Man exposes strange reason why New York has so many fake buildings

When heading to the Big Apple, most think of tourist hotspots like the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, or the 9/11 Memorial.

While touring iconic districts like Little Italy or the West Village, you're probably too distracted by the architecture or looking up at the skyscraper-dominated skyline to notice that some buildings might be a little off.

The more observant among you might spot that New York is littered with fake buildings.

From the outside, these buildings look like any other New York townhouse, probably containing a series of flats and worth more than most of us will make in a lifetime.

Instead of busy families happily cooking away or overworked office workers coming back from a long day at the grind behind these brick fascias, a closer look reveals the soulless world of New York's fake buildings.

In a YouTube video, Cash Jordan gives us a tour of New York's fake buildings and explains what's going on.

Starting out with the infamous 58 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn Heights, the YouTuber and real estate agent explains how the facade is covering a steel girder.

58 Joralemon Street even has its own Wikipedia, going into better detail about how it's a New York City Subway vent.

The property is still valued at a jaw-dropping $2.8 million, despite the fact it's just a subway vent.

Cash says: "The building was originally constructed in 1847 as a private residence, and for about 60 years, people lived here.

“But that all changed in 1907 when it was purchased by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company."

Having gutted the property, 58 Joralemon Street is now dubbed as 'the world’s only Greek Revival subway ventilator'

Its unique story is preserved thanks to a 1999 agreement with the Landmarks Preservation Commission, helping facilities blend into the neighborhood without bringing down nearby property prices. Cash also takes us to Strecker Memorial Laboratory on Roosevelt Island, which was used as a laboratory in the 20th century and is now under the ownership of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The lab even has its own autopsy room, but these days, it's now a 'power conversion substation' for trains.

33 Thomas Street is one of New York's most mysterious buildings (Bento Orlando / Getty)

Manhattan's Pier 34 is a mysteriously empty building, with Jordan adding: "You're probably wondering why there's a fake building in the middle of the river. Well the reason that it's [over the river] is because it has to be. It can't be on land because [its purpose] is under the water."

The fake factory is a massive vent for the Holland Tunnel that connects New Jersey and New York: "You've gotta have ventilation. 100,000 cars drive into Manhattan a day [through the Holland], and 34 million people a year make this trip, so the tunnel is a big deal."

As for New York's fake building phenomenon, Cash says: "In New York City, there's so much going on that we need things like fake buildings to hold it together."

Not everything is as easy to explain, and as Cash visits the window-free skyscraper of 33 Thomas Street, he theorizes about the skyscraper that towers above New York with 29 floors and no windows. It was originally built as a telephone switch center and is owned by AT&T, but largely, its uses remain a mystery.

More than just one fake building, there are a surprising number of them hiding the city's secret underbelly.