How Sandra Lord mapped the underground maze
Navigate the underground maze to discover the six-mile secret tunnel system under downtown Houston.
The birth of the underground city
Life 20 feet below the street
Engineering and architectural design
The great flood of Tropical Storm Allison

misslily Navigate the underground maze to discover the six-mile secret tunnel system under downtown Houston.
misslily Houston Downtown Tunnel System
We linked the theaters underground just to share the cool air

misslily The tunnels transformed from private pathways into a public network starting in 1961.
Subterranean ownership: The entire six-mile network is completely privately owned and maintained by the individual buildings above it.

misslily Theater owner Will Horwitz connected three of his theaters underground to save on expensive air conditioning.
An underground passageway dug through the earth or rock to provide a path for transit. In the early 1930s, former Texas Governor Ross Sterling built Houston's first subterranean connection between two buildings.
Which decade saw the fastest expansion of the Houston tunnel system due to an energy construction boom?
Who built the very first underground tunnel link in downtown Houston during the 1930s?
What were the names of the three theaters connected by Will Horwitz's early cooling tunnel?
What famous New York City landmark inspired the creation of Houston's first underground tunnel?
In what year did the Houston tunnel system first open to the general public by connecting a bank to a garage?