For more than a decade, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority has treated the Atlantic as its very own graveyard , tossing thousands of old subway cars off a barge to rust away on the ocean floor. An environmental crime? Hardly . The program creates habitats for marine life from Georgia to Jersey and gives New York’s aging subway cars a vibrant (and free!) retirement home.

Now, New York photographer Stephen Mallon has captured the MTA’s artificial reef program in a gobstopping collection of stills that look like what you’d get if you combined an Ed Burtynsky series with the freeze frames of The Matrix and the train porn of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (without the agro hostage situation). We’ve got lots of details on the program and a selection of Mallon’s photographs above.