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 Works takes 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 Works gives readers a unique glimpse at what lies behind and beneath urban life in the twenty-first century.

• The Heights: Anatomy of a Skyscraper
• Underground
• The Way to Go: Moving by Sea, Land, and Air
• Infrastructure: A Guide to the Industrial Landscape (Revised and Updated)
• Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
• Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time
• Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier
• A Prayer for the City
• Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution
• The Death and Life of Great American Cities