The movies in the tunnel under Atlantic Avenue, scheduled for this past weekend, were cancelled by order of the NYFD.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle: On Friday night, a day before the weekend showings, the Fire Department called Rooftop Films and insisted that the programs be canceled, according to Rooftop’s Lela Scott MacNeil.
Also on Friday, [Bob] Diamond received an e-mail from Anne Koenig of DOT asking him to “call right away to discuss a BHRA [Diamond’s Brooklyn Historic Railway Association] event that has been publicized for this weekend [i.e. Dec. 11].
Diamond has been conducting tours of the tunnel for some time, though the Eagle article quotes a letter from a City Department of Transportation lawyer to Diamond advising him that closing part of the Atlantic Avenue roadway to allow access to the tunnel without prior permission could result in revocation of his revocable permission to conduct such tours. This past September, Diamond announced he would stop the tours because of his frustration with DOT bureaucracy; however, Borough President Marty Markowitz persuaded him to change his mind.
One good development for Diamond is that the National Geographic Society is producing a TV special on Diamond and the tunnel. Diamond hopes that, in conjunction with this, he will be able to break through the wall at the end of the tunnel, behind which he believes may be an 1830s vintage steam locomotive.
