re: The ruins of America is fascinating

About 18 years ago the City of Atlanta had to tear out a 50 foot section of street in Downtown. What most think as street level there is actually built up about 20 feet above the original antebellum street level. My company was involved in the repair work and as the sales rep, I went down to check it out. I had to drive in from about 1/4 mile away where train tracks enter and exit a small area on the edge of where the built up streets start. In Atlanta, that area is known as “The Gulch.” When I drove in under the built up area, there was a mini city of homeless shelters. I mean like drakes out parcels. Some with old couches, recliners, storage boxes, lanterns, clothesline’s, etc.. And people just chilling like they were neighbors. There was a tiny bit of light in the area coming in from the edge of where the built up area started. It was something I had never seen before and certainly unexpected. It was like “holy crap. There is actually a community of people that reside here in this underground place.”

Anyway, once I got to the area where they had punched the hole in the street above, there were piles of 40lb cobblestone pavers everywhere from whet the excavators had dug out the area to put in caissons. They had gotten to 1860s street level and that was the hub of commerce back then as all of the tracks converged there. I loaded up about 30 of them and took them home and made a small cobblestone sidewalk. The whole half day down there was eye opening.