Inside the musty, dangerous, bug-filled sewers lurking below New York City

NEW YORK (AP) — It wasn’t the rats.Or the smells.

Or the germs.No, the most unpleasant part of descending into New York City’s vast sewer system, according to former urban explorer Steve Duncan, was the cockroaches.“They’re all over the place, crawling on walls, dropping down on you,” Duncan recalled this week.“They were the worst.”Duncan, 48, who now lives in Maryland, reflected on his years documenting the muck-filled tunnels running under New York after surveillance videos captured small groups of people mysteriously entering and exiting the sewer system in Brooklyn and Queens in recent days.Police say they’re still investigating the three incidents but don’t believe there’s any threat to the public.

Officials stress that it is both illegal and dangerous to enter the city’s 7,400 miles (12,000 kilometers) of sewer pipes.Duncan believes the groups were likely explorers like him, traversing the large, 19th century sewer mains that run underneath parts of the city.These relatively cavernous spaces can exceed 6 feet (1.8 meters) in diameter — tall enough for most people to comfortably walk upright — and can feature handmade bricks and elegant arches, he said.A number, including one near where one of the groups was spotted, trace the paths of naturally occurring waterways that once sustained New York, before industrialization fouled them and forced city builders to convert them to sewers, Duncan said.“These old streams, they get put underground as cities grow up around them,” he explained.“It’s amazing how much this old natural environment is part of the city today.”The videos suggest that some of the groups spent up to three hours underground, a length of time that may seem unimaginable, but Duncan said passes quickly as sewer journeys require navigating slippery, humid environments and flowing water that could be a foot (30 centimeters) or deeper in places.Duncan credits the groups with picking an optimal time for their e...