Ars Subterranea is organizing a scavenger hunt titled The Riddle of the Buried Stream:
Manhattan is perforated by a number of streams, which once provided fresh water to the island’s residents. Although the streams have been forced underground during the last two centuries, they are still very much alive, bubbling up now and then to cause trouble for foundation engineers. In 1865, the engineer Egbert L. Viele created a topographical map of all subterranean rivers that is still in use today.
One of these rivers, however, was deliberately left off the map. Apparently it was carrying the purest water in all of New York and its course, marked by just a few cryptic indicators, was known only to the initiate. For reasons that will unfold during the event, it is imperative that this secret river is located. Charting its underground course will be the object of our scavenger hunt.
Sunday, November 7, 2004
Manhattan, approximately noon to 7:30 PM
$15 per person (includes beverages at the final location)