Lacking
any other means of fire suppression, the antenna tunnel had fire
extinguishers placed at regular intervals for combating any incendiary
incidents that might occur.
On
the right, cable trays connect the Control Center and the rest of the
complex to the antennas and their equipment. This tunnel is so
long I'm surprised they didn't need signal boosters (repeaters) along
its length!
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A
rather ghostly shot looking toward tunnel junction #10. The
apparition of Jacob Marley can be seen approaching in the
distance. There's that sewage line again at right-- I just can't
say enough about it!
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Sections
of the antenna tunnel, despite their age, look quite well. This
is not one of them, but it does show some of the steel targets left
behind by defense contractors. These constructions were used for
ballistics tests where weapons were fired down this long tunnel.
This sort of junk littered the main junction, Powerhouse and parts of
the Control Center.
In
the picture below, notice the apparent distortion of the tunnel as if
it is oval in shape. Its not an illusion! The
tunnel has actually been deformed out of round by the immense
weight of earthen backfill resting on it. This is not a new
development however! When backfill operations were performed,
the inside of the tunnel was shored up with large timbers to help bear
the sudden weight of thousands of tons of earth being replaced
overhead. The timbers splintered, compressed and some even broke
as the tunnel was squashed. The concrete in the bottom cracked
and broke until eventually the settling and deformation slowed enough
that engineers felt it was safe to remove the supports.
As
you can see, the tunnel is very visibly deformed in this view near
tunnel junction #10. Further ahead, the distortion is much less
and the tunnel looks perfectly round. There was a little water
seepage here, but further up the the tunnel is bone dry and quite
clean.
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The
walls closing in. The floor is somewhat buckled in this section
and there's a fair bit of corrosion up ahead, but only for a short
distance.
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Photographed
in "Drunk-O-Vision", this skewed shot shows some nasty
seepage, but directly past this spot, the tunnel is almost
immaculate. See how the tunnel is looking more and more round as
we go.
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Moving
along...
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Silo
Gnome and pal try to see light at the end of the tunnel. No
luck yet... This is about 1/3 to 1/2 the way down toward the
terminal. Here one cannot discern any deformation of the tunnel
liner. The elevation of the tunnel is gently sloping upwards as
one approaches the silos, so the lessened weight of backfill can
possibly be attributed to this.
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Looking
back toward T.J. #10. I saw this same thing when I was on the
operating table! Sure enough, light at the end of the
tunnel. Of course this light just happens to be coming from a
high-intensity work light...
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I'm
still surprised by the tidyness of this area. The only corrosion
is around the weld joins in the corrugated liner.
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Looking
from inside the Antenna Terminal down toward the main junction (T.J.
#10). At the terminal end, there is about a 35 degree bend in the
tunnel just before it joins the terminal. That's what you're
seeing here. Notice how the corrosion is becoming more visible at
this end. There's water nearby and the increased humidity is
working on any exposed metal.
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Now
it's time to take a look around the Antenna Terminal itself...
Antenna
Terminal
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