WashingtonTunnels.com

Mapping the Many Tunnels Under Washington, D.C.

ANDREW SMALL OCT 30, 2018

An interactive history of underground D.C. reveals the quirks of a city that was built by and for the federal government.

Washington, D.C., has all kinds of tunnels, from the many miles carved out by Metro to the underground labyrinth that connects the government buildings on Capitol Hill. ... Now those tunnels and more are on display in the “D.C. Underground Atlas,” a new, highly detailed interactive history of how underground D.C. came be—whether for government, transit, sewage, or steam. Taken together, the project impressively maps out the city’s tunnel construction, providing a cultural history of the federal government and the city where it sits. ... “You can track Washington's development through this narrow lens of tunnels,” says Elliot Carter, the creator of the digital atlas. “The emergence of industrial technology, the push in the 19th century for sanitation, the mid-century interest in mass transit—it’s all there.”
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It’s not just the Hill. As the executive branch expanded during the New Deal, tunnels became ubiquitous in the White House and executive buildings for what now feels like a mundane reason: heating and air conditioning. There’s even a specific steam tunnel that can be attributed to Harold Ickes, FDR’s secretary of the interior, wanting to keep comfortable after moving office buildings. “His office in the old building had air conditioning, which was really rare, so they built this tunnel just to provide it for his office,” Carter says. “It was clearly just Harold Ickes's air conditioning tunnel. No other reason.”

In digging up information on the tunnels, Carter discovered a paradox that comes with dealing with the federal government. ... “There’s an interesting disconnect in Washington,” says Carter, whose day job in public relations introduced him to GIS and spurred his amateur mapmaking efforts. “If you called up the [General Services Administration], to ask which side of the street a steam tunnel is on, they won’t discuss it. They’ll say it’s a matter of security. But no city is as well documented in federal records as Washington.” ... Compared to asking officials to discuss the tunnels, it was relatively easy to find out about them through historical documents in the National Archives, the Congressional Record, and other library sources, he said.
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Tunnels under Dupont Circle were first built for streetcars on Connecticut Avenue. (Dupont Underground)

But Carter says the “single most epic Washington tunnel story” might be the adventures of Don Bloch, a Washington Star reporter who wrote for the paper for about a year. In 1934, Bloch convinced the inspector of maintenance at the pumping station to let him cross the city through its sewers for a Sunday feature. Equipped with a flashlight, rubber boots, and a gasmask, he hopped down manholes from street to street, with “cloud watchers” who would warn him if a storm might pose a risk from rising waters.
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Andrew Small is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C., and author of the CityLab Daily newsletter (subscribe here). He was previously an editorial fellow at CityLab.