On the London Tube
...In the first years of the twentieth century it took seventy minutes to journey around the circuit [of the Inner Circle] by steam train; a hundred years later, the trains are only twenty minutes faster.
The Tube is still in large part an old place. It is Victorian. Abandoned tunnels run nowhere, known as "dead tunnels", snaking their way through the living system; they are sometimes damp, and sometimes dusty with the patina of past time along their walls and floors. The tunnels beneath the Thames have a layer of moss that has somehow grown across the sheets of metal panels.
The Underground curves and swerves beneath the surface, some tunnels in a constant state of movement. The tunnels beneath the City of London still follow the medieval street plan in order to curb the risk to ancient buildings.
The Tube system is devoted to finding the shortest route possible between two locations. It is not really a place at all. It is a process of movement and expectation.
I've been really enjoying London Under by Peter Ackroyd. And ya'll know my love for subway systems.