NYPost.com: http://www.nypost.com/200years/34393.htm CITY OF TUNNELS By THOMAS KELLY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- November 14, 2001 -- There is an old saying that if it is deeper than a grave in New York, the sandhogs dug it. New York's Tunnel Workers and Miners, better known as the sandhogs, are the people that literally made this city a possibility. To understand their importance it is probably best to consider the shape of New York without their accomplishments. First, take away the subway system that sprawls under our streets. You think traffic is bad now, add the million plus riders to the crowded streets and try getting around town. After the subway is shut down you can dismantle all the major bridges spanning our rivers because the sandhogs sunk caisson into the muck, creating the foundations for them to rise on. Next, refill the Holland and Lincoln, Midtown and Brooklyn Battery tunnels, then the rail tunnels that link New York to the nations rail system and New York is remade into a city of islands, with only The Bronx accessible without a boat or plane. Then look at the skyline and imagine it without buildings like the Woolworth that rise on sandhog excavations. Then lets try to live in a metropolis without a sewer system, miles of tunnels built by sandhogs to flush waste. Finally, consider the sandhogs most vital work; the creation of a waterworks for the city. New York is a city surrounded by polluted saltwater, a city whose natural sources of water were either depleted or polluted by the middle of the 19th century. The epic water system consists of three tunnels, the first was finished in 1917, the second in 1937 and the third, while still under construction, is partially operational. All three are cut through some of the hardest rock in the world hundreds of feet beneath the streets of New York and connected to an aqueduct system that delivers nearly 2 billion gallons a day of pristine mountain water from upstate reservoirs and the Delaware River. Think of a city without this water, not just for drinking and cooking and bathing but also for fighting fires and running industry and air conditioning. Without these tunnels New York would exist on a scale closer to 17th century New Amsterdam then to our great city of today. The work is not pretty. It is dirty and loud and dangerous and men are hurt and killed while performing it. Twenty-four have died so far building the Third Water Tunnel and yet sandhogs were some of the first to volunteer at ground zero in September. I spent three years working the swing and midnight shifts on the Third Water Tunnel job and feel privileged to have done so. While the work was tough, the men are the best I ever worked with. Descending 800 feet into the earth each night created a camaraderie that is rare and the stories I heard have fueled my fiction. It was rarely talked about, but we knew that we were part of something that would last for centuries, that the rough work we were doing was of grave importance to so many. A number of sandhogs left to become cops and firefighters, careers considered, at least until Sept. 11, to be much safer. Dennis Devlin, a FDNY captain killed that day was an accomplished and well-liked sandhog. Many of the men I worked with ended up with silicosis caused by drilling and blasting hard rock and caissons disease when they work under pressure in soft ground jobs like the river tunnels. The work wears men down. But still, sons follow fathers who followed their fathers into the business. They toil unseen and in obscurity but without them there is no New York period. I am proud to have worked alongside them. So in this time of newfound appreciation for age-old labors let's not forget their accomplishments. Next time you cross a river in this town or ride a subway or turn on your tap, offer silent thanks for the sandhogs. Without them none of us are here. Tom Kelly: Brought up in The Bronx and educated at Fordham and Harvard, Kelly is a member of Sandhogs Union Local 147 and the author of two novels, "Payback" and "The Rackets."