Agree, standing on a deserted subway platform at night is quite unpleasant. You peer into the darkness in anticipation of the train, hear distant creaks, whistles and rumblings, and then a cold stream of air poured out of the tunnel by the train hits you. If such sensations do not scare you, we suggest learning about the truly eerie legends associated with the metro.
10. Mysterious DNA of the New York subway
Much DNA belongs to organisms unknown to science.
In 2014, a team of scientists led by Weil Cornell examined samples of genetic material found on turnstiles, seats, and inside ticket booths at all 468 New York City Underground stations. They found bacteria living on human skin, in the digestive tract, and even in human excrement. And at one of the stations, flooded during Hurricane Sandy, you can still identify the DNA of marine life. Scientists also found traces of causative agents of such dangerous diseases as anthrax and bubonic plague, but, judging by their assurances, they do not pose a danger to people. In total, the DNA of 15,152 different organisms was found.
This is interesting: The most surprising thing is that more than half of the samples of the genetic code did not correspond to any organism known to science. This can be explained by the fact that unknown microorganisms live in the metro, the DNA of which scientists could not obtain and study earlier.
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9. Tokyo's secret underground network
Are there secret tunnels under Tokyo?
In 2002, Japanese journalist Shun Akibo published an article in which he made a loud statement. Akibo claimed that by comparing historical subway maps with modern ones, he was able to find convincing evidence of a secret network of tunnels near Tokyo. In the Nagata-cho area, modern maps show two intersection points for subway lines. On old maps, the lines are strictly parallel. Assuming no rebuilding had been made, the journalist began to examine the construction reports in detail.
It turned out that this mystery was only the first of seven, all of them incompatible with the official documentation. On old maps, Shun Akibo found a secret underground complex located between the Kokkai-Gijidomae station and the prime minister's house, incomprehensible places around the post-war headquarters of the commander-in-chief of the Japanese army, etc. Shun also found out that, most likely, the "new" Oedo subway line already existed before. Then it turns out that the money allocated from the budget for the construction of the tunnel network has literally evaporated.
Akibo believes that the secret underground network was built before World War II, but it is unclear why it remains a mystery today. In his opinion, it can be part of government communications designed to protect against a potential nuclear strike. Some experts also believe that government officials have access to secret underground complexes and trains located under government buildings.
8. Underground population and troglodytes
Mysterious dungeon dwellers - truth or fiction?
For decades, people have been retelling each other stories of homeless people walking into New York City subway tunnels and never reappearing. Fans of mysticism suggest that real mutants live in the subway, hating sunlight and people from the surface. They like to live in underground cities built in abandoned tunnels. They say that mutants steal electricity, use city water pipes for their needs. Even wilder legends describe the inhabitants of the New York subway as goggle-eyed monsters who kill and eat anyone who dares to climb into their territory.
When renowned journalist Jennifer Toth visited the New York subway tunnels in 1993, she saw no trace of the mutants there. But she discovered a community of thousands of marginalized people, hermits, drug addicts and mentally ill people living in terrible conditions. As a result, the city authorities had to pay attention to the long-ignored problem and try to get all these people out of the underground tunnels. The attempt was partially successful. But in a video filmed in 2010, you can see that the homeless still live in the tunnels of New York.
Rumors of such people have been circulating in London for a long time. There they were called troglodytes. The popular version is that the troglodytes are descended from Irish workers who were trapped in the construction of the subway in the late 19th century. They live by eating waste, catching rats and killing stray wanderers by chance.
7. Singapore metro was not built according to feng shui
During the construction of the Singapore subway, the '8 dragon veins' were allegedly affected.
In the 70s of the last century, then Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew wanted to build the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) metro system, which was designed to contribute to the development of the city-state. The start of the project was quite successful, but soon there was an economic downturn. According to legend, the Prime Minister visited the feng shui master Hong Quan. He said that during the construction of the SMRT, 8 veins of the dragon sleeping under the city were damaged. He woke up, got angry and disrupted the flow of Chi, which led to the economic downturn.
This is interesting: To solve the problem, it was necessary to get all the inhabitants of the city to carry the so-called pakua - a small octagonal mirror that reflects negative energy. The government got creative and in 1987 issued an octagonal 1 dollar coin. Singaporeans believe that she suppressed the spirit of the dragon and helped Singapore to move into a phase of economic growth. The coin was issued 3 months before the grand opening of the first metro line.
6. "Metro 2" in Moscow
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Many valuable things are hidden under Moscow: Byzantine libraries, secret torture cellars of the times of Ivan the Terrible, the system of underground canals of Catherine the Great. It should not be surprising that Joseph Stalin also decided to "go deeper" into Moscow land. Metro 2 was the name of the secret underground railway network he built in the thirties. She had to allow the Soviet secret police to move around Moscow, go unnoticed.
Initially, the network connected Stalin's dacha, the USSR Ministry of Defense, command bunkers, and other military facilities. Naturally, there is no documentary evidence of this assumption. But this does not prevent the legend from remaining alive to this day.
In theory, the Metro 2 system was supposed to protect people from a possible nuclear strike. A huge bunker, presumably located under Ramenki. It could accommodate 300 thousand people and the Soviet high command. Rumor has it that Metro 2 stretches far beyond today's Moscow. That is, the leaders of the country could quietly leave the capital if a nuclear strike was struck on it. Some researchers speculate that the tunnels were used by the army to transport weapons and classified materials between bunkers.
This is interesting: The alleged tunnel, allegedly leading to Metro 2, was discovered by the builders after the demolition of the Rossiya Hotel, which was located near the Kremlin. Unfortunately, they failed to open the sealed door and walk through it to the main metro line.
5. Red marble station Mohrenstrasse
Red marble from Hitler's Nazi palace was used in the construction of Mohrenstrasse station.
Berlin's Mohrenstrasse underground station is famous for its design - its walls are lined with bright red marble. They say that this stone has a rather unusual origin story. Some researchers believe that the marble was removed from the building of the New Reich Chancellery, designed by the famous architect Albert Speer. It is no secret that the Mosaic Hall and many of the rooms of the Reich Chancellery were laid out in red marble.
This is interesting: It was in this building that Hitler made the decision to start a war. And under the office there was a bunker in which the Nazi leader committed suicide in 1945.
During the war, the building was destroyed by Soviet soldiers. It is said that when the East Germans were busy rebuilding the Mohrenstrasse metro station in 1950, they simply used material left over from a Nazi palace. In the newspapers of the time, one can find a report about a shipment of red marble from Thuringia, but researchers believe that this report was just a cover.
Another secret is connected with the Berlin underground. Leinestrasse station is said to be home to a mysterious creature called Tunnelpfeifer. Its whistle is sometimes heard from the depths of the tunnels. In 2012, a website dedicated to this creature appeared.
4. Train G puzzle
Would you be afraid to see the driver stop between the stations and let people out into the tunnel?
In February 2015, Nellie Killan tweeted: "Did anyone see the G train driver stop the train between Bedford Nostrand and Myrtle Willoughby, open the door and let two women into the tunnel?" There were witnesses who confirmed this story. When the conductor opened the door, they supposedly saw a darkened platform. And one person even considered a spacious room with frosted windows.
Many became interested in this story and tried to get to the bottom of it. Joe Ruskin, an underground researcher, said he knew about the tunnels east of Bedford Nostrand station. However, he had not heard of the premises that corresponded to those described by the eyewitnesses.
A little later, another person said that he saw a man dressed in a tweed suit, entering the train, open the door on the opposite side with a key and walk out onto an unused part of the platform. He managed to disappear from sight before the train pulled out of the station.
Perhaps the strange room is an ordinary signal booth from which specialists control the movement of trains, most often unmanned ones. Then the two women, most likely, were employees of the subway, who decided to ride in a carriage instead of walking on dark rails and climbing creaking stairs. If this is the case, there is nothing wrong with the events described above. But you must admit: any normal passenger would be agitated to notice how someone gets out of the car between the stations and disappears into the darkness.
3. Skulls of the Aztecs in the Mexico City metro
Where did the skulls of the Aztecs come from at a depth of tens of meters?
Between 2008 and 2012, workers expanding one of the Mexico City metro lines discovered several human skulls. Analysis showed that they date from the period of the Aztec empire. Scientists suggest that in ancient times they were hung on racks, like the skulls of victims. The gruesome find included a pair of male skulls, one female and, oddly enough, a dog's skull. Each find had characteristic holes that allowed them to be placed on a rack.
As you know, most often the Aztecs hung up the skulls of men, animals for this purpose were used extremely rarely. Perhaps with the exception of horses. Their skulls were used in conjunction with equestrian skulls.
This is interesting: El Metro in Mexico City, by the way, keeps other creepy secrets. So, people have repeatedly heard mysterious screams and knocking outside the walls of the Panteones-Tacuba tunnel. The ghost train is also rumored to regularly appear on the subway, with the ghost of the subway inspector appearing almost every day at 3 a.m.
In 2008, the expansion of the London Underground uncovered Roman skulls believed to have belonged to people killed during the Celtic uprising in the 1st century AD.
2. Mysterious liquid in the Toronto subway
A mysterious liquid that appeared in the Toronto subway tunnels made a lot of rustling.
In March 2015, chaos began on the 1st line of the Toronto subway. An incomprehensible, potentially flammable liquid that smelled of gasoline leaked into the tunnel under the College Station. It spilled onto the tracks, forcing the metro workers to temporarily halt train traffic, transfer angry suburbanites to buses and remove traces of the substance from the station using "absorbent granules."
At first, the members of the commission stated that the discovered liquid was not water, but later changed their minds. According to them, there was water on the rails with a small admixture of a substance similar to kerosene. She apparently got into the soil through the cleaners and seeped into the subway tunnel.
1. Tales of the dead on the subway
Eyewitnesses sometimes say that they rode in the same subway car with the dead.
In 2007, the Unexplained Mysteries forum published the story of a liberal arts student who had the misfortune of riding the London Underground late at night. She and a man in his thirties were the only passengers in the carriage, but at one of the stations, a trio of young people got on the train - two guys with a girl in the middle. They looked strange, so the student tried to avoid eye contact with strangers. A minute later, the man sat down next to her and whispered to her to go out with him at the next station. The girl did so, apparently fearing a strange trinity. After the train left the station, the man explained his behavior. He allegedly saw that the woman whom the guys dragged into the train had scissors sticking out of the top of her head.
Another forum member from Sydney told about a similar story in his city. Recall that about 10 years ago, a screenshot of an email appeared on the Internet, which told the story of a doctor who, by indirect indications, realized that a dead woman was sitting in the carriage directly opposite him (sandwiched between two men).
There is a similar legend in New York. One night, 3 hooligans entered the carriage in which the couple was traveling. A few stations later one of them came out with the words "Good night, Dick." At the next stop, saying the same words, the second guy came out. The couple traveling in the carriage began to worry that the guy fell asleep. The woman tried to wake him up so that he would not miss his stop. And then she jumped back in horror: the stranger's throat was cut from ear to ear.
Whether it is worth believing the above legends is up to you. Some of them seem very realistic, others, most likely, were born in the wild imagination of especially impressionable people. But, you see, it would be very interesting to wander, for example, in the Moscow underground bunker. What do you think - does the Metro 2 system actually exist?