Underground river

There are numerous references, some fictional, some not, to an underground river flowing beneath downtown Birmingham. UAB geology instructor George Brockman attested to the presence of a below-ground stream downtown. The floor of Jones Valley consists primarily of limestone, a relatively soft sedimentary rock which is easily worn and shaped by eons of water flow.

A writer named Joe Mulhatton visited Birmingham in 1883. He read an account of a small flowing stream discovered by a well-driller in the city and subsequently expanded it into a sensational report of a huge river flowing beneath the city and endangering the entire area. His fictional report first appeared in the Louisville Courier-Journal, but was picked up by other newspapers later. Among Mulhatton's claims were that the city rested on a "crust" of stone only a few feet thick which had been broken open during construction of a large building. He claimed that many buildings had collapsed and that the City Hall had settled 4 feet on one corner into a widening fissure.

A fantastical report in the May 29, 1886 edition of the Birmingham Age, under the cryptic byline "H" tells the story of a covert voyage in a stolen boat under the city, the discovery of Steve Renfro's hidden counterfeiting operation, and surfacing into the Warrior River.

Walter Bryant collected several less fantastic reports in a 1975 Birmingham News article:

• Early settlers were supposedly informed by Native Americans that an underground stream ran the full length of the county.
• An office in the vicinity of 5th Avenue North and 22nd Street advertised "Mystic Underground River" excursions during the 1880s and 1890s.
• Access to an underground stream near Highland Avenue and 12th Avenue South was sealed by the city in the early 1900s because it posed a danger to children.
• A spring surfaced at 5th Avenue South and 22nd Street and was utilized for drinking water, and later as the site of an ice manufactory, until it disappeared.
• Construction of the Tutwiler Hotel (1914) was delayed by the need to add steel beams to the foundation in order to span the river's cavern.
• The never-completed Roden Hotel at 5th Avenue North and 18th Street was limited to a single-story basement because of groundwater.
• The Florentine Building (1927), which was planned as a 10-story building, only went to 2 stories, partly because of the expense of shoring the foundation.
• The Federal Reserve building's 1957 annex was beset by foundation flooding. The excavation filled with clear water and was pumped out continuously during construction.
• Construction of the Daniel Building (1967) was delayed as engineers searched for areas of solid bedrock between limestone cavities on which to erect its caissons.
• Numerous downtown structures are said to use underground water, reached by wells, as part of their cooling systems.
• In 1881 the area of Southside near 18th Street South and 5th Avenue was attracting a "large number of new settlers around the big spring", attracted by the convenience of fresh water.
• Flooding in the basement of the Thomas Jefferson Hotel after it became vacant was blamed on an "underground stream".

References

• Walsh, William S. (1892) Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippincott Co., p. 473
• Bryant, Walter (November 27, 1975) "Underground river helped shape city". Birmingham News