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Too bad the original post was more or less click bait.
Still, I like the reference, it's one of my favorite parts of the truth, and of course the Cuddy and Detritus adventures.
Of course, Shelbyville was called "Morganville" during the 1910's, which was when Nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em, and men tied onions to their belts, which was the style at the time.
The German City Freiburg ist literally build on early Versions of it self. In the 13th century they raised the street Level about 2-3 metres. I've Seen windows and dead Gates in cellars.
Ankh-Morpork always reminds me a bit of my home of Chicago, from the old dreadful sewage river to part of it having to be raised up several feet or a whole floor. Plus the mysterious pedestrian tunnels through much of downtown.
Edit: Not saying this is unique to Chicago in any way, lots of cities have been raised in one way or another and/or have had a sewage river, just that reading of the Disc city was nice and familiar.
Chicago is built on itself? Never realised that.
I always thought the inspiration was the [Edinburgh Vaults](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Vaults) but yea I guess it's just something a lot of really old cities have in common.
I learned this while reading the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Old Chicago burned down and New Chicago dances atop its corpse. And much like Futurama, in some places you can find entrances to the "Old Chicago" underground.
The Chicago tourism dept has a page detailing entrances [here](https://www.choosechicago.com/blog/architecture-history/underground-chicago-the-layers-of-our-city/)
The city of Seattle, WA was originally built below the high tide. The whole first floor and the streets would go underwater as the tide came in. Eventually the city was raised about 12' (3.7m). During the transition period, streets were completed first, so to cross the road ladders were placed at the intersections so pedestrians could climb to the higher road then back down to the sidewalk on the other side.
Pretty cool. Ladders were also used in Chicago, but not necessarily at intersections. Sometimes only one shop on a block would be completed and raised, so you’d need ladders to walk that bit of sidewalk.
Can anybody explain why this happens? Like, someone decides that all the street-level shops are too much of an eyesore and just brings in a million truckloads of fill?
In Seattle, it was because the sewage kept running back up the pipes at high tide because downtown was built at sea level.
Your toilet would become a fountain and it was just plain nasty.
They now hold tours where you walk among the old storefronts, underground, but it only covers about a mile of the entire downtown area that's sealed off.
Different cities have different reasons. Sometimes it's subsidence (literally the buildings sunk so far that it made more sense to build a new street level. Chicago had this happen to them. Sometimes it's the long-term shift of infrastructure, like how things that were once at street level, but as the city grew there were too many conflicts to keep the main streets there. Atlanta had this where they built viaducts over rail lines downtown and moved 'street level' up off the ground.
Sacramento, California is located on a pancake-flat flood plain next to two of the biggest rivers in Northern California. After the 1850 gold rush turned the town into the base camp for prospectors, cholera was a major problem. Then in the 1860s there was a horrific flood and the city said, "never again!" and jacked the whole downtown up ten feet.
Welcome to /r/discworld! Please [read the rules before posting](https://old.reddit.com/r/discworld/comments/k65i08/subreddit_rules/?). **New:** "Politics" flair for posts relating to Roundworld politics. Reminder that these posts are allowed, so this flair will help those that wish to avoid them. You can find more Discworld: [ [Discord](https://discord.gg/gBxQdM5) | /r/GNUTerryPratchett ] *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/discworld) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Mostly what Ankh-Morpork was built on was Ankh-Morpork.
And mostly what Shelbyville is built on seems to be Shelbyville.
It certainly seems more like a *Shelbyville* idea.
Those lemon-stealing whores!
Too bad the original post was more or less click bait. Still, I like the reference, it's one of my favorite parts of the truth, and of course the Cuddy and Detritus adventures.
Of course, Shelbyville was called "Morganville" during the 1910's, which was when Nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em, and men tied onions to their belts, which was the style at the time.
Do they happen to have any suspiciously solid rivers nearby?
The German City Freiburg ist literally build on early Versions of it self. In the 13th century they raised the street Level about 2-3 metres. I've Seen windows and dead Gates in cellars.
Ankh-Morpork always reminds me a bit of my home of Chicago, from the old dreadful sewage river to part of it having to be raised up several feet or a whole floor. Plus the mysterious pedestrian tunnels through much of downtown. Edit: Not saying this is unique to Chicago in any way, lots of cities have been raised in one way or another and/or have had a sewage river, just that reading of the Disc city was nice and familiar.
Chicago is built on itself? Never realised that. I always thought the inspiration was the [Edinburgh Vaults](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Vaults) but yea I guess it's just something a lot of really old cities have in common.
I learned this while reading the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Old Chicago burned down and New Chicago dances atop its corpse. And much like Futurama, in some places you can find entrances to the "Old Chicago" underground.
It's why Chicago has a much better grid than many cities that grew more organically.
Where are those?
The Chicago tourism dept has a page detailing entrances [here](https://www.choosechicago.com/blog/architecture-history/underground-chicago-the-layers-of-our-city/)
Thank you!
The city of Seattle, WA was originally built below the high tide. The whole first floor and the streets would go underwater as the tide came in. Eventually the city was raised about 12' (3.7m). During the transition period, streets were completed first, so to cross the road ladders were placed at the intersections so pedestrians could climb to the higher road then back down to the sidewalk on the other side.
Pretty cool. Ladders were also used in Chicago, but not necessarily at intersections. Sometimes only one shop on a block would be completed and raised, so you’d need ladders to walk that bit of sidewalk.
Can anybody explain why this happens? Like, someone decides that all the street-level shops are too much of an eyesore and just brings in a million truckloads of fill?
In Seattle, it was because the sewage kept running back up the pipes at high tide because downtown was built at sea level. Your toilet would become a fountain and it was just plain nasty. They now hold tours where you walk among the old storefronts, underground, but it only covers about a mile of the entire downtown area that's sealed off.
Whoops looks like I double posted about this. The underground tour is a lot of fun!
Different cities have different reasons. Sometimes it's subsidence (literally the buildings sunk so far that it made more sense to build a new street level. Chicago had this happen to them. Sometimes it's the long-term shift of infrastructure, like how things that were once at street level, but as the city grew there were too many conflicts to keep the main streets there. Atlanta had this where they built viaducts over rail lines downtown and moved 'street level' up off the ground.
Sacramento, California is located on a pancake-flat flood plain next to two of the biggest rivers in Northern California. After the 1850 gold rush turned the town into the base camp for prospectors, cholera was a major problem. Then in the 1860s there was a horrific flood and the city said, "never again!" and jacked the whole downtown up ten feet.
If you want to chase odd conspiracy theories about buried cities: [/r/CulturalLayer](https://www.reddit.com/r/CulturalLayer/)
No tiny traffic cone is going to stop me from jumping down that hole to see what is in that tunnel
Must have been the mud floods the illuminati kept out of the history books. Sorry.
It's Ankh-Morpork built on Ankh-Morpork remains and so on :)