(explosion)

[Narrator] 150 feet below Grand Central Terminal

there's another terminal being created

to bring the Long Island Railroad

into Grand Central Terminal area in New York City.

I've been working underground since 1966, 40 some-odd years.

The appearance of the underground area is

wet, dark, dank, noisy, smelly,

mostly from diesel fuels or the powder residue

from explosives.

(sparks)

(explosion)

(high pitched tone)

The dangers that everybody deals with underground

are, first of all, collapse.

That's the most inherent danger of the underground industry.

As rock stands for a period of time it tends to relax

and it tends to get loose, and it tends to fall out.

It has to be watched constantly.

It's not a good environment to be lax.

You have to be on your toes all the time.

You have to be well aware of what's going on around you,

and what people are doing next to you,

and what you're doing next to them.

You're dealing with people who you're depending on

and who are depending on you,

and that gives the sense of satisfaction and camaraderie

that typical day-to-day offices jobs don't have.

The technology now certainly speeds things up

as far as production.

Back 40 years ago, the equipment was more primitive

and probably 400 years ago it was even

more primitive than that when they did tunnels,

and if you go all the way back to the Romans

when they did tunnels they just heated the rock

and threw water on it and fractured it.

So, tunneling isn't a new experience;

it's been around for a long time.

All the workers underground, with the exception

of the operating engineers, are sandhogs.

Whatever goes on underground the sandhogs do it.

Even if you're not a rough, tough person

you have to become that way or at least become

steeled to the fact that everybody around you is.

And you may not wanna be, but if you want to work there

you have to kinda fit in.

They have to be rough and tough.

They have to be gruff. They have to work hard.

They have to listen to people scream and holler

because screaming and hollering over the noises down there

is the only way to communicate.

Every day that we go home and say that

we didn't cause anyone else to get hurt

is a good day.