Even the most mundane domestic tasks would be impossible without the far-reaching, complex, and often invisible network of infrastructure that supports them.
A vertical as well as a horizontal city, power is king: without it, the two things that move more bodies than any other — the subway and elevators — would grind to a screeching halt.
20 years ago, roughly 3.4 hours each day were considered “rush hour”; today, rush hour has more than doubled, to between 7 and 8 hours each day.
Detector signals provide real-time information on traffic conditions. Magnetic loops adjacent to major intersections sense metal in cars passing above and send vehicle counts back to the operation center.
The cost of removing the deactivated ones is high (roughly $400 per intersection), so they remain — a testament to a level of control by man over machine that many New Yorkers might wish still existed.
While the new car is slightly smaller than the old due to thicker walls, new lighting and the removal of the backlit advertisements make it feel bigger. Shiny floors and the new color scheme also contribute to the feeling of a bigger space.
In total, it takes 300 people to keep the elegant bridge working.
The freight trains — some up to 120 cars in length — are environmentally friendly. On average, each train replaces 280 trucks that would otherwise be making the same journey.
Increasingly, however, intermodal traffic moves in containers. Thanks to special low-level rail chassis, containers can be stacked on top of each other for long journeys across the country. Known as “double-stack” trains, this mode of rail travel has proved so efficient that Asian cargo headed for the NY region is often dropped off on the West Coast and completes its journey to the East Coast this way — in what has become known as the “mini-landbridge” system.
But making up a train is a cumbersome process, as no two cars may have the same origin and destination.
By 1860 nearly half of the nation’s trade moved through the Port of New York.
The combination of sharp turns, wild currents, and a preponderance of reefs and shoals means that only a trained harbor pilot is allowed to guide large ships into port: even the most experienced ship captain must relinquish the wheel to a Sandy Hook pilot when his or her ship reached NY waters.
And they are well trained: a 7-year apprenticeship must be followed by 7 more years of work as a deputy pilot.
Vertical NY is more dependent on it than most cities — for movement up and down in its buildings, as well as for mass transit, for heat in the winter, and for cooling in the summer. Together New Yorkers consume as much power each year as the entire country of Greece — and that total continues to grow.
NY’s is not just one of the largest systems of delivering electricity in the world — it is one of the most reliable. The city’s power delivery infrastructure is 10 times are reliable as the average US system, thanks to a reliable design with backup systems and multiple feeders to individual neighborhoods. Power failures are rare within the city; when they do occur, they are generally prompted by events caused hundreds or thousands of miles away.
A remote control doesn’t turn an appliance off and on — it just activates an “instant-on” device that always remains on. So for every remote activated, there’s an electrical appliance drawing electricity from the grid in “sleep” mode.
“Current” refers to the flow of electrons through a wire, while “voltage” refers to the force behind the current, or how hard the electrons are being pushed through the wire. Most electronic devices, and most of voltage move in back and forth pulses rather than a steady flow (direct current). The combination of current and voltage is represented by “watts,” a basic measure of how much work the electricity can do.
The city must have within its boundaries capacity to produce 80% of the power it is forecast to need at any given time; the remaining 20% may be delivered through the transmission system.
Although the state legislature ordered wires to be placed underground as early as 1884, it was only after the Blizzard of 1888 left the city a tangled mess that the regulation was enforced and utility wiring was moved underground.
The intricate network of copper and optical fiber cables, if stretched and laid end to end, can reach the sun.
Optical fiber cables are lighter, less bulky, and immune from disturbance by moisture or nearby electrical currents. They also provide far more capacity. A typical copper cable can transmit around 25 conversations in analog mode, while a single optical fiber, slightly wider than a human hair, can typically transmit over 193K conversations digitally.
The cost of the system are largely borne by telephone users: since 1992, the 911 system has been funded by a state surcharge on phone bills. Originally 35 cents, the tax was raised to $1 in 2002.
The spectrum is essentially a way to characterize radio waves, which are transmitted at different frequencies and with different wavelengths (a wavelength is the distance between the top or bottom of a wave). The size of the wavelength affects the ability of the wave to pass through objects: as a wavelength deceases in size (and increase in frequency) its ability to move through obstacles like walls or even storms decreases. As a result, higher frequencies are less valuable than lower ones. Popular consumer services like broadcasting and cell phones need to penetrate buildings and therefore need to secure low frequencies. As a whole, the value of the spectrum is estimated at roughly $780B, though some estimates are far greater.
Satellite technology, in its simplest form, involves the transmission of broadcast signals from satellites orbiting the earth. These satellites are all in what is referred to as “geosynchronous orbit”: they revolve around the planet at the same speed as the earth turns, effectively staying in one place relative to the earth’s surface. Satellite dishes attached to commercial buildings or homes are directed at the satellite when installed, and from that point on — at least theoretically — are able to pick up an uninterrupted signal relayed from other parts of the globe.
Sound waves disturb an electrical current in a microphone and travel to a transmitter, which transmits the resulting radio signal to an antenna. From there, the signal is sent out into the air as radio waves, accessible to anyone in the area with a receiver tuned to that channel.
AM transmission, unlike FM, is not dependent on line of sight: AM wavs generally travel along the ground during the day, and reception is a function of ground connectivity.
NY’s water towers are generally made of wood and feature cedar planks along the floor and walls. They are easy to construct in situ, as no glue or adhesive is needed to hold them together: in barrel-like fashion, pressure exerted by galvanized steel hoops surrounding the planks — along with the swelling of the wood that occurs when the tank is filled — prevent any leakage. Wood is a natural insulator, too: three inches of wood have roughly the insulation value of 30 inches of concrete.