Beneath the mansions of the Gilded Age, industrialists built private subterranean tunnel networks to keep their working-class staff completely invisible

86 points by Effective-Dish-1334 13 hours ago on reddit | 4 comments

[OP] Effective-Dish-1334 | 12 hours ago

In places like Newport and Manhattan, the ultra-wealthy didn't want to see laundry carts, coal deliveries, or soot covered boiler workers anywhere near the main grounds. Their solution was pretty extreme they dug underground tunnels and basement rail lines connecting carriage houses, kitchens, and furnace rooms directly into the mansions. Servants moved through brick passages beneath the lawn so guests on the surface never had to look at them.

downArrow | 10 hours ago

Is there a version without the f*cking pop up ads?

edthesmokebeard | 2 hours ago

I saw this on Archer.

Hopeful-Flounder-203 | 2 hours ago

Henry Ford did this in Detroit, too.