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AnAppleSnail
Location: Charlotte, NC Gender: Male
ALL the flashlights!
| | | | Government Spiders < on 9/22/2009 5:00 AM >
| | | I guess this is the right place... and I hate flickr linkswitching! So we get there and get out of the car - shoulder our bags and begin walking down a trail through waist-high weeds. It's a moonless silent night, nearly no skyglow. We make our way past the idle construction site for a "secure" facility, 10'x20' concrete blocks set out as rooms. Add a kitchen and a fence and you're done. And we go up the hill towards the site our guidepost is the cooling tower, visible for miles around, its white strobes light up the landscape, warning low-flying planes of their bricky death. On the rolling hills (and out of the weeds!) I can look at the sky. More stars than I've ever seen, and to top it off - have you seen the blue-white fireflies? I call them 'true' lightning bugs, they're the kind I grew up with in my backyard. The strobe is cowing them into submission, they're sitting in the grass and on the dirt dimly glowing. Walking on stars towards our goal, the tower draws near. Now close enough to see the structure of Unit 2, its low dark shape eats a chunk from the sky every strobeflash lights it up so that its gray concrete blends in to the dimly glowing sky. Its regular disappearance makes it all the more eerie, revealing its secret - that it's a relic from another time, not truly here now. Its length makes it seem short - the 20 foot open hallway end we creep into sets the scale of the place. High ceilings, massive walls, all concrete and steel in darkness. We go up a flight, put down our gear, and sleep after driving all day. The size and strange noises make us cower together for safety - occasional ringing clangs punctuate the slow dripping, sighing, and soft sounds of the facility. In a foreign time zone, my body's alarm wakes me short hours later at dawn and we begin exploring. Joined in the night by a local, we investigating the sound. Water, dripping from the roof - falling the great distance to the floor, sometimes hit a sheet of steel. plik plik plik KLANG
Flooded hallway, second floor
Dawn, courtyard between Unit 1 and 2 The dawn light crept into the building as we poked around and pointed cameras. On into the afternoon, climbing on concrete, spongy ladders, jutting rebar, and abandoned mobile staircases. Of particular interest are the reactors - after all, there aren't many of these. The buildings cost between $5bn and $12bn each, and are still embarassingly commonly abandoned. It turns out that I've seen these before, but none with a roof:
I didn't think these had swimming pools, but it turns out...
DJCraig being flamboyant
Access tunnel
Control rod slides - cut out by torch. I found an oxyacetylene cutter ^.^
Yours truly, glowing This is the catwalk you see above the glowy blue bits at the middle. I am holding the control rod mounts up, of course. This picture was taken about 30' to 40' below the previous one of DJCraig. So separated as to be almost in a different building, the condenser rooms always seem to grow plants - moss, vines, and trees especially.
Condenser room. I need a squad of colorfully-clad people in there for scale. After seeing only a part of Unit 1 and 2, we headed to the cooling tower - a sunset view that cannot be beat without a plane. Big has no meaning to something of the tower's size.
Hints of its size. Look for DJCraig (4th in line). Hundreds of feet tall, almost that wide, and only 3' thick at the top. Three were brave enough to climb it, I wasn't up to the challenge, so I watched.
The tower As they made their way up, time passed - they were too high for even shouting, and gradually became mere ants on a giant's ankle.
In that time, I found: a tree under the tower a tunnel network three ends of that network
Eerie tunnels - bring your own kayak, I'd get my pants and shirt wet in here. And the fact that the glassy, still water in those tunnels is hip-high on me. If I'd had more pants I would have been slogging in it - up the 8' pipes towards the reactor units, and down the concrete tunnel towards the towers. The eerie silence of absolutely still tunnels deep underground, with no ambient noise - and only the echoes of breathing coming in silence, drove us back up to the rising wind. No drain is so silent, nowhere above ground so still. Our ants at the top were marching around the circle there, clinging to the handrails. Suddenly, we needed to make ourselves scarce. They descended as quickly as can be done from that height, and we retreated to the reactor unit's safety.
Round panorama (filmstrip) 360 in the cooling tower. Click, zoom in, then scroll right. After all, who'd be crazy enough to go in there? We made preparations to leave, said our farewells to the building, and marched out into the silent, moonless night. Our ground-stars leading us on, our ears perked for patrols to hide from. Past the stretching industrial park, past the "secure" site and trail, back to the cars. And then the long drive home.
Secondary Containment wall - the holes are for pipes, access, water flow, and controls, I think...
Group shot
Reactor 1 in sunset More from Aurelie [last edit 9/22/2009 4:07 PM by AnAppleSnail - edited 2 times]
Achievement Unlocked |
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Aleksandar
Location: United States Gender: Male
your darkest shadow, my oldest friend; the world's become ashes, this is the end.
| | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 1 on 9/22/2009 5:24 AM >
| | | this, my friend, is truly amazing. I am very impressed, and this w/ aurelie's thread make the most awesome explore i've seen on this site in a very long time!
Freedom breeds war; and Peace, slavery. So it shall be forevermore: Men who love freedom buy it with their lives, and lovers of peace with their freedom. |
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RidER6
Location: Anne Arundel Co. MD Gender: Male
| | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 2 on 9/23/2009 2:46 AM >
| | | Wow! Looks like an amazing place.. And some awesome pictures..
"Being ninja as fuck will only get you so far, if you're pushing the boundaries in all kinds of stupid directions getting busted is only a matter of time." -DSANKT |
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AKBC
Location: Colorado Gender: Female
| | | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 3 on 9/23/2009 2:58 AM >
| | | That site is sick! I love your Flooded Hallway and Condenser Room shots, excellent.
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WormMan
| | | | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 4 on 9/23/2009 11:44 PM >
| | | You are inspiring a road trip... Now I need to find a free weekend. I take it you have visited the Cherokee Plant, SC where Abyss was filmed too?
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mowthelawn
Location: last one out of michigan please turn off the lights Gender: Male
| | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 5 on 9/23/2009 11:49 PM >
| | | I have seen pictures of that site before, but none that put the sheer size of it into perspective. An amazing and well done job.
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Chris-Kicker
Location: New York, NY Gender: Male
no, I did not Kick Chris.
| | | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 6 on 9/23/2009 11:52 PM >
| | | this trip looks like it was awesome. im amazed by both of the 2 threads. i wish i would have been there.
http://ChurchofAtom.com/ "Signatures are still stupid" |
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edwin
Location: All Ova Gender: Male
| | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 7 on 9/24/2009 12:01 AM >
| | | Deepcore, bitches!
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AnAppleSnail
Location: Charlotte, NC Gender: Male
ALL the flashlights!
| | | | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 8 on 9/24/2009 12:22 AM >
| | | Don't tempt me!
Achievement Unlocked |
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mascarah
Location: Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania Gender: Female
| | | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 9 on 9/24/2009 4:03 AM >
| | | i can't be positive but i don't think any of these things are there now. maybe they are. but this is funny: Before abandoning the set, warning labels were affixed on the structures warning everyone that the set was still the property of 20th Century Fox and that any recording of them by any means (photographic or video) is not allowed.
Life and death are only temporary but freedom goes on forever. Find me on: Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr. |
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Katetron
Location: Middlesex New Jersey Gender: Female
melting your brains
| | | | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 10 on 9/24/2009 4:25 AM >
| | | you are such a fukin badass dang im so impressed!!!!!
too many people not enuff swet |
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LauraL42
Location: Knoxville, TN Gender: Female
| | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 11 on 9/24/2009 6:47 AM >
| | | This is just so amazing. I love it. Kinda confused as to where it is, but its amazin.
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DJ Craig Moderator
Location: Johnson City, TN Gender: Male
Break the Silence
| | | | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 12 on 9/24/2009 8:39 AM >
| | | Posted by LauraL42 This is just so amazing. I love it. Kinda confused as to where it is, but its amazin.
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It's in eastern Kazakhstan. [last edit 9/24/2009 8:57 AM by DJ Craig - edited 2 times]
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..." -Dr. Suess |
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DJ Craig Moderator
Location: Johnson City, TN Gender: Male
Break the Silence
| | | | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 13 on 9/24/2009 8:57 AM >
| | | Photo by AnAppleSnail (edited by me) Along side with this picture taken from the exact same perspective, you can see that this isn't even a very wide angle shot, at all:
Photo by AnAppleSnail
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..." -Dr. Suess |
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Senseriffic
Location: Elizabeth, NJ
I am drowning in a digital sea
| | | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 14 on 10/7/2009 9:52 AM >
| | | I would love to bring my fisheye to this place....
The blind lead the blind into bottomless pits, Still we smile and deny that we're cursed. But of all our iniquities ignorance may be the worst. |
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YoelT
Location: Viet Nam Gender: Male
| | | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 15 on 10/10/2009 3:19 AM >
| | | Unbelievable This thread makes everything I have done in life look like dust. lol
www.yoeltaom.as |
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DrDark
Location: Central NJ ... Armpit of the nation Gender: Male
| | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 16 on 10/21/2009 1:34 PM >
| | | OMG
No Sign No Crime |
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AnAppleSnail
Location: Charlotte, NC Gender: Male
ALL the flashlights!
| | | | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 17 on 10/21/2009 1:37 PM >
| | | Posted by Exothermic Unbelievable This thread makes everything I have done in life look like dust. lol
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How do you think I feel now that I'm back in classes? I'd give a lot to go live there another day or two.
Posted by Senseriffic I would love to bring my fisheye to this place....
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I did the best I could with my megaP&S and panorama stitching - only a few artifacts in the whole-tower panorama, none in the circle. Someone did use a fisheye, and they got excellent dawn results. See Aurelie's thread for more.
Achievement Unlocked |
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Blue90
Location: TN
Shiny.
| | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 18 on 10/25/2009 6:57 PM >
| | | "A local," huh?
This is the way the world ends. |
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cyrwashere
Location: Prince Rupert, BC Gender: Female
| | | Re: Government Spiders <Reply # 19 on 10/25/2009 8:51 PM >
| | | this is INCREDIBLE. I'm so jealous I don't live nearby.
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