00:00Where in the world can you find the Eiffel Tower just a few miles away from the Trevi Fountain?
00:06Yeah, you guessed it, Las Vegas.
00:08The city is famous for devouring 60,000 pounds of shrimp a day and hosting around 150 weddings every 24 hours.
00:18But here's the plot twist. There's a hidden world lying right beneath the neon lights.
00:26Welcome to Vegas number 2.
00:29It's not the spectacle you're used to, but it's every bit as fascinating.
00:33I'm talking about a sprawling network of tunnels over 600 miles long criss-crossing beneath the city built to divert pretty intense floods.
00:43You heard it correctly, floods.
00:46Vegas is an artificial city built in the middle of the Mojave Desert, where the average summer temperature is 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
00:54With this heat, it doesn't come as a surprise that water is scarce there.
00:58Vegas has very limited local water sources, so 90% of their water comes from the Colorado River.
01:05The rain and snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains is piped to Vegas over 100 miles away.
01:11Water is such a precious resource that homeowners living in the city's suburbs are fined if they overuse their water quota by, let's say, watering their lawns.
01:21And still, urban planners needed to come up with a gigantic system to stop floods.
01:28Vegas has really come a long way since its modest beginnings.
01:33A desert is rarely a place developers look at and say, let's build a megatown here.
01:39But Southern Nevada was a place full of gold, silver, and other types of ore.
01:44It was located between Los Angeles and Silver Lake City, which at the turn of the last century were pretty promising markets.
01:51There was only one thing missing, water.
01:56Developers already expected that if water could be found in the region, then the Vegas Valley would be fertile and rich.
02:03They did find a solution for artisan water, but then they had another problem.
02:10The thing about deserts is that when it rains, it pours.
02:14The region tends to get four inches of rainfall per year, but it rains three inches in a few hours, and there you have it, chaos.
02:22The hard soil can't absorb all the water, so the city needed to build another underground city to handle it.
02:30Nowadays, Las Vegas is one of the most visited cities in the United States, ranking spot number six.
02:37It receives around 30 million visitors annually.
02:40Plus, it's the entertainment capital of the world.
02:44So yes, authorities needed to figure out a way to prevent chaos from taking over every time it rained.
02:53It wasn't always like this.
02:55The worst flood in Vegas history happened in the 90s.
02:58A huge storm hit the city, flooding it, displacing more than 300 people and racking up nearly $20 million in damages.
03:07It all went down during the monsoon season, which is notorious for heavy rainfall.
03:12The Las Vegas Valley is nestled between mountains on three sides, kind of like a giant bull, which means it collects rainwater from every direction.
03:22After the 1990 flood, authorities took matters into their own hands and started to build the infrastructure we're talking about.
03:30Now these tunnels are tough enough to handle whatever the desert throws their way.
03:37Las Vegas is definitely one of the wildest cities on the planet and is famous for being one of the brightest spots on Earth.
03:45Back in 2010, NASA published an image taken by astronauts on the International Space Station of Las Vegas.
03:52The crew was blown away by how clearly those bright lights stood out.
03:56In fact, Vegas shines even brighter than densely populated places like Hong Kong and Japan.
04:03Although the city is all that bright on the surface, this is not the rule for the network of tunnels we're talking about.
04:10For hundreds of people, these tunnels are home.
04:13Some have even lived there for a decade or more.
04:16There are entrances to the tunnels all over town.
04:19They run under resorts such as Caesars Palace, the Rio, the Flamingo, and so on.
04:24Some tunnels are only 4 or 5 feet tall, but there are 15 feet long tunnels.
04:30Damp and dark, of course.
04:32Today, they don't just prevent flooding, they're home to vibrant communities.
04:37This is Paul.
04:39He's one of the most famous characters when it comes to the maze underground Vegas.
04:44He lived in the tunnels for 3 years.
04:46Now, he goes back there regularly whenever someone needs help getting out.
04:51In his first month in the tunnels, Paul was taken under the wing of a group of veterans.
04:56He quickly figured out that this maze-like city had its own set of social rules he needed to respect.
05:03Break them, and you could find yourself out on the street.
05:06Literally.
05:07Each tunnel has its own customs, rituals, and a few unofficial leaders who run the show.
05:13When newcomers arrive, they usually claim the bed at the entrance of a tunnel.
05:17Their job is to keep watch and report any suspicious sounds.
05:21If they step out of line, they might wake up to find their belongings mysteriously vanished.
05:30Life in the maze city has its fair share of quirks that resemble life up above.
05:35Some people bring along chairs, beds, tables, and even barbecue grills.
05:40Basically, whatever they can scavenge from curbs and dumpsters to spruce up their new digs.
05:46There's just one catch.
05:48The tunnels tend to soak up flood water, so they need to elevate their stuff a few inches off the ground.
05:53That's why you'll see beds and bookcases perched on makeshift stilts, keeping everything safe from rising waters.
06:01When the locals sense rain on the way, they scramble to gather anything they want to protect and haul it to the tunnel exits.
06:09There's no fresh water down there at all, and the only electricity comes from batteries.
06:14That's today's mission for Paul.
06:16He's going around handing out water, food, and flashlights to anyone who needs them.
06:21On top of that, he's letting folks know he's here to help those looking for a way out of the tunnels but feeling stuck.
06:28You know what's crazy?
06:30The name Las Vegas actually comes from the Spanish word, the meadows.
06:35But it's a desert now, isn't it?
06:37Well, in prehistoric times, Las Vegas was actually damp and green.
06:42The Las Vegas Springs were once located above ground, which created this green area.
06:48With time, the marsh eventually went underground, and the valley turned into the barren land it is today.
06:55If you're soaking up some Nevada sun at Caesars Palace, you'd never tell that there's a vibrant community living right under this famous hotel.
07:05Urban explorer Drew Binsky took a day to explore these cryptic tunnels.
07:10He was guided by Paul, since it's dangerous to go down there solo if you don't know anybody.
07:15It's pitch dark down there, and most residents don't know if it's day and night.
07:20It's pretty easy to lose track of time.
07:24Today, Paul is the executive director of Shine a Light, a non-profit outreach program.
07:30His role today is to help the people who live in the tunnels.
07:33The non-profit helps people to live better lives, either down there or up here.
07:39If they choose to leave the tunnels and begin a new life, Paul helps them with job training and shows the way on how to restart a life.
07:48It's not only humans that live in the tunnels, though. They've become a habitat of sorts.
07:53Birds have set up their places to live there, wild vegetation peeks through the cracks,
07:58and even a few adventurous goldfish have found their way upstream from outer water sources.
08:04These tunnels are also home to some of the most unique graffiti galleries in the United States.
08:10These artists tend to paint close to the entrances, since that's where they get more sunlight.
08:16You'll see an array of art over there, from mindless scrawls or thoughtless tags,
08:22to pretty refined works with solid, clean lines, a visible thought process,
08:27and styles that mimic those of painters Georges Graque or Fernand Léger.
08:33Who knew Las Vegas had so much more to offer than already meets the eye?
08:38That's it for today. So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
08:44Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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