Dire Ox

By now, a lot of you know about the abandoned brick-arched train tunnel underneath Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. But I’m guessing far fewer of you are aware of the caves honeycombing what the geologists call the “Heartland Formation” “Ravenswood Granodiorite” under Brooklyn Heights. I had a rare opportunity to go there recently with the Brooklyn Spelunkers, an organization of some secretiveness because of their often illegal activities. I was sworn to silence about their identities. (Mostly women in ninja outfits, they all insisted on being called Caver One, Caver Two, etc. Whatever.) We descended past the old Underground Railroad station beneath Plymouth Church and the Dutch-era salt mine shafts to take a look at the pre-Columbian wall paintings found at the lowest levels of the great cave system. Although Caver-Five or maybe it was Six hissed “No photos!” I did manage to get this image of the extinct North American…