Posted on 01/15/2009 8:56:06 PM PST by nickcarraway
For a while, I lived on Court Street in Brooklyn, NY, and sometimes shopped in the Middle Eastern markets on Atlantic Avenue, which crossed Court Street several blocks from my apartment. I loved fig jam, and it was the only place I knew to get it.
What I didn’t know was that, not too long before I moved there, a man named Bob Diamond had found the oldest subway tunnel in the world. I probably trod on its entrance, a manhole at the intersection of Court St. and Atlantic Avenue.
There’s great stuff down there. The tunnel linked the Long Island Railroad to the East River; from there, it was easy to get onto the island of Manhattan. Built in 1844—and used until 1859—the tunnel was not built by burrowing, as later tunnels were, but by digging a trench, lining the sides with granite, and constructing a vaulted roof from brick. The roof, according to the history channel, was then covered over with dirt and paving and used, again, as the street it had been before subway construction. Even with today’s traffic, there is no danger of a collapse; it is said to be able to hold about 15 times the weight that pounds it every day, even now.
The whole tunnel is not yet excavated, however, and therein lies a very provocative possibility. According to the man who rediscovered the tunnel, Bob Diamond, the unexcavated part probably contains not only the original platform, where passengers got on and off the train, but an old locomotive. And near that locomotive might be hidden the missing pages from the diary of John Wilkes Booth, who killed President Lincoln, according to Diamond.
Booth’s diary, found on him when he was shot, was maintained in government archives until the conspiracy trial some months later. When the diary was entered into evidence, it was missing 18 pages; the originals of these have never been found, although there are some who believe that perhaps they were found in 1977. If those pages are ever verified, they described the involvement of some of Lincoln’s friends, Confederate leaders, War Department Secretary Stanton, and northern businessmen. It is, of course, virtually a certainty that there was a conspiracy, whether or not Stanton, et al, were involved.
I don’t mind tunnels, but I wouldn’t seek them out as the sole purpose of a trip. Still, the chance to stand in the presence of such evil—if they are there—as the missing Booth diary pages represents might be worth a trip. More worth it if that section is ever opened and the diary pages actually found there, of course.
But still, it has connections enough with the run-up to the Civil War to be intriguing. Walt Whitman, who volunteered as a nurse during the war, had written for a Brooklyn newspaper beforehand. Of the tunnel, after its closure, he wrote:
The old tunnel, that used to lie there under ground, a passage of Acheron-like solemnity and darkness, now all closed and filled up, and soon to be utterly forgotten, with all its reminiscences; however, there will, for a few years yet be many dear ones, to not a few Brooklynites, New Yorkers, and promiscuous crowds besides. For it was here you started to go down the island, in summer. For years, it was confidently counted on that this spot, and the railroad of which it was the terminus, were going to prove the permanent seat of business and wealth that belong to such enterprises...
The tunnel closed just a couple of years before the Civil War began. Whitman quit his job; he was an abolitionist, and the paper’s owners were not. He had begun his writing career in earnest; locals had begun using the tunnel to make booze and hide various sorts of contraband, among which were not, one might assume, slaves fleeing to Canada.
If the missing Booth diary pages were in the tunnel near the locomotive, it would be interesting to see what they say. Do the original pages include references to Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s Secretary of War? Originally opposed to Lincoln, Stanton “vigorously pursued the apprehension and prosecution of the conspirators involved in Lincoln’s assassination. These proceedings were not handled by the civil courts, but by a military tribunal, and therefore under Stanton’s tutelage. Stanton has subsequently been accused of witness tampering, most notably of Louis J. Weichmann, and of other activities that skewed the outcome of the trials.” (Wikipedia)
Suggestive. Also suggestive is the fact that Stanton virtually tortured the seven male conspirators during the trial, keeping them in padded masks, secured around their throats and painfully tight over their eyes. One might well wonder what he feared they might say or see. Strange behavior for someone born a Quaker. But then, being Secretary of War is strange behavior for someone born a Quaker. (We would see similar discordance in the life of Richard M. Nixon a century later.) Stanton was a bit mad, it seems. He served under Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, who fired him. He barricaded himself in his office and refused to leave, citing the Tenure of Office act.
It would be very interesting to see those 18 pages. It would be very interesting to see the tunnel through which the conspirators, most of whom probably had ridden on that railroad, traveled. The tunnel through which Walt Whitman, our first poet laureate, doubtless traveled.
And fortunately, one can. Bob Diamond is conducting a tour of this underground railroad tunnel on January 25. Call 718-941-3160 for reservations and information. (Diamond conducts a tour about once a month; you can't get down there any other way, as Diamond has the "franchise" with the city to do this, which is only fair, since he did the research and excavated the tunnel with his own shovel and a few friends, to begin with.)
“The whole tunnel is not yet excavated, however, and therein lies a very provocative possibility. According to the man who rediscovered the tunnel, Bob Diamond, the unexcavated part probably contains not only the original platform, where passengers got on and off the train, but an old locomotive. And near that locomotive MIGHT be hidden the missing pages from the diary of John Wilkes Booth, who killed President Lincoln, according to Diamond. “
I'd like to know where the evidence is that they MIGHT discover the missing pages of his diary down there. An old locomotive would be interesting and the site nostalgic but I fail to see where there is a realistic possibility that the missing pages will be found there.
Notice the weasel words, “if” and “might” based on NO evidence. It’s wishful thinking. Someone wants to casdh in on this. It is a mission for Whorealdo!
This is wishful thinking for publicity. This person gives NO reason to believe those particular pages will be found there. He might as well claim the Ark of the Covenant will be found there too!
I suspect it was interesting but beyond that no huge fanfare needed.
I’ve always thought if I was an historian looking for some unexplored ground, I’d look into the life and times of Stanton. For all of the pies that he had his finger in, historians seem to have passed him by. For example, I’m not aware of a major biography, certainly not a major recent biography. And yes, I think there are some secrets to be unearthed there.
I'm shocked Stanton was a Demoncrat!
LOL!!!
It was mildly interesting, but somehow I don’t think a mid-19th c. locomotive could survive that long intact, at least, not in the holed-up tunnel.
Maybe somebody will find The Law Giver’s long form BC down there.
“Need I say it? Stanton was a Democrat. :’)”
So much for Lincoln’s vaunted ‘filling your cabinet with the opposition’ strategy.
Darn Copperheads.
Dixie interest ping
 Images from Bob Diamond   Original drawing of the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel as it appeared in 1844.  Original map showing Long Island Railroad as part of New York to Boston Rail System (circa 1844) [Larger map].  Map of the Tunnel [Larger map].  The small steam locomotives could not negotiate steep grades.  Bob Diamond on top of backfilled area in vicinity of tunnel entrance, 1980.  Volunteer crew in completed trench and sheeted area under ConEd duct bank. |
Or maybe they used them to wipe something else when they got off of the lamb...
ROFL!! That's a riot!!
Stanton at some point switched to the GOP. I don’t know what party I would have been in then.
What he said about AL though, “Now he belongs to the ages,” and lamented, “There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen.” is fishy!
But I’ve never heard the idea of huge wide conspiracy behind the plots to Kill Linc and the others. Just that it was Booth and his buddies.
Why aren’t there conspiracy theories about McKinley and Garfield!? No one cares about them! :-(
:’) Darn Democrats. ;’) The Copperheads were Dims against the war; Stanton was a War Democrat.
Thanks!
There are reputable historians who have believed Stanton was part of the the plot, but those who don’t call them disreputable. One of those “reputable historians” actually stated that he had “no idea” why the soldier gave his account of the password at the bridge. Yeah, that’s tellin’ ‘em.
Stanton didn’t like Lincoln, and when he was feeling charitable, thought Lincoln was in over his head. They’d met in 1857, when Stanton referred to him as a “long-armed creature”. In a 1861 letter, Stanton referred to “the President’s painful imbecility”. Lincoln admired Stanton’s ability as a lawyer, and as a delegator, Lincoln appreciated Stanton’s ability to get things done. Stanton was utterly ruthless, and despite his legal background (or perhaps because of it) rode roughshod over anyone he regarded as an enemy (personal or, as he saw it, of the country).
Stanton was on the ball when he wanted Lincoln to get rid of McClellan in 1862, but way out of line regarding his approach. Stanton replaced Allen Pinkerton with Lafayette Baker (”Death to Traitors” by Jacob Mogelever), and then demoted him when he learned Baker was tapping Stanton’s own telegraph messages. Stanton, after being blamed for letting Lincoln’s security lapse, recalled Baker to D.C., and Baker had identified and rounded up the historical conspirators within days.
It’s possible that Stanton was completely blameless for the assassination, and that all the circumstantial evidence against him (the missing pages; talking others out of accompanying the Lincolns to the theater; the fact that the sole security man Stanton assigned left his post for a drink, and Booth, waiting in the same saloon, left for his mission when the guard arrived; the password at the bridge; making sure no one eventually executed got a jury trial or was able to speak to anyone) are just an amazing set of coincidences.
> When Stanton died in 1869, Robert Todd Lincoln wrote the Secretary of War’s son, Edwin L. Stanton, that “when I recall the kindness of your father to me, when my father was lying dead and I felt utterly desperate, hardly able to realize the truth, I am as little able to keep my eyes from filling with tears as he was then.”
http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/Library/newsletter.asp?ID=36&CRLI=116
[One of the “amazing expanding room” images of the very small room where Lincoln died, which is a freebie for those interested, as is the Ford Theater (although I think I read that the Ford was closed for conservation and renovation)]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lincoln_at_his_death_bed.jpg
You may want to read:
1. Team of Rivals Doris Kearns Goodwin
2.Blood on the Moon Edward Steers
3.The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies William Hanchett
4.With Malice Toward None Stephen B. Oates
5.The Life and Times of Edwin M. Stanton Benjamin Thomas and Harold M. Hyman
for better info than you seem to have.
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![[Larger map]](http://the-tech.mit.edu/~Subway/Tunnel/1844-LIRR-Map-large.gif){kind=link}
![[Larger map]](http://the-tech.mit.edu/~Subway/Tunnel/Map-large.gif){kind=link}
