From the Empire State Building and Twin Towers to the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty, New York City’s engineering innovations have resulted in some of the worlds most recognized and awe-inspiring landmarks. Underneath the mountain range of skyscrapers that have captured the popular imagination, lie a maze of tunnels and subways, further examples of New York’s engineering accomplishments.

New York’s development as the nation’s center of commerce has been tied to major engineering milestones. The Erie Canal, which connected the city to the midwest in 1825 by connecting the Great Lakes to the Hudson River, was a major factor in New York’s role as the nation’s busiest port in the 19th century. As the population rapidly grew, epidemics and fires in the 1830’s made the creation of a water system an absolute necessity. By 1842, clean water was being pulled by gravity down an aqueduct from the Croton Dam in Westchester into a huge reservoir that stood where the main branch of the New York Public Library now stands at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.

As a city with only one of its five sprawling boroughs connected to the mainland (the Bronx), New York has been crisscrossed by steel and connected by concrete. Two of New York's numerous bridges, the Brooklyn and the George Washington, are among the city’s most famous symbols. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the longest suspension span in the world when it opened in 1964, remains today the nation's longest suspension bridge. Below, under the Hudson and East Rivers, tunnels have played a significant role in engineering by bringing rail to the city, housing hundreds of miles of subway tracks, and handling automobile traffic.