On a narrow strip of land in New York City's East River, Roosevelt Island features an advanced residential waste system that operates without garbage trucks. Beneath its streets, 20-inch steel tubes transport thousands of tons of waste each year at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour to a central collection facility, making it one of only two such systems in the United States, alongside Walt Disney World.

This video explores the history of Roosevelt Island, which once served as a dumping ground for prisons, asylums, and hospitals. It discusses the development of its unique waste management system in response to a 1960s garbage crisis, a visionary plan for a car-free community, and the innovative thinking of a Swedish hospital engineer, all tied together with decades of underground engineering largely unknown to most New Yorkers.

This is the story of Roosevelt Island's Automated Vacuum Collection system and the island's hidden history beneath it.

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