Subway cars buried off Va. coast

Caption A New York city subway car splashes into the ocean about six miles off of Chincoteauge, Va., on Thursday, June 26, 2008. Forty-four stainless steel subway cars were dropped in the Blackfish Bank Reef area as part of a Virginia Marine Resources Commission artificial reef program. The sunken cars will provide a habitat for marine life. (AP Photo/The Virginian-Pilot, Steve Earley)

By: GoDanRiver Staff | GoDanRiver.com
Published: June 27, 2008

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CHINCOTEAGUE, Va. (AP) _ Forty-four subway cars that rumbled through New York City for 40 years now lie on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean off of Virginia's coast.

Six miles off of Chincoteague, a crane on Thursday dropped the 16-ton cars into about 65 feet of water.

The cars had been stripped down to steel shells and joined a metals recycling pile of Army tanks and 50 other rail cars, all part of a growing artificial reef.

Under a contract with the city's transit authority, five more loads of subway cars will be sent to the ocean bottom in the coming years. Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina and Georgia also use New York's old subway cars to create marine habitat.

They ultimately lure sports fishermen and divers to view the life the rubble attracts.