Alfred Ely Beach - inventor, publisher, and patent lawyer - proposed a pneumatic subway system in the mid-1860s, basing it off London's Crystal Palace's experimental subway demonstration a few years prior. He was an inventor that was heavily invested in creating the city's first pneumatic subway tunnel. He secretly worked with a crew underground, building the tunnel, and the elaborately fancy subway station. When it finally opened in 1870, the subway was a hit with the public.

By 1873, the project was scrapped due to lack of funding, and the city's approval. It was bricked up, until city workers discovered it in 1912. This is the fascinating look at the man behind the pneumatic subway, and all the efforts he put into keeping the tunnel a secret until opening day.