Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Edythir t1_j66xp0p wrote

Reply to comment by Mrunlikable in Ancient statue of Hercules emerges from Rome sewerage repairs by Rob-Study-8562

I think it was Athens that tried to build a subway system but it ended up taking twice as long as planned because they stumbled into historic archeological sites every two kilometers

84

Nonskew2 t1_j66yu36 wrote

Not surprising considering its age and that cities were built on cities

45

Sepelrastas t1_j67mpnk wrote

Meanwhile in Finland rock was too hard and planners didn't know how to plan. If only we could have unearthed historical treasures, that would have been actually interesting.

11

seaworthy-sieve t1_j68c35f wrote

Meanwhile in Ottawa we forgot that we're built on a rat warren of tunnels and sewers, so we caused a sinkhole and now one of our stations always smells like poo.

7

Swiss_cake_raul t1_j68tni1 wrote

Meanwhile in Boston we filled in a shallow bay with garbage until it was just barely solid enough to build high rises on, and then decided to tunnel underneath the whole thing like a hundred years later. Actually it went pretty well all things considered.

6

Basedrum777 t1_j688z8u wrote

We wanted to dig but earth was in the way I guess!?

3

pasxalis777 t1_j67rh4g wrote

Same thing is happening with the subway in Thessaloniki (second biggest city in Greece)

4

Derpikae t1_j67styi wrote

Why were so many sites found underground? Just structures buried with the passage of time and dirt? Stupid question but yea

2

YsoL8 t1_j68006s wrote

4000 or so years of city being continually build on city will do it.

The ground major modern European cities is built on is largely the ruins of old versions of the city.

13

Nunya13 t1_j695tzh wrote

I always have trouble wrapping my brain around building cities on top of cities.

When we visited Seattle and took a tour, we went underground and saw all the structures that used to be above ground and were even still used when they rebuilt on top of it all. They even installed lights and glass in the walkways above so daylight would shine through.

It still trips me out to think about how people decide to just build on top of everything.

2

YsoL8 t1_j67zwxm wrote

Some day future city planners are going to find themselves breaking into entire unknown tunnel networks.

2

SaiyaJedi t1_j68jh94 wrote

Ditto for Kyoto. It even happened when they were building directly underneath an existing line, which you would think had already disturbed whatever might have been there.

1