Because the new york sewer system is a mess
The tubes are there to raise minor steam leaks above street level so they don’t hinder visibility.
Another interesting underground quirk we have is our pneumatic tube mail system.
Wait those pneumatic tube things are real?? I always thought it was like 1960s sci-fi. Like what they thought the future would be like
It was the fastest way to get original physical documents from one side/floor of the building to another.
When I was a kid that was the standard way that banking drive throughs worked, too. You’d drive up to the multi-lane drive through, each station would have a pneumatic tube for handing off cash or checks or receipts between the car and the teller in the window. It pretty much ended when ATMs could start handling cash and checks.
Are these not the norm for bank drive thrus now?
I haven’t seen a new bank branch open with a drive through in a long, long time. Most banks just have multiple ATMs in the drive through, as there’s very little you’d need a teller to do compared to what the ATMs can do now.
Ah I’ve never seen that. Big city? ATM vendors sucks… Can’t imagine banks here surviving without tellers. I’ve only seen multiple teller drive throughs and an ATM eating one of the drive through spots.
Oh shit you’re right. I think I vaguely remember banks having those when I was really young. I mostly remember the suckers they’d give us tho. Fuck those things are cool tho. We should bring them back
They left? All the banks still use them in the middle of the US. So do drive through pharmacies that have an extra lane.
They’re still a thing. You can still find them at banks with drive thru tellers. My local department of motor vehicles has a drive thru for vehicle registration so you can do your inspection and registration without leaving your car. You send the registration documents back/forth via pneumatic tubes.
Those things used to be on every single bank drive-up teller booth in the 80’s and 90’s.
As a European, the idea of a bank having a drive-through is just absolutely wild.
Haha Roosevelt Island trash system go pshew
New sewer pope
It’s the ancient horrors beyond description, that are buried underneath the city, that are having indigestion.
Ooh. I know this one. Parts of NYC still use a steam heating system that was first designed in the late 1800’s:
Wow that’s neat
No, that’s heat.
Yeet the heat or beat the meat
Yeet the meat not the heat.
You should tell this guy.
Thank you. There’s so many people responding with unhelpful answers.
Ummm. It’s called the “Free Exchange of Information and ideas”. It’s about time you got used to it, Boomer. It was all your idea.
Wtf? Bad form, Peter Pan.
I’ve never been called a boomer before, I’m far from it. Let me exchange a free idea and information; you’re a fucking moron.
Sorry to have hurt your millennial feelings.
No feeling hurt here. Quite the opposite. Again, allow me express my “free exchange of information and ideas” and my somewhat amused feelings; You’re a fucking moron!
And you, sir, are an accomplished wordsmith! I mean, “fucking moron” twice? Brilliant! Thank you for you contributions!
Don’t feed the troll, ignore and move on.
Denzel movie used the steam pipes
There’s a lot of things under the streets of New York, many of them cause heat. In order to cool them off the heat is vented outside and the warm moist air meets with the cool dry air and condensates into droplets that we see as steam. Same affect as breathing out on a cold day, you’re not creating steam but it looks that way because the warm moist air from your breath is condensing in the cool dry air.
Could you name one thing that would cause heat under streets? It’s kinda hard to believe tbh
Subway brakes.
Ehhhhhhhh
Pipes transferring steam.
The New York City steam system includes Con Edison’s Steam Operations, a piped steam system which provides steam to large parts of Manhattan. Other smaller systems provide steam to New York University and Columbia University, and many individual buildings in New York City also have their own steam systems. The steam is used to heat and cool buildings and for cleaning and disinfecting. It is the largest such system in the world and has been in operation since 1882.
Wow this makes me realise why so many movies set in New York I watched in the 80’s and 90’s often had steam coming up from the ground.
We have these in Lansing MI too! Part of the Satanic Panic back in the 80s involved kids playing D&D down in parts of the steam tunnels under MSU, which, I’m told, is much harder to do now unfortunately
We have these in Lansing MI too! Part of the Satanic Panic back in the 80s involved kids playing D&D down in parts of the steam tunnels under MSU, which, I’m told, is much harder to do now
unfortunatelyvery fortunately since children don’t know how to look out for a superheated steam leak and it was only a matter of time before a child got fucking bisectedFtfy
Wow, that was quite a read, thanks. Amazing technology
Whole parts of Eastern Europe still transport Steam for heating.
What you think of is district heating, it (usually) just uses warm/hot water instead of steam.
Amazing for the 1800s
What the other comments aren’t mentioning is that, as you’ve probably learned, poops steam. Put a lot of poops under the ground (i.e. sewers) and that steam has to go somewhere, due to various complex thermodynamic principles that are probably beyond the scope of this question.
With respect, I believe you may have confused New York with Cleveland.
Despite the fact that poo steams if it is really cold outside, I have a strong suspicion they did not build a smoke stack to release a cloud of shit-smelling steam in the city.
Based on media set in New York, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.
There’s C.H.U.D.s down there…https://youtu.be/BJckCjZ8Tdw?si=mv2SGgDhgerDQil8
Wrong answers only:
Illegal underground gay saunas
german techno beats intensify
From the Steamed Clams we’re having. Mmmmmmm, Steamed Clams!
Rat farts.
It’s not steam. It’s smoke from wood fired pizza ovens for the turtle men that live there. There was a cartoon documentary about them on tv a few years back.
I never thought of them eating artisan pizzas. I always figured they’d get some shitty dominos.
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Have you never seen the movie? The only pizza they ate was from Domino’s.
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They’re teenagers, taste doesn’t factor in much after cost and availability.
They seem to have the only people willing to deliver to a drainage hole.
They wouldn’t do dominos they’d probably get a variation of Rays famous near them
Product placement in a movie doesn’t count
90s dominos also isn’t today’s dominos.
90s Dominos was trash. Even Dominos recognized old Dominos was trash.
Truth. Whatever they did 10-15 years ago made it tolerable. Not great, but tolerable.
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I delivered for two locations shortly after they fixed the pizza. In both locations, shift leads and managers came up with so many excuses for house pizza. More than any other chain I worked for. I didn’t connect the dots until later. The pizza must have been much worse before.
A new rat pope was elected.
Praise Cheesus
Thank you, much a-brie-ciated.
I love how plausible this is
They outlawed chem trails so they had to change tactics.
Damn nobody likes a joke?
Regardless of the truth, I prefer Diane Duayne’s explanation in the “So, You Want to Be a Wizard” novel, In that all of the steam in the subways are generated by a breed of fire worms. These worms, if left long enough, can grow to the size of a respectable and quite terrifying dragon.
This is the first time I’ve seen someone reference this book. I had a fun time remembering the title of this book when the only thing I could remember was “a book about wizards that had a talking car”
The author is active on bluesky and she’s actually quite nice and everything you would expect her to be.
I loved these books!! Need to give them another read soon.
