![](http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/esa-map.jpg)
This morning I took a tour of the MTA's newly completed East Side Access tunnel 140 feet below Midtown Manhattan. My laptop is about to run out of batteries and, of course, I left my power cord at home. (It's a good thing I'm only in charge of running a blog and not, say, a 22-foot diameter, 850-ton tunnel boring machine.) So I'm just going to publish these photos with minimal text. I'll fill in the details later. Warning: If you're not a serious infrastructure geek, you might just want to skip this post altogether.
![img_5664-traynor.jpg](http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/img_5664-traynor.jpg)
Joe Trainor, MTA Capital Construction
![16-flights.jpg](http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/16-flights.jpg)
Sixteen flights down.
![dark-tunnel.jpg](http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/dark-tunnel.jpg)
Reminds me of a Merle Travis song.
![img_5725-man-car.jpg](http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/img_5725-man-car.jpg)
The "man car." Not the fanciest press junket.
![workers-tunnel.jpg](http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/workers-tunnel.jpg)
Heading southbound towards Grand Central.
![curve.jpg](http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/curve.jpg)
Left curve end. Right curve start.
![img_5724-digger.jpg](http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/img_5724-digger.jpg)
Digger.
![img_5682-welder.jpg](http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/img_5682-welder.jpg)
Blow torch.
![img_5687-schist.jpg](http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/img_5687-schist.jpg)
Manhattan schist.
![img_5714-sandhog.jpg](http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/img_5714-sandhog.jpg)
Sandhogs.
![img_5703-drilltip.jpg](http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/img_5703-drilltip.jpg)
Drill tip.
![img_5695-hoseguy.jpg](http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/img_5695-hoseguy.jpg)
Drill tip and worker.
![](http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/surface.jpg)
Back to 63rd Street and 2nd Avenue in all of its sweltering, stylish, SUV-choked glory.