On February 26, 1870, the elite of New York stepped into the basement of Devlin’s clothing store in Tribeca and descended into a secret, unauthorized tunnel — one City Hall hadn’t approved and, by all accounts, hadn’t even been briefed on. The evening was hosted by Alfred Ely Beach, a New York inventor with a showman’s touch. He designed the lavish “Under Broadway Reception” not just to unveil his clandestine pneumatic tunnel, but to dazzle the city’s tastemakers and power brokers alike. “Beach