New
explorers info
23rd
December 2002.
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Urban Exploration - Behind the Keep Out sign
Urban Exploration is the art of exploring places that people normally don�t, or aren�t supposed to go. There are several distinct branches of Urban Exploration; exploring abandoned buildings, exploring drains, exploring college tunnels, �infiltrating� hotels and other buildings still used, exploring bridges, climbing buildings and more. Urban Exploration is low impact, we do not break into buildings, we are not thieves or vandals. Any buildings entered are either clearly abandoned or are �infiltrated� through legitimate means. We are not about entering buildings to harass or terrify people. We are not about entering buildings to steal things or vandalize property. We are about exploring and having an adventure.
What is on this website?
The
website contains a large amount of information, on various subjects. As it started
out as mainly a draining web site, most of the information is about drains.
The pie chart to the right represents the total web space devoted to each of
the major sections of the web site. Note however that as this includes HTML
files, graphics and multimedia files, there may be more actual information in
the sections that take up less of the site's web space. Piechart updated 28th
April 2002
This compares with the piechart for 1st September 2001 and January 2000.
For details of what this site
has to offer, either take a look at the Site Highlights
page, the
Site-Map or use the Search
Engine
Navigation
This web site was developed with a minimum of internal links, to reduce web site management. To make things easier for the visitor, note that almost all web pages have the same layout, and the same look and feel. The major difference are these information pages, which have black text on a white background, whereas the pictorials and virtual tours have white text on a black background.
The Urban Exploration Org banner at the top of the page will take you back to this site.
The logo for the activity will take you to the main page for that activity.
At the bottom of every page is a standard footer. It has two noticeable icons:
The
Back icon uses a Java script that will ALWAYS take you back to the previous
page you visited.
The
Main icon contains a direct link to the web site's main interface page, and
even if you copy this page off-line (which is in breach of the copyright
terms) the link will still try to link to the web site.
Who created this web-site?
The website was created and maintained by just one person. More information here
There
are lots of different reasons why people like to get involved in urban exploration.
During 1999 a survey was conducted of some
international explorers. The results of the
survey showed that most explorers are well educated, and are employed.
They are also mostly aged above 20, though some are older. This is contrary
to a popular belief that this sort thing was done only by kids with little
else to do.
.
For another perspective, I was e-mailed the following from Chan Chan, which puts it more precisely and succinctly than I ever could.
1. People go tunneling because they dread the mundane and believe they can escape it through difficult, unusual experiences. They are, in fact, prospecting for something more real than normal life. This may not be true of all tunnelists, but it's true of many.
- If this became an everyday experience, possibly for pay, 90% of the reason to go would vanish. If it became safe and legal, forget it. Very few people go on "expeditions" to parking garages although the concrete-and-bare light bulb ambiance is a lot like a tunnel.
- Drugs don't compare. We didn't want imaginary adventures, we wanted real ones.
- It was not the administration, the law, or parents, that we wanted to defy. It was the seeming blandness of normality. I was in the post-sixties generation and missed all the excitement. That generation got to do "real" stuff, like demonstrate and get shot, but our lives had been made so safe and pleasant it nearly choked us. There was no meaning. Why we thought we'd get meaning by rooting around in utility tunnels is kind of a mystery, but in fact we did get meaning from it. We learned skills by ourselves (like lockpicking), broke rules, outwitted security, and explored demonstrably dangerous territory. All without helpful older people showing us how step by condescending step.
2. The other element in the lure of the tunnels is chthonic appeal. You are a writer so you probably know this is Greek for "underground." Tunnels, caves, The Hall of the Mountain King, Moria, they're all the realm of an idea. People go in tunnels to soak up the essence. Tunnelists may be in better contact with certain parts of their unconscious minds than other people--or they may be driven by their unconscious and not know it.
3. To understand a lot about the tunnelist way of thought, read The Colditz Story, also published as Escape from Colditz.
Specific notes from the University of Texas, 1978:
- We gave ourselves the title "T." if we went in an actual tunnel. - We named the expeditions, for instance: the Monolith Expedition, then Monolith II, Mon III, and the big one, Mon IV. My brother called a series the Kobold expeditions. It was on Kobold III or so that he got arrested. - I talked my head off about the tunnels, and a bunch of people got curious so I ended up leading "expeditions" for, basically, tourists. These people were not tunnelist types.
Urban Explorers are normal people. They just happen to have a different and interesting hobby. They are students, IT Professionals, parents, public servants, university graduates, normal people. Sure some do it to escape from society, and sure some feel they don�t fit in. But we are not revolutionaries, rebels or crazy. It�s just a hobby. Society can also put to rest any ideas of secret cells of potential urban terrorists. I know from the show of concern for our fellow New York explorers after September 11 that none of us harbor evil intentions. There was genuine worry and anxiety about the well being of those we knew in New York, and great concern over one who was a reporter at the scene. Indeed many of us were worried about the sensitivity of the information we knew.
There are several people and groups who stand out amongst the Urban Explorers. Most use nick names or pseudonyms to avoid contact with the authorities or within their groups where people prefer to use a name of their choosing over one that their parents gave them.
Ben Hines, is best known for his extensive and well presented college tunnels site. He has explored college tunnels in California and the south west. Ninjalicious is the owner of the Infiltrations web site and news group in Toronto and is well known for his hotel Infiltrations and for exploring the tunnels of his former college. Wes Modes is one of the earliest people to coin the term �Urban Exploration� His web site features exploits of building climbing and hopping freight trains in the USA. Panic is an experienced drain and abandoned building explorer in UA City who has provided a vast amount of information to this site, including the drain guides. Kevin Kelm has an excellent site about a disused nuclear bunker in the United States and has another site about the Paris catacombs Peter Kazil has only recently started his web site but already it is an impressive display of abandoned buildings in Amsterdam, Holland.
Groups include the Friends of Williamson�s Tunnels in Liverpool, England. They explore a series of man made tunnels which form a large and impressive system beneath their city.
Urban exploration, the legal way.
Exploring abandoned buildings, bridges and tunnels is not normally something that people do. Most often there are laws against just exploring whatever you please. So, the simple way around them is to ask. That�s right, ask before you explore.
It may help if you send a letter to whoever own the property asking to explore it. If you don�t know who owns it send a letter to the property address. If it is a derelict building, ask to enter the property to take photographs of it before it is demolished or redeveloped. It might be worth building up a small portfolio of pictures to show people what you mean.
If you are polite, persistent and use tact, you can also get permission to explore things like bridges, construction sites, abandoned rail tunnels and so on. I find generally you need to send two or three letters before you get a result. Ring the company to find out who to send your requests to first.
You can contact your local transit authority and ask if you can take a tour with a work gang of the transit tunnels. Once again, you may have to be persistent and send a few letters. Make sure the letters are polite, and make sure they contain your address, or post box number as well as your name. It helps if you express an interest in architecture, engineering, transit superstructure or something similar. I have also found that if you are a college student and express an interest in working for the company in the future you will meet a better response.
You may find that companies are worried about liability for any injuries you may incur. In this case say you will accept the visible risks and will not hold the company liable. Offer to put this in writing. After all if the company lets you explore their property and there are clear and obvious dangers, then it�s your fault if you stuff up. Unseen dangers like exposed power lines, collapsing floors on the other hand should be the liability of the company. Perhaps you should design your own standard imdenification form.
In the long run it pays to ask first. You can avoid all sorts of legal hassles. If you are polite to the people you meet and deal with you should earn a good reputation and help legitimize the sport of Urban Exploration.
Urban Explorers abound throughout the world. The larger groups tend to be in cities with long established histories of Urban Exploration, and the locations may surprise you. Toronto in Canada is the scene for a small but growing group of �infiltrators� who regularly explore hotels in search or adventure and the occasional free bite courtesy of room service or a party to crash. This loose grouping of people also explore the city�s abandoned transit tunnels and abandoned buildings.
In UA City several groups explore everything from their extensive drain network, abandoned buildings, industrial estates, railway tunnels and bridge rooms. The explorers seem to be very organized, with groups in several cities and at least a half dozen web sites with more coming out all the time.
In Paris, perhaps the world capital of Urban Exploration over a hundred people regularly explore the catacombs, abandoned railway tunnels, sewers and telecommunications tunnels. The massive catacomb network, with rooms, huge galleries, meeting places, fountains and bone yards is a huge adventure playground to those in the know. Despite the efforts of the Inspectorate Director de Catacombs tunnels remain open to the night time explorations of over a dozen groups of explorers. There are over a dozen web sites relating to the catacombs, although many are in French.
In college tunnels all over the United States, students and former students explore the depths of the tunnels that run under universities and colleges. These tunnels are mostly steam tunnels, power distribution tunnels and other service tunnels. They are mostly dry, although in steam tunnels they can be humid due to the heat and escaping steam. Exploration of these tunnels is discrete as the authorities certainly frown upon such activity.
Make yourself aware of the opportunities for Urban Exploration. There are plenty of things to explore all around cities, abandoned buildings make a good start. There are tunnels, drains, hotels and much more. Ever wandered where that creek went to? Ever wondered what was in that old factory down the road? Perhaps there is an abandoned railroad near you.
Make yourself aware of the risks and dangers. Urban Exploration comes with its' share of risks. Make yourself aware that there are risks and learn how to avoid them. Generally speaking there are more risks exploring underground than above ground, mainly due to lack of access, possibility of bad air and possibility of flood. Read the safety pages on this site, they were written specifically for Urban Explorers.
Amongst other Urban Explorers there is a strong desire to avoid attracting the wrong type of attention to urban exploration. This is not police, security or other authorities as you might expect, but rather the inexperienced or the unlucky. There always tends to be an upsurge of new explorers after media articles. On the whole, in my opinion, this is good thing. But many people don�t take safety into account, others vandalise exploration sites. Injuries and vandalism give us a bad name.
Don't go exploring where doing so would be breaking the law!
Hook up with some experienced explorers. If you can, join the newsgroups and hook up with some experienced explorers. Some are quite willing to help you out, but some will get annoyed with your over-eagerness and constant questions. By all means ask questions, but think before you ask them. Try to learn by observing what others do. Some groups are quite free with information sharing, but unfortunately a minor few consider information to be power and will not give it up easily to a �newbi�.
Adopt a professional attitude to safety. Don�t do anything stupid or over ambitious. As a beginner it would be best if you start with the easy stuff first. Don�t try anything that you are not comfortable with. Take your time and build up your courage. You may be ribbed by others for a while but as your confidence grows you will become more and more comfortable with Urban Exploration. Most groups will be concerned for the safety of themselves and the group as a whole. Very few groups will put dubious thrill over the high possibility of injury. Although small risks will be taken, they are normally the type that will result in little or no injury.
Don�t take risks with your personal safety. If people try to goad you into doing something that looks too risky don�t do it, especially if you have not already seen others do it. If this happens, try to hook up with another group.
UA City is a thriving metropolis in the heart of the nation. UA City is located on the sea, with plenty of rivers, creeks, parts, three airports, an efficient subway system and is home to a winning national baseball and football team. We enjoy a prosperous life, spending our summers out doors, and winters shoveling the occasional bit of snow. But all year round we explore the scenes of the city..... Honest!
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