12 amazing underground spaces are in the U.S. and waiting for your visit!

Are you claustrophobic?

12 amazing underground spaces are in the U.S. and waiting for your visit!

Did you know that some of America’s most interesting places are situated below the surface? You don’t need to be a hobbit to enjoy and explore buried storefronts, abandoned commuter tunnels, basement speakeasies, cavern tours, and countless other underground spots that the US has to offer. Take a look at the following 12 sites and decide which one you would like to visit!

Pioneer Square (Seattle, Washington)

Image: Tanya Barrow

This Seattle neighborhood has a literal "city under the city." After the Great Fire of 1889, parts of downtown were rebuilt at a higher street level, entombing earlier streets and first-floor storefronts below.

Underground tours let you follow corridors beneath the sidewalks, spot glass sidewalk prisms that once lit shops, and hear the stories of how these eerie places came to be.

Shanghai Tunnels (Portland, Oregon)

Image: realfish

Old Chinatown is said to hide the so-called Shanghai Tunnels, a series of basements and passages linked to waterfront warehouses and long-standing stories from Portland’s past.

Today, the tunnels can be visited only through guided tours, which will lead visitors to mysterious saloons and reveal the legends of the city’s tumultuous past.

The Pedway (Chicago, Illinois)

Image: Robert Bye

The Pedway is an underground network of corridors linking downtown buildings, transit stations, and plazas, allowing commuters avoid the fury of the climate in Chicago.

On guided tours, visitors can explore marble lobbies, hidden hallways, works of art, and stained glass, while learning how the system grew piece by piece over the decades.

Tunnel system (Houston, Texas)

Image: Max Harlynking

Downtown Houston has a climate-controlled tunnel system beneath its office towers, complete with food courts, shops, and corridors that feel like a mini-city.

Guided tunnel tours explain how and why Houston went underground to escape the heat and weather from above ground. Maps describe many miles of passages, most of which are open on weekdays during business hours.

Forgotten tunnels (Los Angeles, California)

Image: Rosalind Chang

Beneath downtown Los Angeles’s historic center are bits of forgotten infrastructure: service tunnels, basement levels, and old speakeasy spaces tied to Prohibition-era nightlife in the city.

Some small-group walking tours offer access to century-old tunnels and hidden bars. The tours take you through stairways and stories connected to Hollywood-era drinking culture in Los Angeles.

Limestone cavern (Louisville, Kentucky)

Image: SLNC

A massive limestone cavern can be toured beneath Louisville, Kentucky. Mega Cavern is entirely underground, with paved paths, lighting, and vast chambers that seem unreal.

Tram rides, walking tours, zip lines, and rope courses can be taken to visit this incredible natural space hidden below the city.

SubTropolis (Kansas City, Missouri)

Image: Tom Wheatley

SubTropolis is often described as the world’s largest underground business complex, carved from a former limestone mine, with miles of lit, paved roads with warehouses and offices operating in steady, cave-cool temperatures.

Despite its name, it’s not a theme park, but a genuine "underground city" with occasional guided visits and a small number of public-facing spaces highlighted by the local guides.

Wabasha Street Caves (Saint Paul, Minnesota)

Image: Wolfgang Hasselmann

These hand-carved sandstone chambers have been a mining site, a mushroom farm, and a famous Prohibition-era hangout known for its dance-floor legends.

Today, visitors can take guided tours through large rooms and passageways hidden in the river bluff, learning about one of the best-preserved Gangster Era sites in the city.

Cincinnati tunnels (Cincinnati, Ohio)

Image: omid roshan

Old lagering tunnels and hidden underground spaces hint at Cincinnati’s beer-boom days, when German brewing traditions shaped neighborhoods block by block.

On guided city tours, visitors can explore subterranean tunnels and a historic crypt connecting breweries, saloons, and the infrastructure that kept the beer cold before modern refrigeration.

The Mob Museum (Las Vegas, Nevada)

Image: Crystal Tubens

The Mob Museum has a basement time capsule called The Underground: part exhibit space, part working distillery, and part speakeasy-style bar.

Located in the museum’s basement and connected to Prohibition-era history, it is designed to stand the test of time. It has artifacts from the era, as well as cocktails that complement the atmosphere.

Cave of the Winds (Colorado Springs, Colorado)

Image: arnoosh Abdollahi

Just outside of the city, Cave of the Winds takes visitors into an electrically lit cave system with rooms, formations, and chambers ready to be explored.

The guided tours move through some 15 rooms, about a half-mile of walkways, and a lot of stairs. It’s a real cave experience that can take a full day to be fully appreciated.

Lemp Brewery Complex (St. Louis, Missouri)

Image: Ksenia Obukhova

The Lemp Brewery complex is famous for its deep, authentic caves and tunnels, remnants of a brewing empire that once relied on cool underground space to keep its product at the right temperature.

Attractions inside the brewery, including haunted experiences, lead visitors through subterranean passages that are dark, seriously atmospheric, and filled with echoes of days gone by.