the tunnels, Beach used a circular design based upon Brunel's rectangular shield, which may represent the shift in design from rectangular to cylindrical. It was unclear when or who transitioned the tunneling shield design from rectangular to circular until The New York Times wrote an article describing the original Beach tunneling shield in 1870. Related developments The Crystal Palace pneumatic railway was a similar but longer system which operated in 1864 on the grounds of the Crystal Palace in London. In pop culture The Beach Pneumatic Transit is featured in the direct-to-video sequel An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island and serves as a plot point of the story. "Sub-Rosa Subway" is a 1976 song by Klaatu which describes the subway's construction, station, and its public reception. In the 1989 film Ghostbusters II, a fictional pneumatic transit station and tunnel reminiscent of the Beach system is discovered by the Ghostbusters beneath First Avenue in Manhattan; the tunnel's completion date appears on-screen as 1870, the same year that the Warren-to-Murray tunnel was completed. In the 1990 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the abandoned subway tunnel they live in is in reference to the pneumatic transit. The 2015 novel, Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray, (sequel to 2012's The Diviners) serves as a main plot point. The abandoned City Hall tunnel features heavily as a setting in both the real world and the dream world. See also Atmospheric railway Cobble Hill Tunnel, a similar abandoned tunnel in New York City Gravity-vacuum transit Track 61 (New York City), another private railroad tunnel in New York City References Notes Citations Further reading Most, Doug, The Race Underground : Boston, New York, and the incredible rivalry that built America's first subway (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2014), . The First New York Subway: Beach Pneumatic Transit Sometimes Interesting. May 19, 2012 The Secret Subway: Episode of American Experience about the subway No. 1474: Beach's Secret Subway: Episode of The Engines of Our Ingenuity about the subway "Pneumatic Transit" Animation by Abby Digital The Beach Pneumatic Transit Company - Just a Bunch of Hot Air? from the Museum of the City of New York Collections blog External links "Beach Pneumatic Transit" at Abandoned Stations, by Joseph Brennan "Beach Pneumatic Transit" on nycsubway.org Pneumatics History of transportation in New York City History of rail transportation in the United States Railway lines opened in 1870 1873 disestablishments