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The tunnel under New York is longer than most road trips
America’s longest tunnel is not a highway, a subway, or a secret bunker. It is a water aqueduct carved through bedrock, running approximately 85 miles as a single continuous tunnel, with branches that extend the system even farther.
That distance is the headline, but the real hook is that you can live in New York City your whole life and never see the structure doing the work.
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It quietly delivers half the city’s drinking water
Every time someone in New York City turns on a tap, there is a good chance this tunnel helped. The Delaware Aqueduct is a major artery in the city’s water supply system, moving roughly half of the city’s drinking water on an average day.
It is designed to be reliable, mostly invisible, and always on, which is precisely why its problems later became so nerve-racking.
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The route begins in Catskill reservoirs and ends in Westchester
The aqueduct originates upstream, drawing water from the Delaware system reservoirs in the Catskill region, including Rondout, Cannonsville, Pepacton, and Neversink, before carrying it toward the city…