The Works Anatomy of a City

A fascinating guided tour of the ways things work in a modern city Have you ever wondered how the water in your faucet gets there? Where your garbage goes? What the pipes under city streets do? How bananas from Ecuador get to your local market? Why radiators in apartment buildings clang? Using New York City as its point of reference, The Workstakes readers down manholes and behind the scenes to explain exactly how an urban infrastructure operates. Deftly weaving text and graphics, author Kate Ascher explores the systems that manage water, traffic, sewage and garbage, subways, electricity, mail, and much more. Full of fascinating facts and anecdotes, The Worksgives readers a unique glimpse at what lies behind and beneath urban life in the twenty-first century.

Kate Ascher formerly held positions at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and is currently executive vice president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation.