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With over 60 per cent of the world's population living in cities, the networks beneath our feet - which keep the cities above moving - are more important than ever before. Yet we never truly see how these amazing feats of engineering work.
Just how deep do the tunnels go? Where do the sewers, bunkers and postal trains run? And, how many tunnels are there under our streets? Each featured city presents a 'skyline of the underground' through specially commissioned cut-away illustrations and unique cartography.
Drawing on geography, cartography and historical oddities, Mark Ovenden explores what our cities look like from the bottom up.
List of contents
Introduction
NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA
Los Angeles Made for streetcars
Mexico City The city in the dried up lake
Chicago The elevated city
Cincinnati The subway that never happened
Toronto Weatherproof shopping
Montreal Bilingual basements
New York City The global capital
Boston Tea Party was just the start
Buenos Aires Persecution and perseverance
EUROPE
Gibraltar The riddled rock
Madrid Mazes and metros
Liverpool First rail tunnels
Manchester Pioneers and pipedreams
London On Roman shoulders
Barcelona The planned city
Paris The Swiss cheese of Europe
Rotterdam Holding back the sea
Amsterdam Hidden under canals
Marseille Tunnels made a beach
Milan Crypts and pieces
Oslo Opportune opening
Rome Where roofs become foundations
Munich From the ashes
Berlin Divided and healed
Budapest Thermal layers
Stockholm In love with tunnels
Helsinki Sheltering an entire city
Moscow Secret subterrania
ASIA AND OCEANIA
Mumbai City of seven islands
Beijing Created by hand
Tokyo Meeting under a megalopolis
Sydney Roads to nowhere
About the author
Mark Ovenden is a British writer and broadcaster. At the age of seven, he travelled alone ten miles on the London Underground, armed only with a map. He later gained entry to a Graphic Design course by submitting a reworking of the London tube map. His previous books are Transit Maps of the World, Great Railway Maps of the World, Metro Maps of the World, Paris Metro Style and London Underground by Design. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society.
Summary
With over 60 per cent of the world’s population living in cities, the networks beneath our feet – which keep the cities above moving – are more important than ever before. Yet we never truly see how these amazing feats of engineering work.
Just how deep do the tunnels go? Where do the sewers, bunkers and postal trains run? And, how many tunnels are there under our streets? Each featured city presents a ‘skyline of the underground’ through specially commissioned cut-away illustrations and unique cartography.
Drawing on geography, cartography and historical oddities, Mark Ovenden explores what our cities look like from the bottom up.
Additional text
“A fascinating dive into the monuments beneath our feet”
Report
"A fascinating dive into the monuments beneath our feet"
John Gapper Financial Times
