Talk about burying a piece of Brooklyn history six feet under.
The city over the weekend pulled the plug on historian Bob Diamond’s popular tours of a long-abandoned 19th Century railroad beneath Atlantic Avenue, saying it’s a major safety hazard.
The Department of Transportation, at the request of FDNY, notified Diamond that it was revoking a contract that allows him access to a half-mile tunnel between Columbia Street and Boerum Place on Atlantic Avenue for weekend tours he’s run since 1986.
The FDNY in a letter dated Dec. 17 to DOT said the tunnel was “fraught with hazards” that are possibly life threatening, including it needing a second exit–- a ladder leading to a manhole in the middle of Atlantic Avenue is now the only way out and in – and having bad ventilation.
Diamond today said he planned to sue the city to restart the tours, adding that he can’t make improvements FDNY is recommending because DOT will no longer allow him access to the tunnel.
The tunnel, which was created in 1844, was once a route between New York Harbor and Boston, but it was sealed up and abandoned in 1861. Diamond rediscovered it with the city’s blessing in 1981 and began running weekend tours through a city contract in 1986.
His current contract expires in 2008, and Diamond says he believes he’s being forced out, so the Bloomberg administration can bring it an operator its choice.
“It’s so political,” he said.
However, the city says the decision is all about protecting the public.
Prior to the city’s decision, National Geographic was planning to shoot footage of the tunnel for a documentary on Diamond, but those plans are now killed, said Diamond.