Next Stop Atlantic

"Usually, dumping metal into the ocean is a bad thing, but for once throwing disused items into the sea is working out for the greater good. Over 2,500 New York subway cars have been used to create an underwater reef for crustaceans and fish in the Atlantic. Over a period of three years, photographer Stephen Mallon of the Front Room Gallery captured images of the carriages being put in place, and his photos now are being shown in a solo exhibition in New York. "I had read about the subway cars being dropped into the Atlantic, but I thought the project was over," said Mallon. "Then in 2007 I was scouting for another shoot and saw the barges being loaded up." Once the subway cars had been decommissioned, they were cleaned and every part of them that could be removed -- seats, straps and wheels -- was recycled or sold. Then the carriages were stacked onto a barge, which transported them to the dropping point. A hydraulic lift picked them up and dropped them one at a time into the ocean about once a month, destined to become a long line of houses for sea life along the coast from Delaware to South Carolina. "I had never seen anything like this," Mallon said. "And I've been in New York for over 20 years ... there's a sense of vertigo as they drop -- you want to hold on as it falls." The 42-year-old has an ongoing project entitled American Reclamation that explores the recycling industry in America." -Phoebe Parke, CNN International http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/26/world/subway-cars-coral-reef/