Peter Garritano discovered as much when he went behind the scenes at some of New York's big Internet hubs to see how it all works.

Garritano always knew the Internet is as much a place as it is a thing, one where vast networks in frigid rooms move enormous amounts of data around the world. But he didn't have a real understanding of how all that info moves from one place to another, and he wanted to find out. He's spent the last few months doing just that, shooting at five "carrier hotels" where many networks converge to form a single, larger network. That's why they called it the Internet. It allows an unlimited number of different networks to come together as one.

At a carrier hotel, AT&T's network can hook up with Verizon's network. Verizon's network can connect with Google's network. And so on. Mostly, it's a place for connecting big Internet service providers like AT&T and Verizon—the organizations that give homes and business their Internet connections—but increasingly, the companies that run massive applications over the Internet—like Google and Microsoft—are starting to run their own networks as well.