Deep Under Brooklyn, the Tours Will Resume

[NX Express]

 

Bob Diamond’s staying in Brooklyn, where he’ll continue his subterranean tours of a 19th-century railroad tunnel beneath Atlantic Avenue, and redouble his latest efforts to create a trolley line from Red Hook to Downtown Brooklyn.

 

Mr. Diamond, a transit maven and bona fide Brooklyn character for nearly three decades, vowed recently to derail both of his lifelong obsessions and split from the borough of his birth. Weary of clashes with members of the city’s Department of Transportation, Mr. Diamond told The Brooklyn Daily Eagle last week he planned to give his final tunnel tour on Sept. 12. After that, he’d pack up and find another city to live in.

 

The popularity of Mr. Diamond’s tours has surged in recent years, drawing hordes of curiosity-seekers to a manhole on Atlantic Avenue and Court Street on weekends – the tunnel’s point of entry.

 

“I was going to go someplace where they have street cars, like San Francisco,” the 50-year-old Mr. Diamond said in an interview.

 

But at the behest of the Brooklyn borough president, Marty Markowitz, and after an outpouring of e-mail from friends and fans of his tunnel tours urging him to stay, Mr. Diamond said he realized he made the wrong choice.

 

“I’ve been involved in these projects for so many years,” he said. “I just had to come back.”

 

A spokesman for Mr. Markowitz, Mark Zustovich, applauded the change of heart. “Anything that brings more visitors to Brooklyn to learn more about the borough and its rich history is always welcome,” he said.

 

As a young engineering student in 1980, Mr. Diamond discovered a forgotten train tunnel in Downtown Brooklyn that had last been used in 1861. By 1982, he started giving tours, telling tales of bootleggers, spies, corrupt politicians and criminal gangs who used of the tunnel over the years.

 

Mr. Diamond also founded the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association that same year. A ragtag but devoted organization, it would spend the next two decades advocating for the trolley car’s return to Brooklyn, which had last been used in 1956.

 

Brooklyn Historic Railway has struggled to realize its mission. It took a big hit in 2002 when the city’s Department of Transportation withdrew its support, citing financial problems. Since then, Mr. Diamond has had less success.

 

“No. 1, I gotta grow a tougher skin,” he said. “No. 2, I gotta get real political support from someone.”

 

While he seeks to rebuild support for streetcars in Brooklyn, Mr. Diamond said he would continue his tours. His tour on Sept. 12 is sold out, and he will offer another one on Oct. 3.

 

“I’m going to work until the day I drop,” he said.

 

Source:http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/deep-under-brooklyn-tours-will-resume/?ref=nyregion