Since 1882, Manhattan has been pumping hot steam through a 105-mile network of underground pipes to heat buildings.
According to Jamie Rumbelow writing in Works in Progress:
Steam functions like any other utility: produced centrally, metered, and delivered into homes and businesses through a 105-mile-long grid of pipework. Like electricity, sewage, and water, it plays an integral part in the daily operation of the city.
The system was invented by a guy named Birdsill Holly in the late 19th century:
In 1882, its first year of operation, New York Steam made $200,000 (about six million dollars adjusted for inflation) in gross revenue. An early steam station was built at 172–176 Greenwich St, on the site of today's World Trade Center memorial; it contained 64 boilers of 250 horsepower each, distributed across four floors. Coal was brought into the upper levels of the building, where it fed the boilers through a chute; ashes were dropped into the basement of the building in the same fashion. By 1884 the Company had five miles of pipes in active use – feeding steam to 250 consumers, from the Battery in the south up to Murray St, by the modern-day Civic Center – and was profitable.
Today this anachronism is run by everyone's favorite monopolistic utility company, ConEd, which pumps out 11.5 million pounds of steam per hour during peak times. That's two Olympic swimming pools' worth of water being vaporized every hour so New Yorkers can heat their overpriced apartments.
When pressure gets too high, street grates release excess steam, creating that classic "New York in movies" vibe that delights tourists and makes taxi drivers curse profusely.
Previously:
• What it's like to go off-grid in Manhattan
• 1:1 scale model of Manhattan in Minecraft
• Massive ice island 4x size of Manhattan separates from Greenland glacier
