emerge from a new incline/ramp onto Tucker south of Washington.



I always thought a Metrolink line would be best, but apparently, Madison county lines are to tie into the existing line near Emerson Park in East St. Louis, and northside lines will enter downtown on 14th.

Turn those into lofts too!

They are the Cass Tubes. Friends and myself like to explore some of the old tunnels under the city, but there is one problem alot of them are bricked over or flooded. The Cass Tubes if you get into them are walled uo at about washington ave for some reason and there is alot of homeless living down there in the winter but they are harmless if you leave them alone. Also a cool place to explore is under Union Sta. To get under it you must go to the end of 20th street and enter in the metro tunnels and walk half way under the sta and just jump the fiencing and walls and just start eploring. FYI do this after 1am so theres is no one around and the train are not running.

I went to school In Holland for awhile and the city I was in, Utrecht, was laced with underground warehouses - in tunnel form - from the medieval period. They turned most of them into really cool resteraunts and hash bars. The ambience was pretty surreal (but then again ... maybe thats becxause most of the ones I visited were of the hash variety). I've often thought that it would be really cool to make use of St. louis' tunnels in a similar fashion (well maybe not hash bars - leats not yet - but resteraunts or clubs). .... Some of the tunnel/warehouses had live music and I must say that you haven't really seen a band untill you've seen a band in a medielval, barrel vaulted tunnel. Its somethign we shoudl consider ... at the very least we should make use of the old Lemp caves ...

I was considering throwing a rave in the tunnels?

A rave would be fantastic down there ... assuming one could make the space "usable."

Need a DJ?

Your three biggest obstacles towards throwing a rave down there would be power, noise complaints, & venue security. First providing power for the event would be difficult because you?d need to get a generator powerful enough to support a respectable sound rig. Generates are inherently clumsy & loud. Since the event would be illegal the event would require a generator that would be somewhat portable in order to evade possible confiscation. Secondly the sound & people associated with the event would inherently bring attention to the event. Resulting in the possibility that it would get shoot down by the authorities. Finally since the tunnels are abandoned it would be difficult to secure the spaces, you?d need to ensure that there?s a relative degree of safety for the patrons. After all these tunnels may contain undesirable elements such as broken glass, dead bodies, alligators, hidden government bases, or possibly Jimmy Hoffa would you wont to party in such an environment ?



Either way it would be fun?..



If you?re interested in Electronic music come check out Lotus on Thursday night??



2 Dollar Sangria

I was at Lotus on Saturday n ight...They had run out of Effen Vodka. That was disappointing.

I would like to know more about what the Cass tubes where used for and about the Commuter Trains that used them? I always knew they where used by the newspaper companies but not commuters. Also I want to know about the Globe bulding being used as a rail station and if so does anyone know if there are pictures out there?

Yea, there sure are a bunch of caves and tunnels and such under St. Louis. I think some of you may be getting some of them mixed up. No matter.



I love the idea of putting some kind of club or something down there. Before air conditioning, St. Louis used to have lots of beer gardens with connections to caves. Uhrig's Cave, somewhere downtown, was a major party spot, and of course those crazy Lemps had a cave under their house totally decked out; it even had a swimming pool. I say bring back the days of drinking underground!



By the way, Virginia Publishing (The West End Word people) have a book all about the caves under St. Louis.

I need some help solving a curiousity of mine concerning what looks like a railroad tunnel downtown. Playing around on google maps I found this rail line that disappears under the intersection of O'Fallon St. and N. Tucker and I can't find where it surfaces again. Here is the link http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q ... 010815&t=h

(if you zoom in twice you can see the tracks disappear at it approaches the intersection) The tracks appear abandoned and looks like its heading south into downtown.



So I ask this...Where in the heck does this line go and if it goes through downtown couldn't there be an obvious reuse for it?



Does it even go under ground?



Thanks yall!!

That tunnel terminates under the old Globe Democrat Building. The only recent use was for deliveries of newsprint to the Post, but even that has ended I think. There is a sort of plaza between the PD and St. Patricks Center that has openings were you can look down into it. The original tunnel and line were built for the interurban line that ran over the Mckinley Bridge.



The structure itself is not in the greatest condition. You can see were a lane of Tucker has been closed.

Shoot that was quick. Very cool, thanks for the info. Amazing to think how many trains used to cruise around this city. Were pretty lucky to be able to reuse the metrolink tunnel. I remembering hearing that the Arcade building had access to the tunnel and I just can't imagine how cool it would have been to have the metrolink stop in the basement of such a grand building. Thaks again.

The newsprint shipments stopped a while back. I believe I read somewhere that Trailnet is taking over the elevated portions of the line leading up to the McKinley bridge for a rail to trail conversion. To me it seems like the elevated trackage and the bridge itself could be used for Metrolink expansion to Alton and Granite City, as thats where that line used to go. If you follow Google earth or Terraserver, most of the old interurban right of way to these towns is still there, making metrolink expansion a bit easier. I'm just not sure how you'd connect the line in the city though, as they probably wouldnt want a seperate terminal on Tucker.

Wow - very cool - I knew about this LRT line from years past - it crosses I-70 - you can still see the electric lines structures on the bridge. It then crosses the McKinnley Bridge where you can follow it too.



I wish there were some old pics of the line and years.



I never knew where the portal into the downtown subway tunnel was though - thanks!

Somewhere I have a video of streetcars running on this line. You can find lots of info by researching the Illinios Terminal railroad. Here is one link with some old pic's including some on the elevated line.



http://www.davesrailpix.com/it/it.htm

mms://streaming.ketc.org/KETC/250mckinleybridge.wmv

Thanks for the great image, citylover. For those that don't know, the streetcar on the bridge is Illinois Terminal (Green and white, Metro East) and the one on the street further in the distance is City Service Co. (red and white, St. Louis)