Astounding photos show massive Second Avenue Subway being built under New York City

Anyone who's lived in New York City in, oh, say the last 90 years, has probably heard a tale (or two) about the Second Avenue Subway. The project, which will be the first new subway line built in NYC since 1932, was proposed back in the late 1920s but didn't begin its first phase of construction under Manhattan's Upper East Side until 2007.

The $4.5 billion project is finally going full steam ahead and Patrick Cashin, a staff photographer for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York, has the photos to prove it. Cashin has been documenting the construction of the Second Avenue Subway since the first hole that was big enough for workers to fit into was dug.

"I think when you’re down there for all of 10 seconds, you know that this is a dangerous place to be,” Cashin said in an interview on the MTA's Flickr page. “When the boring machine is on and cutting, it’s loud and extremely dusty. I understand there’s about 800 workers spread out all over the project. Each are drilling, paving, moving rocks – everyone’s constantly in motion.”

Check out more of Cashin's astounding photos of the Second Avenue Subway project below and on the MTA's Flickr page.

(Via Jalopnik)