Ascher Kate. The Works: Anatomy of a City

NY:. Penguin, 2007 — 244 p. — ISBN 9780143112709, 0143112708How much do you really know about the systems that keep a city alive? «The Works: Anatomy of a City» contains everything you ever wanted to know about what makes New York City run. When you flick on your light switch the light goes on - how? When you put out your garbage, where does it go? When you flush your toilet, what happens to the waste? How does water get from a reservoir in the mountains to your city faucet? How do flowers get to your corner store from Holland, or bananas get there from Ecuador? Who is operating the traffic lights all over the city? And what in the world is that steam coming out from underneath the potholes on the street? Across the city lies a series of extraordinarily complex and interconnected systems. Often invisible, and wholly taken for granted, these are the systems that make urban life possible. «The Works: Anatomy of a City» offers a cross section of this hidden infrastructure, using beautiful, innovative graphic images combined with short, clear text explanations to answer all the questions about the way things work in a modern city. It describes the technologies that keep the city functioning, as well as the people who support them - the pilots that bring the ships in over the Narrows sandbar, the sandhogs who are currently digging the third water tunnel under Manhattan, the television engineer who scales the Empire State Building's antenna for routine maintenance, the electrical wizards who maintain the century-old system that delivers power to subways. Did you know that the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is so long, and its towers are so high, that the builders had to take the curvature of the earth's surface into account when designing it? Did you know that the George Washington Bridge takes in approximately $1 million per day in tolls? Did you know that retired subway cars travel by barge to the mid-Atlantic, where they are dumped overboard to form natural reefs for fish? Or that if the telecom cables under New York were strung end to end, they would reach from the earth to the sun? While the book uses New York as its example, it has relevance well beyond that city's boundaries as the systems that make New York a functioning metropolis are similar to those that keep the bright lights burning in big cities everywhere. The Works is for anyone who has ever stopped midcrosswalk, looked at the rapidly moving metropolis around them, and wondered, how does this all work?
Scattered throughout are fascinating facts and anecdotes: did you know that the George Washington Bridge was originally designed to be clad in concrete, but its skeleton was so attractive that the Port Authority decided to leave it «naked»? Or that city sewage used to be sent by train to a field in western Texas but is now routinely turned into pellets that fertilize orange groves in Florida? That the more than a billion gallons of water New Yorkers use each day are gravity fed, meaning they will naturally rise to the sixth floor of any building without needing a pump? Or that retired subway cars travel by barge to the mid-Atlantic, where they are dumped overboard to form natural reefs for fish? Unique in the breadth and depth of its information, here is «the city that never sleeps» operating 24/7. The Works is the ultimate guide to the way things work in the modern city.
«A behind-the-scenes account of the interconnected technology, transportation, and utility systems supporting New York City pairs detailed graphic images with accessible explanations of behind-the-scenes mechanisms and processes for key structures and everyday arenas. 60,000 first printing, «The Works» contains a section on pretty much every aspect of the Big Apple's infrastructure. You'll learn the mystery of the shiny silver tanks that have become a familiar sight on New York streets. (They prevent moisture from damaging underground phone lines.) Ascher explains how the city's 23 million daily pieces of mail are processed. We also learn about the 27-mile underground pneumatic mail tube that used to carry canisters with 500 letters up to 30 miles per hour around Manhattan. Also interesting: the story of the nine-foot-long, 800-pound robot submarine that city engineers send to probe leaks in the Delaware Aqueduct - which, it might interest you to know, is the world's longest continuous underground tunnel. And you'll find out all about Colonel Waring and his «White Wings». A great coffee table book for New York lovers or anyone with a curiosity bone». - Alex RoslinMoving people
Streets
Regional Traffic
Traffic Signals
Split Phasing
Traffic Cameras
Thru Streets Program
Traffic-Calming Measures
Street Surfaces
Street Repair
Sidewalks
Pedestrians
Street Signs
Streetlights
Parking Meters
Street Trees
Subway
The Subway Network
Stations
Subway Announcements
Trains
Signals and Interlocking
Power
Train Crews
Breakdowns
Rail Yards
Pump Booms
Support Cars
Bridges & Tunnels
Bridges
Bridge Operations
Bridge Maintenance
Tunnels
Tunnel Maintenance
Moving freight
Rail Freight
Railcars
Classification Yards
Transcontinental Freight
Maritime Freight
The Harbor
Entering the Harbor
Managing Harbor Traffic
Vessel Types
Harbor Maintenance
The Port
The Container Revolution
Air Cargo
Commodities
Air Cargo Facilities
Stowage
Express Carriers
Markets
Power
Electricity
Consumption
Generation
Power Plants
The State Grid
Alternative Energy Sources
Distribution
Substations and Transformers
Wiring the Street
Blackouts
Natural Gas
Pipeline Delivery
Local Distribution
Repair and Maintenance
Steam
Distribution
Maintenance and Repair
Steam Explosions
Communications
Telephone
Switching Stations
Underground Cables
Cell Phones
Pay Phones
Emergency Communications
Moving the Mail
Mail Distribution
ZIP Codes
The Airwaves
Television
Cable Television
Satellite Broadcasting
Radio Technology
Transmission
Keeping it clean
Water
Reservoirs
Aqueducts
Local Distribution
Regulators & Pressure
Hydrants
Water Storage
Leaks
Water Tunnel No. 3
Water Tanks
Consumption
Water Treatment
Sewage
Collection System
Combined Sewer Overflow
Floatables
Sewage Treatment
Sludge Processing
Managing Effluent
Garbage
Sanitation Equipment
Collection Routes
Special Events
Exporting Garbage
Fresh Kills
Recycling
Composting
Commercial Waste
Roosevelt Island
Street Cleaning
Snow Removal
The future
Moving People
Second Avenue Subway
Direct Rail to JFK
Access to the Region's Core (ARC)
Moving Freight
Cross-Harbor Tunnel
Staten Island Railroad
Bayonne Bridge
Power
Hydro Turbines
The Long Island Offshore Wind Initiative
Liquefied Natural Gas
Communications
Wireless on Pole Tops
Broadband over Power Lines
Freedom Tower Broadcasting
Keeping It Clean
The Lloyd Aquifer
The Croton Filtration Plant
Containerized Garbage
Acknowledgments
Contributing Artists
Image Credit
Index