Discover Mysterious Tampa Tunnels Hidden Underneath Ybor
There are mysterious Tampa tunnels hidden under Ybor City and they’ve been rumored for decades. Many people from the area thought the stories were urban legend, but come to find out there’s evidence that they actually exist. Many decades ago there was a network of underground tunnels built but the question remains, what were they hiding down there? We did a deep dive to find out.
What’s Inside The Mysterious Tampa Tunnels:
According Fox13, Dr. Gary Mormino, professor emeritus of history at USF said, “The tunnels of Ybor City represent one of the great riddles and mysteries.” One of the tunnels was located near the Old Florida Brewery near East 6th Avenue in Ybor City. He confirmed that there are many hidden tunnels and witnessed them himself. They were first discovered by developers Daryl Shaw and Joe Capitano who were planning a demolition when they discovered the tunnels right where they were going to put a new office building. There are now attempts to preserve them and even constructing a glass floor in the new building so anyone can see the beautiful tunnels beneath.
In the video below, you can see a basement under a century-old building showing patterns in the brick walls that were closed years ago. An old city map shows the tunnel running from Ybor City toward Port Tampa Bay. The Tampa tunnels are very large reaching 7 feet tall and 5 to 7 feet wide. Experts say the floors are too flat to have been for sewage. Many speculate that the tunnels were used by the Mafia or by bootleggers during prohibition. However, Maomino thinks they were potentially used for trafficking Chinese prostitutes from Cuba to the Port of Tampa. This would have happened in Ybor City, back in the early 1900s. Unfortunately, there’s no pure evidence to support that at this time.
Watch the video below to see the tunnels:
