What Victorian Diggers Could Teach Jerusalem's Cranes
Jerusalem is a city of cranes and light rail construction, so it's worth asking: what did it actually take to build the first underground railways in London, Paris, and New York? The Metropolitan Railway opened in 1863 after a train fell into the workings, a sewer flooded the dig, and costs ran 30% over budget — and it still carried 12 million passengers by its second year. Paris deliberately chose the messier cut-and-cover method because it was faster, then built its tunnels too narrow on purpose so the state couldn't seize the network. New York gives us the most damning chapter of all…
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