i)ADangerousJo# E A ladder b a Curr

made ldc
Since I was a boy. I have always looked down ppen manholes
4 r¥dtt fi 4 I• Wgl4fiv0
with curiDfdty, SD I Welcomed th+ opportunity to explore and MItbL UOP-
w ite about the world beneath New York City. Win a group of 5 A scar b a mark kft ols tbc
Min after â wound 0¥' 00 ir\
11 jUry 1s6j healed.
“sandhogs"—thg 0iC/ft ame for the wDrkers who build New
Yerk‘s und«igounWI boarded a slow, shaky elevator lit by a
since light bulb. Slowly we went down a Shaft’ dug through
200 meters ef rock. The sandho gs were building a new
tunnel to bring water into the tity. The present tunnel system
marries more than 5.6 billion
li hers of water every day. That's enough water tp fill more than
2.200 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

As we descended. it got dark and the air got Fool. I looked

up
into darkness and down into duper blackness. then the elevator
stopped, and everyone got out. Then csme the hand part,
climbing another 1o meters down a long, slippery metal
ladder.“ At the bottom was a dark tunnel filled with dust and
smoke. Sandhogs were using explosives lii‹e dynamite‘ to cut
through be solid rod‹. The tunnel exfendz sIow1 my four
meters a da and with each day come new
dangers, Sandhpgs live in constant fear of being hurt by sharp
pieces of exploded rock Their bodies are covered in such
scars.“

"Why do this work?“ I asked Brian €iall4gher, a sandhog for

16 years. Brian’s father was a sandbag. too, but ›t is not t£adltion
that brought him h£tre. “IU the money," he said. An
exgerienee4 sandhog earns over $10O,0OD a year. The
rewards arc well deserved. A sandhog’s chances of dying can
the job are far greater than those DI an above-ground
constfLlCtiDn worker, or even a New York City polioe officer.
“Everything down here can kill you. " one sandhog said. They
know many more workers will die before the tunnel is
completed.

On another trip Izelow the city, sewer worker Jeff Kwami

showed me how the city‘s sewage is kept ftowi gsmoothly.
We went down a manhole wearing plastic bodysuits. gloves.
and tanks of Mr Everything around us was wet and slippery, as
we dirnbcd carefully down 12 meten and then Snip 9d on a
narrow concrete step. In
’Sanéhogs“ at New Ybrh Ci\y
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Muhipfe Chi choaH t s”btst we en gusszi‹»c
1. The wñter cd'the passage ig,
a. considering $cttfng a job as a ttfnxcl
b. retd ng Hz\xi8Is Sta New Yozk Cir lunnelz
c. izcezeste8 in wbat has beneath New Vark City

k b8iñginzt y”rock
d. aisvatora /âBing
3. Why daas Bñan Ga3agher work as.a saAdhég?
a. Hé enjoys d n§zr.. b It’a a f8mzty tradJ on.

e. sewcF walker

alllgztor in ‹he.sewer"
are known as.urban
IagerzJs••-modem
d. A rcips cauld your tip
stoñas of unknown

b. Recmt Alligator Sfgh"tmp