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In certain parts of the world, the ground is honeycombed with secret man-made tunnels and rooms. Many of these remain secret from the general public, some of them supposedly containing what amounts to a self-contained city, including electricity production, water purification, food storage, restaurants, and living quarters for thousands of people. Even some entire factories have been housed underground, to protect them from bombings during wartime. A number of the subterranean bases are World War 2 and Cold War relics, long abandoned by the governments which tunneled them out.
In 1967, Nick McCamley stumbled across such a complex in England. He was out bicycling with a friend in the wilderness when they unexpectedly came across a curious building in the middle of nowhere. It was standing in the middle of an open field, with no other structures evident for miles around. It had no windows and few doors, and it had strange black pipes leading from the sides of building into the ground around it. It appeared to be abandoned, and in disrepair.
Nick returned with another friend the following weekend to investigate further, and discovered that the main door was rotted and weak, so they coaxed it open and went inside. Because there were no windows, the interior was in complete darkness, so they lit their way with small make-shift paper torches. Inside, they followed a conveyor belt through rubber-flapped door which led to a steep slide that disappeared into the inky blackness below, their feeble paper torches unable to illuminate the slide’s other end. But they discovered too late that the slide was too steep and slippery to gain footing, and gravity got the better of them. About 100 feet down, they reached the bottom.
Short on matches and paper, and unaware of a way back out, the boys were a bit concerned. In the darkness, Nick groped along the wall to find his way, when his hand made purchase on some old electrical switches. He turned a few of them, and the lights jumped to life, revealing a corridor that stretched for about half a mile.
They spent the rest of the day exploring miles and miles of abandoned rooms and corridors. Everything worked… the lights all responded to their switches, the tunnels were air-conditioned, and the conveyor belts could be turned on (which saved the two chaps a lot of walking). There were railways which led off into long tunnels. But there was no sign that anyone had been there in years, it seemed utterly deserted.
It wasn’t until later that Nick McCamley learned where he and his friend had spent their day of adventure… a place called Monkton Farleigh. It has originally been a limestone mine, but during World War 2 it had been converted into an ammunition storage facility. Its tunnels were carved into about 200 acres worth of area, and it had its own electric plant. It was served by a network of railways, including (reportedly) a 160km stretch which connected to the heart of London. A couple of years before Nick and his friend had found it, it had been completely abandoned by the British Ministry of Defense. Nick ended up writing about his experience, and about other underground installations, in his book Secret Underground Cities
Now, a few decades later, many more such underground facilities are coming into the public knowledge as each one’s existence is de-classified. Just recently, the British government put one such city up for sale, one with 60 miles of roads, it’s own railway station, a TV studio, its own telephone exchange, and a pub called the Rose and Crown. It was built in the late 1950s to house the Prime Minister and other government officials in the event of a nuclear attack from the Russians, and it still contains boxes of unopened 1950’s-era chairs, ashtrays, and tea sets. If you’re considering making an offer, its theoretical value is around £5 million (about $8.73 million in US dollars).
For something similar, but a bit more affordable, one might consider making a home in one of the United States’ retired Atlas missile silos. An unfinished silo, which comes with its own private airstrip, can be had for around $150 grand. Another $150k or so can make it a right comfortable home, which isn’t a bad deal considering these silos have the space of a mansion (15,000 square feet), excellent natural insulation (significantly reducing heating/cooling bills), and can withstand a one-megaton nuclear explosion a mile away. I want one.
There is good reason to believe that there are thousands of secret underground facilities around the world, and some of them are quite probably actively used today. However it is exceedingly difficult to research the topic, because most materials which discuss these facilities at any length immediately destroy their credibility by insisting that the tunnels are home to secret black-government conspirators, the Illuminati, extra terrestrials, Elvis, or some combination of the above.
But among the stories with at least a smidgen of credibility, there is evidence of US plans to build an underground airbase in World War 2, a secret city beneath Tokyo, a Cold War bunker in Canada which has been converted into a museum, and a Continuity-of-Government facility at Mount Weather in the US. Many others are described at abovetopsecret.com, though I put little confidence in their credibility, given their UFO-related claims.
No doubt there are hundreds of these underground installations both abandoned and in full operation; but being secret by definition, few can be reliably accounted for.
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Quote:
… and can withstand a one-megaton nuclear explosion a mile away. I want one.
Cuz people are always lobbing missles at you?
I’m from the USA. Over here, “it’s” means simply “it is” and never anything else. Is English different for the British, as I noticed in the article?
This reminds me of the time some friends and I found underground tunnels connecting our dorms, which we made a night of exploring. We found the storage area where they kept extra furniture and I snagged myself a whole bedful of extra pillows.
I know as a kid I always wanted to live underground… or underwater… or in a treehouse. I guess, anyplace but where people normally live.
By the way, I think Sandy is refering to the two “it’s” in: “it’s own railway station, a TV studio, it’s own telephone exchange…” in the seventh paragraph describing the British underground city up for sale.
Grammar whip! Hyaa!
As you say, “it’s” means “it is.” But even in American English, “its” is possessive for “it.” See here, this part in particular:
Usage Note: Its is the possessive form of the pronoun it and is correctly written without an apostrophe. It should not be confused with the contraction it’s (for it is or it has), which should always have an apostrophe.
This article has a British slant, but its author (me) is American. What you have observed is a typo, in the wild. It is being captured and tamed as we speak.
Robert Waugh said: “I know as a kid I always wanted to live underground… or underwater… or in a treehouse. I guess, anyplace but where people normally live.”
I bet you want a house with secret passages too, eh? That’s me, all the way.
My cousin had his bedroom hidden behind a secret panel, a sliding bookcase. Gahh! So jealous.
This would be a great place to film a movie based on the Myst books.
I heard Michael Jackson has one. That is where the Elephant Mans bones are.
I guess that fits the Elvis and other combination of above group.
This reminds me of the Project Greek Island bunker:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/sfeature/bunker.html
http://www.conelrad.com/groundzero/greenbrier.html
Dave
Dave said: “This reminds me of the Project Greek Island bunker”
Nice one, Dave. Good stuff.
Here’s another rumored bunker in the US: Site R, if it exists as described, is truly an underground city.
More good images and stuff here.
This underground German hospital is fascinating as well.
Here’s a story about a retired Congressional bomb shelter.
Apostrophe is used for possesion in Canada.
Fred’s slacks, etc.
The “Awesome photos” link appears to be dead :(
Some time ago I visited the Siemens factory in Germany. It take place in the middle of the forest and part of it was built underground to avoid bombing during WWII, but it is not in use anymore.
I remember seeing a site dedicated to lost train stations in London’s underground. I think the link to it was
http://underground-history.co.uk/front.php
And if you want to make a shelf unit to hide a secret room or passage, try this one:
http://pervivere.blogspot.com/2005/09/holly-shelf-unit-batman.html
And if you want a fortress house, try this one: http://www.oneofakindhouse.com/fortress.html
mHagarty said: “Apostrophe is used for possesion in Canada.
Fred’s slacks, etc.”
‘s is how all possession is made apparent, except in the case of the pronoun “it.” “Its” is the proper way to spell the possessive, “it’s” is the contraction for “it is.”
Even in Canada.
The apostrophe used in the formation of the possessive in English is a contraction for “his.”
Thus, when we say “Fred’s car” we really are contracting “Fred, his car”
Of course, it gets all confusing when we talk about James or Jesus or something else ending in s, and the convention is “James’ car” because it’s easier to say and write.
What I find interesting is that we don’t contract “Jane’s car” as “Jane’r car” from “Jane, her car.”
Maybe it goes back to that Parlement decision to use masculine pronouns.
When I was at a school in Maryland, we were on an old US Marine camp. The mountain behind us had a trail leading up the back side to “look out mountain.” If you went past look out mountain you came face to face with Marines guarding an opening at the top of the mountain. This is still used as a “White House” to this day. There are a ton of anttenas on top of the mountain. No cell phones work in the area either. I would love to see what is in that mountain!!!
Late as it is, Alchemist’s comment itself merits some comment, since that’s a pervasive and entirely incorrect assumption about the nature of the English genitive.
In fact the “‘s” clitic is from the Anglo-Saxon genitive case ending “-es, -is, -ys”, as in Godes “of God” or mannys “of man”. When this was mutated into Middle English, the vowel was dropped, leaving “‘s”. Writers as early as John Donne made the mistake of assuming that it meant “his” and not the old genitive ending, Donne using “Methusalem his page” in place of “Methusalem’s page” in one poem.
Consider two trivia that cement the point: one Alchemist has pointed out, that “Jane his car” makes no sense; and the other that “hises”, contracted to “his’s”, was tried and ultimately failed as the Middle English absolute masculine singular possessive.
Ok, this is an article about abandoned missile silos and we’re talking about grammar?!?
I can remember reading about several U.S. cities building bunkers for Y2K as “Command Centers.” I’m pretty certain one was built near Cincinnati, OH.