Housed in a former 1900s railroad freight terminal/warehouse at📍220 Twelfth Avenue, the venue featured a long, narrow layout (giving it a tunnel-like feel) and retained original train tracks running through the sunken dance floor. These were a relic of an era in which railroad sidings from the Eleventh Avenue freight line of the New York Central Railroad ran directly into warehouse buildings in that area, so that goods could be transferred to and from freight cars which crossed the Hudson River on car floats from Hoboken, New Jersey. The club had multiple rooms on several levels and the dance floor featured several suspended dance cages. The decor of the club changed frequently having one room decorated by artist Kenny Scharf called the Lava Lounge, while others were decorated as Victorian libraries, S/M dungeons, and lounges. Known for a massive 3,000+ person capacity, wild art installations (such as a ball pit, a log cabin, and a co-ed central-bar bathroom), and intense airport-style security checks at the door. While the club attracted primarily gay audiences, it also attracted members of the hip-hop community. One advantage of the multiple rooms of the club was the ability to host different types of parties each night, with as many as five or more DJs spinning different styles of music to varying crowds. In the mid-to-late 1990s (especially through Sunday night parties like "Mecca"), Tunnel became a premier hip-hop nucleus on the East Coast. It served as a launching pad or gathering place for icons including Jay-Z, DMX, The Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Onyx, Wu-Tang Clan, Snoop Dogg, and Dr. Dre. In 1987, Andy Warhol made his final public appearance at the club modeling fashion collections alongside Miles Davis, of Japanese designer Kohshin Satoh. Actor Vin Diesel worked as a bouncer at Tunnel from around 1984-mid 90s. Tunnel is the location of the opening sequence in Hype Williams' film Belly (1998). - @tourtimenyc