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The tubes are there to raise minor steam leaks above street level so they don't hinder visibility.
Another interesting underground quirk we have is our pneumatic tube mail system.
Wait those pneumatic tube things are real?? I always thought it was like 1960s sci-fi. Like what they thought the future would be like
It was the fastest way to get original physical documents from one side/floor of the building to another.
When I was a kid that was the standard way that banking drive throughs worked, too. You'd drive up to the multi-lane drive through, each station would have a pneumatic tube for handing off cash or checks or receipts between the car and the teller in the window. It pretty much ended when ATMs could start handling cash and checks.
Are these not the norm for bank drive thrus now?
I haven't seen a new bank branch open with a drive through in a long, long time. Most banks just have multiple ATMs in the drive through, as there's very little you'd need a teller to do compared to what the ATMs can do now.
Ah I've never seen that. Big city? ATM vendors sucks... Can't imagine banks here surviving without tellers. I've only seen multiple teller drive throughs and an ATM eating one of the drive through spots.
It's true that most banks haven't had new branches in a while. In Florida, a lot of old banks are being converted into Cannabis dispensaries because of their vaults. I hear they even repurposed the tubes as a delivery system.
Now? Banks have been rocking those since forever. If anything they’re much less common now
Oh shit you’re right. I think I vaguely remember banks having those when I was really young. I mostly remember the suckers they’d give us tho. Fuck those things are cool tho. We should bring them back
They're still a thing. You can still find them at banks with drive thru tellers. My local department of motor vehicles has a drive thru for vehicle registration so you can do your inspection and registration without leaving your car. You send the registration documents back/forth via pneumatic tubes.
They left? All the banks still use them in the middle of the US. So do drive through pharmacies that have an extra lane.
The drive thru pharmacy I go to just has like a shelf thingy they can lift and push down. Not one of those cool tubes :(
Those things used to be on every single bank drive-up teller booth in the 80's and 90's.
As a European, the idea of a bank having a drive-through is just absolutely wild.
Haha Roosevelt Island trash system go pshew
I like the term "clogged mail"