Remains Uncovered Beneath Abandoned Hollywood Subway Shocks Experts

When the L.A. Metro began a project to revamp their outdated subway system, construction crews prepared themselves for a whole lot of work and a whole lot of dirt. But shortly after tunneling their way beneath the city, the workers made a startling discovery that no Hollywood movie could've prepared them for.

Traffic City

Los Angeles may be known as the home of Hollywood's biggest stars, but it's also home to something far less exciting: traffic. The average driver spends more than 120 hours a year sitting in gridlock and all that wasted fuel costs the city close to $10 billion a year. The city needed to come up with a solution.

Metro Service

Lawmakers and scientists proposed several alternatives to this miserable commute, however, they never considered the solution to L.A.'s traffic woes was lying just beneath their feet. The Los Angeles Metro Rail services over 300,000 passengers daily, and local officials realized it could be servicing much more.

Expansion

And so, L.A. Metro broke ground on two new light rails and began a complete extension of the Metro's Purple Line in 2015. But while getting more people off I-405 and onto the subways was a reward in and of itself, something far more valuable was waiting just beneath those busy L.A. streets.

Strange Delays

It wasn't uncommon for underground work to get held up over an unusual odd or end sticking up from the dirt. Project monitor Francisco Palacios had made his fair share of strange discoveries in these expansive caverns, but in digging down for the L.A. Metro project, his crew unearthed a find that was nothing short of historic.