Boston’s Forgotten Streetcar Tunnels | The Secret Subway Beneath the City
Beneath Boston’s City Hall Plaza lies a forgotten 1898 streetcar tunnel — a sealed remnant of America’s first subway. What began as a desperate solution to 19th-century gridlock eventually evolved into a hidden web of corridors, platforms, and portals stretching beneath the city. From the Pleasant Street Portal to the long-lost tracks of Scollay Square and Adams Square, these underground passages once powered one of the largest streetcar systems in the United States.In this episode, we trace Boston’s evolution from a crooked colonial peninsula to a booming streetcar metropolis, uncovering how the rise of electrified rail led to the nation’s earliest subway infrastructure. We explore how modernization, automobiles, and shifting political priorities ultimately sealed off entire sections of the network — leaving behind abandoned chambers, hidden platforms, and tunnels that still sit below modern streets.
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20:23
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20:23
Why California Abandoned the Bullet Train
What began as America’s most ambitious infrastructure project — a sleek, 220-mile-per-hour bullet train linking San Francisco to Los Angeles — now stands as a cautionary monument to over-promising and political gridlock. Billions of dollars later, California’s high-speed rail system remains unfinished. Concrete viaducts stretch across farmland like modern ruins — silent reminders of a dream that was meant to change American transportation forever.In this episode, we trace the rise and stall of the California Bullet Train: from its optimistic beginnings in the 1990s, through the voter-approved 2008 bond, to the lawsuits, budget overruns, and federal withdrawals that left it stranded in the Central Valley. How did this state-of-the-art vision become the ultimate “train to nowhere”?
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16:22
Why Atlanta's Zone 6 is Totally Forbidden
Zone Six is one of Atlanta’s most misunderstood places—feared by outsiders, celebrated by artists, and shaped by nearly two centuries of conflict, inequality, and reinvention. Once a tidy 19th-century streetcar suburb, East Atlanta gradually transformed as segregation, white flight, industrial decline, and redlining created a perfect storm that reshaped the neighborhood. By the 2000s, rising crime and decades of disinvestment cemented Zone Six as a symbol of danger in the national imagination.But behind the headlines lies a deeper history. From the Civil War battles fought on its soil to the rise of local heroes like Gucci Mane, Future, 21 Savage, Young Nudy, and J.I.D, Zone Six has become a cultural powerhouse—where hardship and artistry coexist on the same blocks. In this episode, we trace the neighborhood’s evolution from a 19th-century model suburb to a modern-day icon of Southern identity, asking what life is really like in Atlanta’s most infamous district and what the future may hold as gentrification accelerates.
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14:15
Why Chicago has a Bridge to Nowhere
In the middle of downtown Chicago, a massive steel bridge stands permanently upright—rusted, silent, and seemingly useless. But the Kinzie Street Railroad Bridge wasn’t always a relic. Once, it was a triumph of early 20th-century engineering—built by the same mind behind the Golden Gate Bridge—and a key artery in Chicago’s freight empire.This episode uncovers how the city that once moved America’s goods came to abandon one of its most advanced structures. From the dawn of Chicago’s railroad age to the twilight of its industrial might, discover how progress, pride, and preservation turned a working bridge into a monument suspended between eras.
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10:14
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Why New York’s Payphones Vanished | WHAT REMAINS?
For most of the 20th century, New York City rang with the sound of conversation. More than 200,000 public telephones once lined its streets — lifelines through blackouts, blizzards, and everyday life. From Wall Street to Harlem, these glass boxes were where business deals began, lovers whispered, and history unfolded.But over time, progress caught up. From the invention of the coin-operated phone to the arrival of cell networks and LinkNYC kiosks, the city’s payphones slowly disappeared. This episode uncovers how New York’s phone booths became icons of connection, symbols of privacy, and ultimately, relics of a world before smartphones.
IT’S HISTORY is a ride through history – join us in discovering the world’s most important eras, the minds that changed everything, and the most important inventions of our time through weekly tales of Urban Decay.
This podcast is distributed and operated by Video Brothers Music.
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