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War is Hell on property values and ever since the
first Zeppelin raids on London during the First World War there has
been the question of how to make cities air raid proof. One of
the more frequent proposals (and least popular, I might add, unless
you're H. G. Wells.) was moving urban
populations underground where they would be "safe" from attack, such
as in this depiction from 1924 by Lyman Mason. Not only does Mr. Mason show a
neat little American burg transplanted into a self-sufficient
community/arms factory, but it all looks rather pleasant and cozy
without the ventilation or flooding problems that real-life
excavations are plagued with. I love the fact that Mr. Mason has
his underground city camouflaged against enemy detection.
Presumably any potential adversary would have overlooked the
incredible excavation and building programme needed to construct one
of these things. Also, he wouldn't have been so unfair as to
have developed Earthquake or Bunker-buster bombs.
A few
decades later, the underground city concept was revived for the Atomic
Age. This time New Yorkers were offered a bolt hole in the form
of a city excavated beneath Manhattan with nuclear explosives, which
would form a huge bubble deep in the Earth. The lower half would
be given over to industrial plants, support systems, and pool halls,
while the upper half would be for houses and offices with the great
dome lit up as a substitute sky/cinema.
If you look very closely, you can just make out
what looks like a Coca-Cola advert being flashed on the artificial
heavens. If that seems like something of a downside, at least
consider that Manhattan Island would have gained a forest of
ventilation shafts towering higher than the Empire State Building.
And you were complaining about wind farms!
Of
course in peace time, when the bomb's aren't much of a menace, there's
always the compromise solution of not moving the whole city
underground, but just the nasty bits, such as this vision of the
future from a '30s issue of Popular Science. Here you
have all the traffic congestion neatly tucked away under the surface,
leaving the street level for exclusive pedestrian use. On the
bottom tier are the high-speed electric trains, next level is the
fast-moving traffic lanes, and above that are the slow-moving lanes.
Naturally, all the garages are underground too and the whole lot is
linked together by high-speed escalators.
Since the civic planners were on a roll, the
buildings above aren't just for offices. No, on the lowest level
are shops, then restaurants above, then offices, then schools, then
living quarters and playgrounds, and then (all together now!) rooftop
airfields and zeppelin moorings.
Just don't bring up the question of how to pay for
all this, because it makes the planners go all cross.
War is Hell on property values and ever since the
first Zeppelin raids on London during the First World War there has
been the question of how to make cities air raid proof. One of
the more frequent proposals (and least popular, I might add, unless
you're 
Of
course in peace time, when the bomb's aren't much of a menace, there's
always the compromise solution of not moving the whole city
underground, but just the nasty bits, such as this vision of the
future from a '30s issue of Popular Science. Here you
have all the traffic congestion neatly tucked away under the surface,
leaving the street level for exclusive pedestrian use. On the
bottom tier are the high-speed electric trains, next level is the
fast-moving traffic lanes, and above that are the slow-moving lanes.
Naturally, all the garages are underground too and the whole lot is
linked together by high-speed escalators.