Between 2001 and 2010, more than 2,500 retired New York City subway cars were deliberately sunk into the Atlantic Ocean, transforming obsolete trains into artificial reefs along the U.S. East Coast.
Instead of being scrapped after decades of carrying passengers through New York, the subway cars were cleaned, prepared and transported offshore, where they were lowered onto designated reef sites. Over time, their steel frames became covered with marine organisms and attracted fish, creating underwater habitat on stretches of seabed that were otherwise largely made up of sand and sediment.
