Cincinnati boasts the largest abandoned subway system in the United States, featuring a network of tunnels and stations that have been sitting empty and unused beneath the city streets for a century.

A closer look

Cincinnati boasts the largest abandoned subway system in the United States, featuring a network of tunnels and stations that have been sitting empty and unused beneath the city streets for a century. Construction began in the early 1900s but was permanently halted due to inflation following World War I, political infighting, and the eventual rise of the automobile. The city essentially poured millions of dollars into digging massive holes in the ground, only to completely give up right before laying down any actual tracks or buying train cars. Today, these pristine, completely empty concrete tunnels are maintained with taxpayer money and occasionally inspected to ensure they do not collapse under the city's modern traffic. It is the ultimate monument to civic procrastination and a hilariously tragic reminder that city planners have always been exceptionally good at spending vast fortunes on public transit systems that literally go nowhere at all