Infiltration 131
Elvis Maximus writes "Today's Salon has a piece by Janelle Brown on "infiltration," the practice of intruding in campus steam tunnels, abandoned mental hospitals and the like." Some fascinating links here, especially for New York City.
We called it "tunneling" (Score:2)
One other interesting tidbit. (Warning, this is hearsay, and may even be a local urban legend.) Ronald Reagan came to our university to speak. Supposedly some hours before the speach, some students were caught in the tunnels. They ended up spending the day sitting in their rooms in the company of a humorless secret service agent. I guess the feds have gotten a bit more thorough since the grassy knoll.
Re:This is the nicest one I know... (Score:1)
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/b/bempton/tou
(apologies for the 'broken' link)
great stuff (Score:1)
-lx
Cute, very shallow (Score:2)
My brother, a *great* (if I say so myself) building hacker from MIT back in the 80's woudl probably be offended at the "gateway drug" refernce. (He ran and led the MIT off-limit undergread tour for many years.)
He's a scrupulously honest person who wouldn't trespass on places he didn't have a close familial relationship with.
Which is a good thing since building hacking , as theyc all it at MIT, did get him inetrested in security to the point now where as a hobby he's a professionally trained security expert and knwos hiw way around most locks and security systems
Re:small caveat (Score:1)
It's different when you're in the heat of the moment and your adrenalin is a pumpin'. You think about danger and all, but you don't care so much. It's been weeks since you've been this alive. It depends on the situation, of course.
I think it's a misconception that there are a bunch of angry homeless and other such characters with knives and guns just roaming around, waiting to confront somebody. This is largely in thanks to the movie industry.
From the infiltration article: they saw hash dealers, but there was nothing even resembling a confrontation. The hash dealers didn't care that the guys were down there exploring. Shit, the hash dealers themselves have had the exhilerating feeling of exploring that place.
Say one were to run into a scene like a meth lab. It's my opinion that that doesn't necessarily need to be considered dangerous. As long as one explains what they're doing (exploring) and doesn't act like they're going to turn the meth'ers in or anything, everything's cool IMHO.
I know it's not for some people, but let me tell you it sure puts a nice cap on the boring 9-5 life that most of us live.
Re:Cute, very shallow (Score:1)
Such as being conceived on the premesis?
Ahhh high school (Score:1)
Phrasm [tripod.com]
Were all going to die why not take the Government with us.
Area 51 (Score:1)
Re:Consequences? (Score:1)
*DON'T* do this, but.. (Score:1)
pipe in Newton, MA, where it emptied into the Charles River in the village of Waban.
We explored miles of these pipes, and popped out of manholes here and there all the way to Newton Corner. One particularly foolhardy fellow even further explored the 3 foot diameter pipes.
Later, we explored the old MWRA aqueduct in South Natick, which was empty at the time. The topper was when we lowered a Honda QA50 minibike into the tunnel and blasted along at 40 MPH as far as we could go.. pumphouse to pumphouse.
Re:This is the nicest one I know... (Score:1)
MMmmmmm. Anyone else reminded of the story about an old bomb being found somewhere in America?
Maybe it's just because I'm seeing this from the perspective of a wuss, but what exactly are people hoping to find in a nuclear sub base? Buried Treasure maybe? i would have thought, with something like that, either there would be some form of security, (or still in use) or be empty for a reason, and the idea of a reason for leaving a nuclear sub. base seems to me to be a good warning sign!
Of course, people are obviously doing this. Did anyone get the links to why they did this, or how well it went?. Wuss-ness aside, if they can do something like that and get out ok (and not get caught), then they'd have to have a good story to tell!
Great after school fun (Score:2)
I grew up within walking distance of an abandoned VA hospital in Augusta, Georgia. In middle school and early in high school, we would go up there and wander through the halls and rooms, looking at abandoned equipment and poking through old filing cabinets. The cool part was that behind the main building--a hotel that had been converted during WWII to support a nearby air base--there was a warren of interconnected buildings with low rooftops between them to run up and down.
There was a security guard who seldom left his post, but as long as you were quiet, you could have a great time. The guard kept ruffians out, and vandals, but us sneaky geeks could have a great time.
One spring we took turns setting up MUDlike puzzles for each other. You dropped clues on floors in various rooms leading to a secret prize somewhere. The prize was a Smurf doll I had appropriated from my younger sister. I'd go to school and the winner would show me the doll, then it was his turn to hide it.
When they demolished the hospital in the mid-1980s, I was left with some great memories. By that time the building had starting to get creepy--scattered beer cans and used condoms littered certain rooms, and the place lost its innocent mystery. But my sister and brother and I would ride horses around on the enormous front lawn on fragrant evenings, ducking the branches of tall magnolias.
But vadding is a hell of a lot of fun. Once you start looking at a building as a machine, you'll want to start poking around to see how it works. The basements and rooftops of the 42-story skyscraper near Underground Atlanta kept me and my colleagues amused on slow workdays in the mid-1990s.
Happiness is an unlocked maintenance door.
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Re:This is the nicest one I know... (Score:1)
That reminds me of the sign at the gates - "Property of U.S. Army. No Trespassing" -very faded, but still readable. That was one of the signs on my list of stealing (along with the Neighborhood Watch sign - you're not watching very well, are you?). Maybe next time I go see my parents I'll have to make a short detour...
the ultimate tunneling... (Score:1)
Neverwhere (Score:2)
small caveat (Score:2)
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Re:Abandoned sanitoriums (Score:1)
Next time you fly into Heathrow, keep an ewe out for an enormous gothic tower near the airport - that'll be the Sanitorium. Many people mistake it for Holloway's other famous building, the university nearby in Egham, but that's nowhere near as impressive.
But having lived inside Founder's (the Holloway building at Egham) for a year I can tell you it's pretty damn fun for exploring, especially after some hallucinogens...
Re:As a Caltech Student.... (Score:2)
Re:small caveat (Score:1)
What meth labs are you hanging out in?
Anyone who's just been violated (you walked into his secret meth lab) is going to be on edge, to say the least. I know that if I were a meth cooking maniac, living in a underground tunnel, I wouldn't want people there. Remember, these explorers, for the most part, aren't exploring some abandoned building on a hill somewhere. A lot of this "infiltration" is being done in inner-city environments where things can be a lot more dangerous. Sure, you won't find a crack den everywhere you explore, but if you're exploring in a bad area, you chance finding a lot more crack dens than you would like.
You aren't safe discovering homeless people, either. You're violating their space, and some squatters are very territorial. You wouldn't want people walking through your bedroom, and from what I've seen, the homeless feel the same way.
I'm not saying that it would be absolutly deadly to walk into one of these labs, or a crack den, or someone's glorified Maytag box, but it isn't a situation a weekend explorer would want to be in.
If you want to go out exploring yourself, remember this: Any situation, if improperly handled, could be lethal to you and others.
Be cautious, hackers.
What to watch out for in the subway tunnels (Score:1)
C'mon now, rats? Cops? The elusive mole people (née squatters)?
You've got bigger worries - C.H.U.D. [imdb.com]s.
Re:dallas? (Score:1)
Why do you ask?
Infiltration (Score:1)
We called it 'Urban Spelunking' (Score:2)
Guess what... (Score:1)
I'm trying to give the maps a realistic feel - I think up cool structures, and tailor the gameplay around them. Recently, I've been building a nuclear silo, and I've got ideas for stations, machinery complexes and so on.
It's called Half-Life: Parallax [man.ac.uk], and it might be released at some point in the next year or so...
Ford Prefect
awesome site: welcometohell.net (Score:1)
www.welcometohell.net [welcometohell.net]
this is a site in norther new jersey dedicated to an old sanitorium. found it spraypainted on the walls of the place when we were adventuring there one night, had a good laugh, then we all went back and secretly checked the url
although there's not much left of the place now, i remember seeing it when it was all there and the photos _really_ do it justice...as well as the wealth of historical information, maps, and other sundry stuff the site includes. truly awesome site if you're into this sort of thing. i only wish the place was still all there as there was some seriously creepy stuff there about a decade ago when it was still standing
-dk
The problem is... (Score:1)
I can remember a few forays through the steam tunnels that ended with some co-eds getting the holy !#%&*^ scared out of them when the 'tunnel party' emerged. The fact that the one in the lead was wearing a 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' mask might have had something to do with it.
Eric Gearman
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Infiltration (Score:2)
Really?
Cogeneration, etc. (Score:1)
At Northwestern Michigan College in the 60's and 70's, the faculty had keys to the steam tunnels and routinely used them to go between buildings without going outside in the winter. You could comfortably walk single file down those tunnels. Students weren't supposed to use them (liability issues if some idiot ran his head into a pipe bracket, and the tunnels just weren't big enough for the between-classes rush), but sometimes snuck in. The steam pipes were over a foot in diameter; water, drains, and electricity were also routed through there.
Re:small caveat (Score:1)
I will say, however, that I've been on my share of expeditions in my own city (Philadelphia). I had no idea that urban exploration was a _common_ thing to do
I think it could be very different and possibly dangerous to explore abandoned row houses or something to that effect. It's a more private environment, which means that someone very well may consider it home. Those aren't the places to go for... But I think wondering around in abandoned public or otherwise big places is quite safe in comparison (at least with regard to ruffians).
I grew up in Hampton Roads, by the way - near Hampton.
The only exploration I remember doing in good ol' VA was in high school. We went to a small abandoned military landing strip (or airport??). We only explored two concrete ammo storage bins. That was a popular place for high school kids, tho. While on the roof of it, I slipped and got someone's broken beer bottle bits thoroughly embedded in both hands. There was no flashlight, so i had to wait to get back to the car to take care of it. It was a chore climbing down the tree next to the side of the building with both hands... bloody. eww. I don't remember where it was, but somewhere in Newport News I think. (jefferson ave or warwick blvd??)
But I agree, one can't be stupid doing urban exploration. If you're not good on your feet and doubt you can talk your way out of a sticky situation (even with barrels of adrenalin pumping through you), think twice. Otherwise, try it! Grok your city!
This quote from http://www.thespoon.com/trainhop/ [thespoon.com] pretty much sums it up for me
"For some of us, just the thrill of peeking behind the scenes of life is enough. Add to that the challenge of evading the law and pushing personal and societal boundaries. Toss in the opportunity to indulge a childish urge to run around like Indiana Jones. And it's too much to resist."
Better you than me (Score:2)
In the steam tunnels, live steam! Ever see steam pouring out of a vent? It did because a 60 year old pipe burst. Confined space + Live steam + you = severe burns.
In basements, live step down transformers, air compressors, steam lines, hot and cold water, and other goodies. I have seen bare 1,000 volt buss bars behind a door that was rusted open. Oh yeah, I needed a flashlight to see it because the bulb was burnt out. Cool huh? Warning sign covered up by the door, no lights, only a hum to let you know you are about to die (made me turn around).
Whatever you do, please stay away from buildings that have those cute little radiation signs on them. Yes, there are places that you can get yourself hurt. Where I worked, the baddies were protected by two locked doors, and trenches built into the floor so that you could walk around. It was also one of the first targets the nuts thought of! The radiation protection people do their best to keep you out and warn you, but some figured that you get what you deserve if you break in.
As for people eating in places like this, well Ewwwwww!
Vienna (Score:1)
As a Caltech Student.... (Score:3)
As a Caltech [caltech.edu] student, I can definitely affirm the accounts of the great steam tunnel tradition. The house most famous for this sort of thing is Blacker [caltech.edu].
One fine day, we decieded we needed a faster intranet between the north and south houses for the trading of DivX, porn, and such [shared 10BaseT just does not cut it anymore]. So, the most obvious solution was to set up some routers (FreeBSD and Linux) and drop some gigabit cable. (we only had 100BaseT NICs, but we got a good deal on the cat 5e)
Of course, it was wonderful to have relatively easy access to the tunnels, enabling us to run the cable quickly, neatly, and safely.
Here's some wonderful pictures of the whole thing. The tunnels became quite constricted in some areas, so we had to protect our buddy from the elements (asbestos, spiders, god knows what) as he crawled in the dirt underneath the students houses.
Preparing... [geocities.com]
Ready to go.. [geocities.com]
Anticipation [geocities.com]
Success!! [geocities.com]
Press... (Score:1)
Gee, lucky that they didn't didn't get a write up in Salon or posted on
As well, the University I went to (University of Regina, in Canada) had a very strict and very enforced policy against Infiltration; one urban legend told to me by the security guards was that under the building known as the Language Institute, there is a huge open space that is well-lighted with a sand floor: an indoor beach. The legend continues that a sophomore, after finding it, took his girlfriend for a "picnic" there, and was eventually caught by the security guards "having dessert" ("wink, wink, nudge, nudge, you know what I mean?"). Both were promptly expelled.
Telco manholes (Score:2)
My School Infiltration Experience (Score:1)
Re:Consequences? (Score:1)
2) "Think of it as evolution in action." (Niven & Pournelle, Oath of Fealty.)
Re:dallas? (Score:1)
Re:An interesting hobby. (Score:1)
Columbia University Checking In On Tunneling (Score:2)
Website for tunnel maps for many university campuses with maps and lots of info on Columbia. [columbia.edu]
Columbia at one point had the third largest building tunnel system in the world, behind MIT and the Kremlin. It is famous for many things including the beginning of the Manhattan Project.
This 7M pdf [columbia.edu] also contains a good article on the history of Columbia's tunnels.
Tunnels are a major part of geek life at Columbia and tunneling has been incorporated into the traditions of many campus organizations. CUMB (Columbia University Marching Band) [cumb.org] gives an underground tour at the beginning of every school year.
Re:An interesting hobby. (Score:1)
Tunnels (Score:1)
For the Thrill of It (Score:1)
When I was a kid, I thought exploring construction sites was wonderful. You could walk through a house before it's built. Step through a wall. See how dirty an operation it really is before it's all cleaned up. My parents told me not to. Silly parents, what did they know? I broke my leg at a construction site when I was 8. Sometimes prohibitions make really good sense.
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Do owners have good reasons to keep people out? (Score:2)
I seem to recall that here in the UK property owners are required by law to secure dangerous structures to prevent children from breaking in and injuring themselves.
Re:MIT Lockpicking guide. (Score:1)
As an interesting aside, this activity is called "hacking" at MIT.
Re:Abandoned sanitoriums (Score:1)
Man, that takes me back. Mushroom picking on Prune Hill. The horsey girl was so shocked when I explained what all the hippies were doing in her field :-)
Another source (Score:1)
Another link to check out in search of odd holes in the ground and old anomolies... Weird New Jersey [weirdnj.com]. The website supports a magazine that can occasionally be found in local book stores.
Proof positive that what the rest of the US has know for years is true... New Jersey is strange.
Penn State's steam tunnels... (Score:1)
Do not enter abandoned mines (Score:2)
Falling down a several story vertical shaft can be a real drag.
I don't mean to be a spoil sport, but the skill in vadding/infiltration is not getting access, but not putting yourself in a situation you can't get out of.
Re:Steam Tunnels: what are they? (Score:1)
Re:Indiana? (Score:1)
Re:As a Caltech Student.... (Score:1)
No, silly, Blacker just pretends they're into tunnelling and construction to confuse the incoming freshmen into thinking they want to live in Blacker; in fact the Moles are most famous for sitting in their rooms playing computer games, in between attending Caltech Christian Fellowship meetings.
But you're in one of those unidentifiable North Houses, so you wouldn't know better.
</obHouseFlame>
Re:MIT Lockpicking guide. (Score:1)
In no way should you click here [capricorn.org], this is for novelty use only, delete it after 24 hours, etc.
Ben^3I actually got paid to do this (Score:1)
The other neat building was the DEA's building. While having a smoke outside waiting for our GSA contact to show up, we watched a bunch of undercover agents gear up for a sting or a raid. For all you crack dealers out there- don't screw with these guys! Anyway, inside the building each door to the stairwell was locked by both a biometric hand scanner and a keypad. Funky.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to do the FBI or the Secret Service departments. They probably would be just as good.
www.urbanexplorers.net (Score:1)
-Molehunter
Lucky to be alive with pastimes like ours... (Score:1)
When I recall these adventures, it makes me think there was some divine force that prevented a summer thundershower from drowning us. Still it *was* fun at the time.
Going on means going far
Going far means returning
Re:For the Thrill of It (Score:1)
Cornell University (Score:1)
The easy fun part is the tunnel between Barton and Shoelkopf. There is a door right behind the shotput cage and it is always able to be opened from Barton. Just watch that it doesn't close behind you and you get locked in. It should always be possible to get out on the other side, but sometimes they chain the door there.
Better are climbing the beams up to the catwalks. Fun but climbing gear would be a good idea. You might be able to do this legally by volunteering at a concert setup.
There is a ladder near the tunnel door that leads to a storage area over the doors. Once you get up there, there is a forgotten spiral staircase that leads back down into the cage where the zamboni thing is kept.
The best though is the abandoned rifle range underneath the building. On one side of the hall there are stairs leading down to the band room. On the there side there similar stairs that once led to the rifle range. The door is sometimes locked but the key is on the ring that the attendant uses that is left in the desk. You can usually get the combination lock open. The top of the stairs have been converted to storage for chairs and such but you can go a ways down the stairs and there it is blocked off with plywood with a trap door in it. If you go through this you can get to the rifle range. Bring a dust mask as the place was closed for lead contamination.
The best way to get into the hall is to know a student attendant that will let you in when he closes up. Otherwise the doors on the bleacher level are often left wide open. Failing that, you could hide in the hall, perhaps the women's bathroom, or on top of the Navy building when the hall closes. Or possible duct tape the catch on one of the side doors so that it doesn't latch properly. Often the attendants don't even check these.
Re:Abandoned sanitoriums (Score:1)
http://www.pvillage.org/viewphoto.asp?1998%2D22%2D 12 [pvillage.org] D 27 [pvillage.org] D 09 [pvillage.org] D 43 [pvillage.org] D 58 [pvillage.org] D 31 [pvillage.org]
http://www.pvillage.org/viewphoto.asp?1998%2D22%2
http://www.pvillage.org/viewphoto.asp?0998%2D07%2
http://www.pvillage.org/viewphoto.asp?0998%2D08%2
http://www.pvillage.org/viewphoto.asp?1997%2D00%2
http://www.pvillage.org/viewphoto.asp?1997%2D65%2
Re:Do owners have good reasons to keep people out? (Score:1)
Re:MIT Lockpicking guide. (Score:1)
I saw two words: (Score:1)
and closed the browser window. I don't have time to waste reading articles by numskulls.
Though "infiltrating" sounds fun, I personally tend to think there might be a REASON why condemned buildings are condemned, so I recommend you do some research and infiltrate at your own risk...
-Kasreyn
Re:Vienna (Score:1)
The movie is The Third Man [imdb.com], starring Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles. The tunnels in question are the sewers under the old city.
Adventure (Score:3)
My last steam-tunnel adventure (Score:1)
So, on my last day there, this only girl of our group of adventurers invited me down to the steam tunnels for one last walkthrough; with a gleam in her eye. We walked from one end of campus to the other, clambering through dark passages with perhaps a little more body contact than absolutely required. I was distraught, of course, about getting kicked out of school, but enjoying myself at the same time.
So we end up breaking into the computer room in Maryland hall at about 4:00 am. This was a common destination; as it let you combine both kinds of hacking in the same trip. When we got there, everybody else in our group had decorated the room for a surprise going-away party. I cried, of course -- what do you do? You never have friends again like those you had in school.
thad
s/infiltration/vadding/g (Score:1)
Re:MIT Lockpicking guide. (Score:2)
Rich
See also edificeering... (Score:1)
Re:Steam Tunnels: Dark, exciting then, now just da (Score:2)
(The U tunnels on the other hand, were always a mystery - with stories of people getting busted for even standing around storm drain pipes, or going through a door in the student union and ending up on the other side of campus or down by the river. Some of these stories might be real -- go to the U engineering library and look at some of the utopian underground societies the civil engineering department was dreaming up in the 1970s.)
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Re:Do owners have good reasons to keep people out? (Score:2)
On the other hand if you owned an abandoned building, and had insurance, maybe you wouldn't worry so much about homeless people sneaking in and lighting fires. In fact you might even encourage them...
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Re:An interesting hobby. (Score:1)
All of that energy goes into your flesh when the steam condenses on you. I don't think it'll be a pretty sight.
Re:Cute, very shallow (Score:1)
There's no way our administrators can't know what's going on - the 'off-limits' undergrad tour ("Orange Tour") is one of the key attractions of orientation despite the leaders' constant warnings, i.e. "If a CP asks you where you're going, what are you going to say?" "We're trying to find the way to Baker..."
Tunneling, Wacos, and the Queen Mum (Score:1)
UVA steam tunnels (Score:1)
I can't seem to find anything about the UVA tunnels on the web, and from what I see they're quite extensive, especially around Scott Stadium and environs. I've heard that you can get all the way to the downtown mall from the chem building... One of these days I'll get around to trying it.
Re:An interesting hobby. (Score:2)
Actually you can. When water reaches 100C it needs an additional kick of about 4kJ/g to break intermolecular bonds and convert it to vapor. Actually whats really cool is when you get to the triple point of an element. You get solid, liquid, and gaseous phases in equilibrium so the compound is simultaneously boiling, condensing, sublimating, depositing, and crystallizing. It's a bit hard to get this with water but if you put dry ice in a closed container, you can observe this.
Re:As a Caltech Student.... (Score:1)
Re:Consequences? (Score:1)
> taxes that go straight to Pentagon and billions
> that are being wasted on NYC's Metrocard system.
So what exactly is your problem with 50% going to Pentagon? When you refuse to use the Internet (developed originally by DARPA, part of DoD, in case you didn't know), come back to me and we'll talk about money being wasted.
As for Metrocard, i adore it, it is way better than anything i've seen before. Although I'll admit to homicidal urges towards the smarty-pants who designed the user interface for some parts of the system ;)
-DVK
Re:Steam Tunnels: what are they? (Score:1)
What? Didn't you ever watch, The Time Machine?
(BTW, I have the DVD of George Pal's movie, if you want to stop by my apartment to watch it with me. And, while I'm getting it set up, I might tell you about my experience as a steam plant engineer for the US Navy, or tell you about HVAC.)
don't leave Ricketts out (Score:1)
Once upon a time at the University of Waterloo (Score:2)
A story of what happens when you get caught... (Score:3)
Prior to the court date the parks department discovered that the location we were sighted and arrested at, which was about 20 feet from the side of a state road, was not in fact "park property" (and was instead a DOT right-of-way) and the charges were dropped.
badtz-maru
Re:Do owners have good reasons to keep people out? (Score:2)
It was fantastic. Huge former hospitals, former prisons. Stone structures partly laid bare, rotting, falling apart. A true adventure and novelty each time you visited. 6 or seven buildings in all, and never a day where exertion and discovery didn't overcome boredom.
A few years after I stopped playing in those ruins a kid died falling through a rotted floor, and security there finally became serious, and many of the buildings were torn down, for safety reasons.
I cherish my memories of exploring those buildings, finding iron lungs and other odd contraptions.
-Peter
University of Guelph Steam Tunnels (Score:3)
During my first year on campus, I heard rumours that there existed old steam tunnels that connected all the buildings on campus. Of course, my partner in crime, and myself felt it obligatory to locate these tunnels, and utilize them for our own crafty wants. Upon finding grates on the ground that billowed warmth, and often light, we found our entrance.
On various post-bar drunken wanders, we managed to get in via a metal door on the ground that we were able to jimmy the latch on the inside with the help of a strong skinny stick. Once we were in, good gravity, was it ever a good find. We could get into virtually any building on campus at any time of day or night. We could hook up cable to any residence room, and we could wreck havoc onto the digital phone system that the University used.
They go on forever, narrowing to the point that you walk single file, and duck way down, and opening up into cavernous rooms that echo when you talk. Some of the tight squeezes were reminisant of spalunking into a cave except that this was all man made.
One method of getting into the tunnels that we found was to get into a maintanance closet that has a tricky door that can be opened with a good old fashion flying shoulder. Then we would shimmy down a hot water pipe (not much fun) then crab walk on our back along a 1.5"x1.5" tunnel for about 100 meters.
We found that maintanance workers had porn on the walls, and that others had broken into the tunnels as far back as the 60's and left their mark with spray paint.
To those in new buildings, or campus' explore them late at night, and checkout anything that looks like a maintanace access, because often they can be lots of fun, and can allow for trickery, and copeious amounts of hellish behaviour. I think in Guelph Ontario though, the punishment on campus for being caught in the steam tunnels is expulsion. So its all about keeping the escape posibilities in mind all the time.
An interesting hobby. (Score:3)
Maybe I'm a bit on the paranoid side. I've seen water treatment plants detonate from sparks, and entire towns literally moved due to dangerous conditions.
I'm sure it's in the FAQs, but I'm equally sure that somebody will have trivialised it in their minds. If you =are= going to make a hobby out of going into abandoned buildings, long-forgotten tunnels, etc, at least try to find out WHY they were left.
Most, probably because they weren't needed. A few, because the building had become unsafe. (And remember that they won't have become any safer, through being neglected.) Of those few, some may have dangerous chemicals. Asbestos was, once, a popular material. And many fashionable paints and glazes from the 1700's and 1800's are now considered highly toxic and/or carcinogens.
That leaves those rare one or two places where, for some freaky reason, there has been a methane build-up in some air-tight corridor or pipe. Or something just as nasty. There are plenty of naturally-occuring gasses which will be common in a decaying ruin which can guarantee you a very bad hair day. Most have sufficient air-flow that that isn't an issue. But it doesn't hurt to be careful when you come across sealed doors to underground bunkers.
Ok, enough of the doom and gloom. If you're smart and you know what you're doing, it sounds a great activity. There are more ruins than potholes in your average city, giving "common folk" a chance to engage in "alternative spelunking".
Fun stuff! (Score:2)
My friend and I never explored the place, as it was way too easy to get caught, and many doors were welded shut, but there were plenty of spaces just begging to be explored. I remember in one building (the oldest, that housed the library and "study" hall), stairs led down past the basement classrooms, and at the end of the stairs were doors that opened outward (!), but had no door handles (!!) - wonder why?
I was told by my chemistry teacher that between that building and the science building (the newest building on the campus, built in the 60's), used to be tunnels that connected the two, and in the middle (aboveground was a very large field) was an irradiation lab - but it had since been filled in.
Other areas were what had to be some kind of tunnel system under the park area between the industrial hall and Warren hall, because there was this large blue capped pipe, surrounded by a small stone wall - it was a vent pipe of some kind. I remember seeing the phone company running cabling in it, so it was some kind of access tunnel. There was also, near the principal's office area, a large concrete cover thing, with a welded trap door on top, and "vents" along the edges. It was only a couple of feet tall, and stair-stepped shaped, of two layers.
Our auditorium was a WPA project - massive concrete work - walls three feet thick in areas. Of course, all over campus were bomb shelter signs, as most of the buildings had basements.
I remember going to a night class, just for the heck of it (not like I needed the grade or anything) - it was woodshop. Our "final" consisted of cleaning up and old storage area, of unfinished projects. Sawdust a foot thick at our feet had to be swept out. Then we got to organize the projects. Old desks, chairs, various other creations... One desk we opened, patterned off an old-time school desk, had a "How to Survive the Bomb" Red Cross pamphlet, from the 50's in it!
Now I live in Phoenix, Arizona - we have an old VA hospital, still in use, at the corner of 7th Street and Indian School Road. One time I was in the area looking for a job, and I wandered in (my GF was working in an adjacent area at the time). I managed to get down to the very basement of the hospital - a steam tunnel like area, very errie, very low light - and very interesting. I was approached by a guard, but made up an excuse, and got out of there. On subsequent days (after job hunts), I tried to get to the mental ward on the third floor, but the elevator kept skipping the floor as a security precaution. I couldn't find the stairs to it...
I am sure there are other areas to explore in the Phoenix area (that aren't abandoned mines - those you want to stay clear of) - I keep thinking the Westward Ho might hold interesting areas, as well as other parts of downtown...
Worldcom [worldcom.com] - Generation Duh!
Re:Steam Tunnels: what are they? (Score:2)
Most large buildings are heated with steam radiators. It is therefore necessary to pipe that steam around so that it can be used. In the case of many college campuses and similar installations there often isn't a furnace in each building but instead a really big central furnace. The steam is then piped around the campus so that it can heat all the buildings. Usually tunnels are built to carry the steam pipes and communication lines and whatever else needs to go between buildings. Often times these tunnels are large enough for a man to walk in so that the pipes and cables can be serviced if necessary or in the case of tunnels built in the 1950's some were built even larger so that we could also use them to hide from the Russian bombers.
You can sometimes tell where the tunnels run in the winter since they will heat the ground above them and melt off the snow. If you went to college in a colder climate you can probably remember that there were a few sidewalks that were always clear of snow, that's probably why.
Many cities also use a similar arrangement for downtown buildings. It's a pretty common practice to pipe steam to downtown from a garbage incenerator. This arrangement pays pretty well for the city since they can charge the garbage haulers to dump trash at the incenerator then they burn the trash to produce steam that they can sell to downtown businesses.
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This is the nicest one I know... (Score:4)
How to make a sig
without having an idea
Steam Tunnels: Dark, exciting then, now just dark (Score:2)
It was interesting to a 15 year old, but I'm not sure what the interest would be now. I mainly remember it as hot, dirty, dark and extremely frowned upon by the campus police.
The part about the police is what made it less an exploration and more of an evasion -- the tunnels had quite a few motion sensors which in past 'spelunking' expeditions had been set off by others in our party, yielding trespass citations.
We evaded the motion sensors but because they were there and we had no map, we didn't get to 'explore' the system very much. We ended up climbing out of the subbasement of a steam plant and hiding behind a vine-covered fence as the police drove by slowly. The most remarkable thing about the whole experience was the steam plant -- I don't know how we climbed up 3 levels of that place (it was very open, like an old factory in a movie) without someone seeing us -- but it was like the steam plant was totally abandoned.
In toto it was an adventure, but looking back there wasn't much to it -- just a lot of walking around in a hot, dark place worrying about the cops.
Now's your chance! (Score:2)
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Re:Infiltration (Score:2)
Joe
Re:This is the nicest one I know... (Score:2)
See also: Vadding (Score:3)
http://www.science.uva.nl/~mes/jargon/v/vadding
#include "us hackers did it first.h"
Mike.
US Naval Asylum (Score:2)
It was built in the 1820's to house US Naval officers no longer able to care for themselves. It's just been sitting there since 1976, when it was abandoned. The Naval Home (new PC name) is now in Georgia if I'm not mistaken.
Anyway, we've made quite a few visits to this place. The back yard is fantastic. It's extremely overgrown, but in the middle is an almost-defunct gazebo. On either side of the main building are two large houses. One housed the "governor" of the complex, and I forget who the other was for.
The first time we went, we explored the inside of the main building a little - we first walked in through a back entrance into the old cafeteria. We went down a long hallway which traversed the building front-back. It intersected with two looooooong hallways, going side to side through the building. Well, we got to the front of the building and noticed that we were stnading about 10 feet from a collapsed floor. That, and the fact that our only flashlight's batteries weren't working led us to a near panic, but we managed to calmly walk out of the *dark* building until we figuratively pee'd out pants. So, we went home for a lantern and batteries (and a stock of beer - to get sufficiently drunk).
The second visit, later into the same night, led us throughout the building. A few of the interesting things we found are:
o Three small rooms labled "Special Care Room #1", "Special Care Room #2", and "Medication Room"
o A calendar, left hanging on the wall and on the month of November, 1976 (same month the place was abandoned).
o The central room of the building - round with a tall (about 3 stories tall) arched ceiling. Windows from higher floors look out into the room (making the room a bit more scary to be standing in).
o Scattered all over the floor of the central room were "Request for Dismissal" slips, all signed and dated in the 60's and 70's.
We stayed long enough on this visit to sit on the back balcony and watch the sun rise over the Schylkill, Philadelphia's main river.
The overall feeling this place produces is definately eerie. The paint is peeling from the walls and ceilings everywhere. Paint chips cover the tiled floors so it's impossible to walk quietly (for better or worse). There are a few areas (hallway intersections, central room, etc) where it's impossible to see everything at once - especially with only single-beam flashlights. The thought of crazed Naval officers from pre-Civil War through post-Vietnam eras living and dying within the same walls is also a little spooky...
On subsequent visits, we did more exploring of the main building, but we also explored one of the mansions next to it. We didn't go too far into the house, as most of it had already collapsed (ceiling beams, staircases, etc) We did get around the entirety of the first floor and the basement. In the kitchen was the skeleton of a cat, with fur still placed naturally, making it look almost alive...
I had no idea these "infiltration" groups existed. I'm making plans (as of now) to go back and do a photography project at this complex. When that happens, I'll surely create a site and post everthing I've got.
Fascinating... (Score:2)
Just watch your back; some underground, outta the way tunnels do have the occasional squatter or so. Don't poke them with sharp sticks or anything.
Brio Superfund Site (Score:2)
Consequently the entire neighborhood had been abandoned. However, you could still see the odd lighted window in a house or the flicker of a television in an upstairs window. Bear in mind that there were hundreds of houses in this area - block after block. Most of them were entirely boarded up. It was a decidedly eery experience capped off by our visit to the abandoned elementary school. The overgrown playground alone gave off a terribly post-apocolyptic vibe. There were also abandoned cars littered here and there.
We tried to go back a few months later but by then the police were in force and they sent us home promptly. Still, glad to have seen it.
Re:infiltrating Toronto (Score:2)
Infiltration.org [infiltration.org] is real nice, and they're fine fellows, but sometimes, you have to draw the line. Someone found my Montréal Métro [emdx.org] (sorry, just in french, except for this page [emdx.org]) website, and kept pestering me for infiltrating it. Not something to do, and for safety, I had to put a disclaimer [emdx.org] on my Métro exploration pages (all my explorations were legit - duly accompanied by Métro officials).
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Does this in anyway explain... (Score:2)
infiltrating Toronto (Score:3)
i've been a fan of infiltration.org [infiltration.org] for a while now: that's probably because i live in Toronto, where a lot of the "infiltration" on the site is being done. the pictures of Toronto's Subway Tunnels [infiltration.org] are amazing (including an abandoned station [infiltration.org] i never knew about). plus i had no idea how many strange things were hidden in the Royal York Hotel [infiltration.org]!
i've read most of the articles over in great detail, but i'm still too chickenshit to go down into the Subway tunnels myself. phrases like "allowing just barely enough room for a human to press up against the wall and let a train whip past" don't exactly make the situation any better.
but it's great that some people are doing this and making the pictures and information available to the rest of us on the web! it's definitely a site worth reading.
- j
Abandoned sanitoriums (Score:3)
Then the original owners who had bought the hospital from the NHS went bust. The subsequent owners stripped the slate roof off and let the building decay. They wanted the land the building was on for houses, and thought that if the building decayed to a point where it was unsavable they would get permission to pull it down.
Instead the council sued the f*ck out of them, and a new consortium finally stumped up the cash to restore it. They got permission to build houses on what had been the gardens, as they had run to rack and ruin.
While it was derelict, some friends and I used to regularily break in at night to both the sanitorium and it's church. The enormous tower was full of pigeon crap, but well worth the climb.
Next time you fly into Heathrow, keep an ewe out for an enormous gothic tower near the airport - that'll be the Sanitorium. Many people mistake it for Holloway's other famous building, the university nearby in Egham, but that's nowhere near as impressive.
(Google turns up a few relevant links if anyone's interested).
Chris
Usenet Group on the Subject alt.college.tunnels (Score:2)
Re:An interesting hobby. (Score:2)
Also, be very watchful of steam pipes. Steam will burn you quicker that water of the same temperature, and it's not just an empty danger. There have been many people that have died in steam related accidents. All it takes is for one of your two-hundred pound drunken buddies to stand atop a thin steam pipe. A cloud of steam later and you can basically assume that your friend has sustained some wicked injuries.
And exercise caution when adventuring into abandoned buildings. I have seen floors and celings completly caved in. One false step and you could find yourself under a few tons of drywall and two-by-fours.