 Most of the time we hear about crazy tunnels in these cities. Most of the time it's 90% just legend and rumor. It was completely, completely forgotten about. No one, no one knew it was there. People speculated but there was no actual grounds for knowing about that. All the experts were saying it was destroyed and all kinds of bizarre stories about eight foot men and rats inside of it, poison gas. Even though something sounds outlandish, it may be real. I was born in Brooklyn, lived in this very apartment for most of my life. I was always interested in engineering. I always had an interest in trains because trains were kind of like a combination of my two interests which was history and engineering. So it was a combination of both areas so it was a natural fit. When I was in high school, I won a science award for alternative energy sources. I built a working model of a satellite that would orbit the earth and change sunlight into electricity using photovoltaic cells and you could power up the city off of one big satellite. I was going to Pratt, studying electrical engineering, put the radio on and it was the Gil Groh show and he was talking about a book that just came out that week called the Cosgrove Report. And the thrust of the book was that John Wilkes Booth was never killed, that he escaped to England by way of Manhattan and then on his way out of New York, he hid the missing pages of his diary inside of a tunnel that was just closed up on Atlantic Avenue. Oh, by the way, next to it is a steam locomotive laying on its side. So I was like, what? Steam locomotives in John Wilkes Booth? I'm on it. So I figured the best way to start was to get a good map of the area from that time period. So I just kept on digging until I found that newspaper article from 1911, which told about the set of engineers drawings of the borough president's office from 1861. And I brought it home and I looked at it for about two seconds and I saw it was an opening in the roof of the tunnel right here. Come on, Silver, be a good boy. He doesn't like the map. And this opening in the roof of the tunnel lines up right over here with a dot in the middle of Atlantic Avenue and Court Street. I figured that must be a manhole cover. So what I ended up doing was I went to the borough president, Howard Golden, told him the story and he had the water department come out the next day and pick up the lid. So I jumped in and squeezed into a space about this high and you could see the brick roof and the dirt going off to the distance. So I knew there was tunnel under there. I noticed there was a space where the dirt then dropped down again and you could see a concrete wall right ahead plugged up with bricks and cobblestones like a doorway. And when we got through the wall and pulled out all those stones, a blast of cold air came out from the other side. I was just like laying there on my stomach laughing into the walkie talkie because I couldn't talk because I was so shocked that it was really there and all the experts were completely wrong that I couldn't even, I was speechless for a few minutes. But the gas company executives knew I found something because I was laughing so hard. The young man's name is Robert Diamond and we read about him in all the papers. The first subway tunnel ever built in America. That's right. I found it. We've been in the tunnel shut and forgotten for nearly a century and a half. Tomorrow it could take us all for a journey back in time. I took a close look at one man's obsession tonight in a dark hole under Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. The tourists actually happened by popular demand and so we had like seven, eight hundred people show up. We got them all in and out of there. But we weren't interested in the money. We're just interested in the experience of getting people down there because it was fun and they liked it. The funny thing to me is that I asked some people why do you like coming here because I had people coming back seven and eight times. So why do you keep coming back here and surprisingly they said because they liked the story of how I found the tunnel. So I'd hear all these people walking past me saying they wanted to meet me and then I'd get up and say I'm Bob Diamond and they would all applaud. I first met Bob when I went on one of his tours. I'd heard about him for a while and I'd heard about this mysterious tunnel underneath one of the busiest intersections in Brooklyn. I said sure, probably somebody's basement. But I went on the tour and that's exactly what it was. Suddenly you're in this enormous expansive tunnel which just stretches away seemingly infinitely away from you. People looking around in awe and then we all congregated at the bottom of it. Yeah, after a while I had kind of like a routine set up. They told me there was exploding gas and poison gas down here and five foot man eating rats, but more about that later. I'm kind of like an artist in a way because I like having people come down and enjoy my work. I get pleasure by them enjoying my work. So we just kept using the entrance that we built and everything was fine up until three years ago. I got a letter one day out of nowhere. There was no warning. There was no due process. I just got a certified letter saying your franchise is revoked and don't ever go back there again. You're going to be arrested. Well, we're there for 32 years, never had an accident. So I guess I was doing something right. So yeah, like in retrospect, like if something happened down there, like if there was a fire or something, then it probably would be rather difficult to get people out in an extremely timely manner, considering that it was a bottleneck trying to get through that, everyone through that niche. Yeah, I suppose that was probably a pretty serious safety hazard. In retrospect, of course, something I didn't notice at the time. The most exciting places for me are the ones that are more raw. A lot of times it's a trade off. The more people you want to be able to see place, the more you have to polish away that that roughness that can be so exciting. We were never given notice that the thing was being revoked. We were never given the chance to remedy their complaints and that basically there was no due process. And so that we've been there for 32 years, we made it into a federal landmark. It's in the National Register of Historic Places. People come from all over the world to see it. And basically the city just comes along one day and just says, get out. I like people like Bob who are motivated by something totally outside the realm of money and even outside the realm of kind of what makes sense. I think he has a vision and he has things he's in love with, fascinated by, and that is what drives him. It's such a bizarre, surreal sort of a story. In the middle of an urban environment where nothing is unexplored, he found a two mile long tunnel. What could I find? It's like, well that could never happen, but it did. The reason I did those tours, because people would come in there and say, oh wow, this is amazing. That tunnel was basically my whole life. That's what I did every week. And now it's like I'm sitting around not doing much for three years. What else am I going to do? I'm 54 years old. I'm too old to go find another tunnel somewhere else.
 Most of the time we hear about crazy tunnels in these cities.
 Most of the time it's 90% just legend and rumor.
 It was completely, completely forgotten about.
 No one, no one knew it was there.
 People speculated but there was no actual grounds for knowing about that.
 All the experts were saying it was destroyed and all kinds of bizarre stories about eight
 foot men and rats inside of it, poison gas.
 Even though something sounds outlandish, it may be real.
 I was born in Brooklyn, lived in this very apartment for most of my life.
 I was always interested in engineering.
 I always had an interest in trains because trains were kind of like a combination of
 my two interests which was history and engineering.
 So it was a combination of both areas so it was a natural fit.
 When I was in high school, I won a science award for alternative energy sources.
 I built a working model of a satellite that would orbit the earth and change sunlight
 into electricity using photovoltaic cells and you could power up the city off of one
 big satellite.
 I was going to Pratt, studying electrical engineering, put the radio on and it was the
 Gil Groh show and he was talking about a book that just came out that week called the Cosgrove
 Report.
 And the thrust of the book was that John Wilkes Booth was never killed, that he escaped to
 England by way of Manhattan and then on his way out of New York, he hid the missing pages
 of his diary inside of a tunnel that was just closed up on Atlantic Avenue.
 Oh, by the way, next to it is a steam locomotive laying on its side.
 So I was like, what?
 Steam locomotives in John Wilkes Booth?
 I'm on it.
 So I figured the best way to start was to get a good map of the area from that time
 period.
 So I just kept on digging until I found that newspaper article from 1911, which told about
 the set of engineers drawings of the borough president's office from 1861.
 And I brought it home and I looked at it for about two seconds and I saw it was an opening
 in the roof of the tunnel right here.
 Come on, Silver, be a good boy.
 He doesn't like the map.
 And this opening in the roof of the tunnel lines up right over here with a dot in the
 middle of Atlantic Avenue and Court Street.
 I figured that must be a manhole cover.
 So what I ended up doing was I went to the borough president, Howard Golden, told him
 the story and he had the water department come out the next day and pick up the lid.
 So I jumped in and squeezed into a space about this high and you could see the brick roof
 and the dirt going off to the distance.
 So I knew there was tunnel under there.
 I noticed there was a space where the dirt then dropped down again and you could see
 a concrete wall right ahead plugged up with bricks and cobblestones like a doorway.
 And when we got through the wall and pulled out all those stones, a blast of cold air
 came out from the other side.
 I was just like laying there on my stomach laughing into the walkie talkie because I
 couldn't talk because I was so shocked that it was really there and all the experts were
 completely wrong that I couldn't even, I was speechless for a few minutes.
 But the gas company executives knew I found something because I was laughing so hard.
 The young man's name is Robert Diamond and we read about him in all the papers.
 The first subway tunnel ever built in America.
 That's right.
 I found it.
 We've been in the tunnel shut and forgotten for nearly a century and a half.
 Tomorrow it could take us all for a journey back in time.
 I took a close look at one man's obsession tonight in a dark hole under Atlantic Avenue
 in Brooklyn.
 The tourists actually happened by popular demand and so we had like seven, eight hundred
 people show up.
 We got them all in and out of there.
 But we weren't interested in the money.
 We're just interested in the experience of getting people down there because it was fun
 and they liked it.
 The funny thing to me is that I asked some people why do you like coming here because
 I had people coming back seven and eight times.
 So why do you keep coming back here and surprisingly they said because they liked the story of
 how I found the tunnel.
 So I'd hear all these people walking past me saying they wanted to meet me and then
 I'd get up and say I'm Bob Diamond and they would all applaud.
 I first met Bob when I went on one of his tours.
 I'd heard about him for a while and I'd heard about this mysterious tunnel underneath one
 of the busiest intersections in Brooklyn.
 I said sure, probably somebody's basement.
 But I went on the tour and that's exactly what it was.
 Suddenly you're in this enormous expansive tunnel which just stretches away seemingly
 infinitely away from you.
 People looking around in awe and then we all congregated at the bottom of it.
 Yeah, after a while I had kind of like a routine set up.
 They told me there was exploding gas and poison gas down here and five foot man eating rats,
 but more about that later.
 I'm kind of like an artist in a way because I like having people come down and enjoy my
 work.
 I get pleasure by them enjoying my work.
 So we just kept using the entrance that we built and everything was fine up until three
 years ago.
 I got a letter one day out of nowhere.
 There was no warning.
 There was no due process.
 I just got a certified letter saying your franchise is revoked and don't ever go back
 there again.
 You're going to be arrested.
 Well, we're there for 32 years, never had an accident.
 So I guess I was doing something right.
 So yeah, like in retrospect, like if something happened down there, like if there was a fire
 or something, then it probably would be rather difficult to get people out in an extremely
 timely manner, considering that it was a bottleneck trying to get through that, everyone through
 that niche.
 Yeah, I suppose that was probably a pretty serious safety hazard.
 In retrospect, of course, something I didn't notice at the time.
 The most exciting places for me are the ones that are more raw.
 A lot of times it's a trade off.
 The more people you want to be able to see place, the more you have to polish away that
 that roughness that can be so exciting.
 We were never given notice that the thing was being revoked.
 We were never given the chance to remedy their complaints and that basically there was no
 due process.
 And so that we've been there for 32 years, we made it into a federal landmark.
 It's in the National Register of Historic Places.
 People come from all over the world to see it.
 And basically the city just comes along one day and just says, get out.
 I like people like Bob who are motivated by something totally outside the realm of money
 and even outside the realm of kind of what makes sense.
 I think he has a vision and he has things he's in love with, fascinated by, and that
 is what drives him.
 It's such a bizarre, surreal sort of a story.
 In the middle of an urban environment where nothing is unexplored, he found a two mile
 long tunnel.
 What could I find?
 It's like, well that could never happen, but it did.
 The reason I did those tours, because people would come in there and say, oh wow, this
 is amazing.
 That tunnel was basically my whole life.
 That's what I did every week.
 And now it's like I'm sitting around not doing much for three years.
 What else am I going to do?
 I'm 54 years old.
 I'm too old to go find another tunnel somewhere else.