In the wake of last Monday’s Long Island Rail Road snafu — where “a tiny electrical fire in an obscure contraption of levers and pulleys installed nearly a century ago” knocked out train service for hours — the New York Times looks at five other American infrastructures which are exceptionally vulnerable due to the combination of “antiquated hardware and delayed maintenance”, from levees in California’s Central Valley (threatened by rotting wooden stumps, squirrels, and beavers) to the four hundred and eighty relay rooms of New York City’s subway system.