You may remember the episode a few years ago when Geraldo Rivera had one of his most embarrassing moments. A whole show revolved around a bricked up basement vault in Chicago that supposedly contained the hidden goldmine of gangster Al Capone. However, when it was finally opened it proved empty, and Rivera became the butt end of an urban legend.

Urban legends are folklore. Occasionally there is a basis of truth, though small, in some of them, but generally they are fabrications that keep getting told and expanded from one generation to another. Troy has several urban legends.

Troy was known as a stop on the famous "Underground Railroad," that amorphous but organized attempt to shelter and transport slaves up into Canada during the Civil War era. The Champlain Canal and turnpikes in Troy certainly offered a direct route, but how many times have you heard the stories about underground tunnels that emanate from a particular house or building along Troy or Lansingburgh's waterfront? Yeah, I know, hundreds of them.

While it is true that there may have been tunnels from the river to some warehouses, it was more likely they were built to make it easier to transport goods from the river to the warehouses up on River Street or First Avenue in the Burgh. The obvious problem with the scenario of all these tunnels is the law of hydraulics. You would have to build the tunnel so it ran down from the river to the basement of the building to make transporting goods or people easier. Additionally, you would need very strong watertight doors since the river has a habit of engorging itself each year during springtime, obviously potentially flooding any basement that had a tunnel leading to it.

Ironically, the folks in the Capital District who ran the Underground Railroad were pretty obvious about it. They posted broadsides with their offices and members printed on them. They spoke out publicly, raised money, and they also published their own newspapers discussing how many slaves they freed. So much for being "underground." I don't doubt that much of the transporting of slaves was secret but the bare facts are don't bet on finding too many tunnels associated with it.

Another urban legend centers on the Congress Street Tunnel. Yes, that hump between Congress and Ferry is actually a block long tunnel that allowed southbound trains to come into the Union Depot between Broadway, Fulton and Union. Sixth Avenue in that location is the location of the former tracks and as you take the street rise from State up to Congress you are driving to the top of the tunnel.

The legend relating to this tunnel is that when they finally tore down Union Station and decided to brick up the entrances to the tunnel, several train cars and an engine were placed in the tunnel.

There are actually two tunnels and a "subway." Another smaller tunnel goes under 5th Avenue and exited into Washington Street.

The subway was a classical style subterranean tunnel that went east/west from the train station under the tracks and came up to a platform for those traveling north. There are postcards of the subway periodically appearing on EBay. The exit would be located where the hotel is today, however, the subway is rumored to be still pretty much intact under 6th Avenue filled with furniture from the station.

The only way to find out the truth would be to remove the blockade in front of the Congress Street tunnel, and to do some digging under 6th Avenue.

Finally, one of my favorites is the mystery of the vaults under the old City Hall. Everyone knows that city hall on Fourth and State was torched in 1938 and some say it was to block any chance of investigating illegal behavior on behalf of some political operatives. The vaults held all sorts of city and county business, maps, deeds, and scores of other governmental and financial information.

The site of city hall (now Barker Park) was filled in and covered over very quickly after the fire and I cannot find any reference to whether there was any attempt to get to the vaults and try to recover any material. After all the vaults were fireproof! Since there is now a move to create a new Barker Park, I strongly suggest that before it happens, the entire site get dug out archeologically to prove one way or the other that the thousands of important documents relating to the history of this city did indeed go up in smoke, or is sitting there waiting to be rediscovered. It may not be Al Capone's vault, but it sure would be a fitting end to one Troy urban legend and major arson.