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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
Although adventurers hail from any land in which abandoned buildings or underground tunnels can be found, there are particularly strong outposts in France (especially the Paris catacombs), Australia (thanks to its adventurous culture), Detroit (with a crumbling downtown full of abandoned buildings) and the East Coast of the United States. If you live in New York, you can join the Jinx Athenaeum Society, which holds monthly meetings promoting urban adventure, or participate in Solis' Dark Passage infiltration parties.
Most infiltrators have been lifelong adventurers, but for many the first real step into the explorer underground is by going literally under the earth, into campus steam tunnels. Most campuses have extensive underground routes for Ethernet wiring and steam and water pipes. Despite the heat and cramped quarters, the pipes are big enough to host the curious students who climb through open grates to see what's inside. On some campuses, such as Cal Tech, exploring the steam tunnels has become such an undergrad tradition that authorities turn a blind eye, also ignoring the poetry and artwork that students leave behind to mark their stays. (Wondering if your campus has steam tunnels and how to go about getting in? The
"It's kind of like punk rock -- you're into something not a lot of people are into," says one student enrolled at Virginia Tech. He was initiated to the steam tunnels by an insider during his freshman year, and has since visited his campus library for maps and historical context; his Web site offers diaries and photos as well as advice to fellow students, although he keeps his name secret to avoid campus authorities. "It's one of those weird paradoxes," he says. "We want to be our own underground thing and yet we also want to brag about it and help others so they don't get hurt or busted."
Exploration of campus tunnels is a kind of gateway drug that leads infiltrators to more extensive tunnel networks -- say, the New York subway system, which boasts level after level of abandoned yet oddly clean tunnels lit by eerie blue lights. Tunnels are probably the most common destination, since nearly every urban area is riddled with them. But Jinx's Deyo and his co-editor, David Leibowitz, who began their magazine in 1996, pursue more lofty goals: Our "area of specialty among urban explorers is heights -- a lot of groups like to go into the sewers and storm drains, but we really like to go onto rooftops and tops of bridges. I've always loved heights, getting that vantage point on the city that most people never get, having the whole city at your feet." He prefers places like the Brooklyn Bridge and the rooftop of Grand Central Station, which have an "aesthetic tug ... a certain epic quality."
Infiltration is undoubtedly dangerous -- there are always the very real risks of stumbling onto a live rail in a subway tunnel, falling off the top of a bridge or getting crushed under falling debris in a crumbling building. And there is the risk of getting caught, although most explorers I spoke with seemed relatively unconcerned about authorities. Of those I spoke to, only a few had been caught, and only Deyo had ever gotten in trouble. As a juvenile, he and Liebowitz climbed onto the roof of Grand Central Station and were immediately spied and apprehended -- but even then Deyo merely got a ticket. "This is New York City and the cops have other concerns than some people who are basically participating in a minor victimless crime," he shrugs.
