In its latest adventure, the New York Times’ Living City series explores the city’s enormous underground steam distribution system. Unlike anywhere in the world, New York hides away the largest steam system that powers all types of humidification sources, preserving museum art to even dishwashers in every restaurant kitchen. A total of 2000 buildings are powered by this service.
The Times video give a full survey of what makes steam so unique to NYC, as well as how it originates. The city’s system is larger than the next nine largest in the world, all put together. In order to establish an infrastructure like that, steam piping had to be laid down simultaneously with electricity. Even more intricacies are found throughout the rest the system — it’s a great watch if you have seven minutes to spare. [New York Times]