Tunnels, Tunnels, Tunnels...

Pratt, Wake Forest, City College

Sorry I don't have the resources to develop a web page for these
schools, having left them 12 and 17 years ago, but for reasons of
completeness, I recommend them to you.

The Pratt tunnel system (Brooklyn, NY) consists of two tunnels.  One on
the west side of the Main Building that connects to the Library and
which is sealed with metal gates.   The other is behind the mechanical
room and connects with the Chem/Engineering Building in the basement.
These tunnels are not especially noteworthy, however the latter tunnel
contains the remnants of the pipe organ that used to be in memorial
hall.  The remaining flutes and pipes make great toys and noisemakers.
It's beyond salvaging, so what the hey.  The Pratt mechanical room is
well worth a visit and is open to the public.  It contains three working

steam-powered electrical generators from the 1880s.  They are beautiful
pieces of machinery, with flywheels, governers, etc.  In this vein,
Pratt's chief engineer, Conrad Milster, hosts a New Years Eve
whistle-thon with dozens of railroad, ship, and other steam powered
whistles and horns.

A far superior tunnel system is at Wake Forest (Winston-Salem, NC).
There is a huge network of large tunnels well laid out with little road
signs of New York City streets put in by earlier intrepid tunnelers (pre

1977, when I was there).  The best entry is from the basement of the
public tunnel between the girls dorms.  It is basically for steam
delivery and communication, however, it also makes for great access to
your girlfriend for a late rendez-vous.

Other good tunnels:
There are a couple of tunnels at City College of New York, between
Steinman Hall (the engineering building) and the Main Hall and then
further to the south.  You really have to look around to find the
entrances however.

I also recommend the steam and other access tunnels north of Grand
Central Station in New York.  Here you have the quadruple danger of
getting caught, run over by a train, stepping on the third rail, and the

usual dangers of steam tunneling.  Walk off the north end of the upper
platforms, many of the passages are on the west.

A cautionary note on steam tunneling which was not explicit in the
warnings I read on the site:  Because the tunnels are generally enclosed

and usually have little cross ventilation, steam leaks can not only burn

you but can displace all the oxygen within a tunnel segment.  You can't
breath steam.  I have walked into tunnels only to have to abandon them
because it becomes impossible to continue without breathing.  It may
sound goofy, but I have to recommend the buddy system.  A) to keep you
from doing anything extremely stupid, B) you might need someone to save
your life, cause if you pass out and you are alone, they won't find you
for weeks (what's that smell?), C) if you get caught, they are less
likely to through both of you out, and D) it is just more fun to be able

to laugh about it later with someone else in the know.

Good Luck and Happy Exploring

P.S. is there also any kind of site on "buildering", the exploration of
building rooftops, carillons, bell towers, water towers, mechanical
rooms, etc.?  In this vein, I have to recommend the walk down from the
103rd floor to the 86th floor of the Empire State Bldg.  There is a
concrete core within the upper steel skin with catwalks over 15 stories
of clear inter-space between the core and the skin.  Great views of New
York and building structure.  Just duck under the chain after the
elevator splits and the crowd disperses.  Can't vouch for latest
security though.

also...


          "fwiw, the city college of new york has a utility tunnel connecting 4 
          or 5 buildings on the "north campus" - nyc between 135 and 136 street 
          and across a 3 block width. students used these tunnels in the 60s, 
          and i assume that they are still available."

Louisiana State Univeristy

I was interested to note your college tunneling page.  Back when I was an
undergrad at Louisiana State Univ, I began exploring the campus tunnel
system.  This was in the early 1980's, so much of this has probably changed
since then.

The main system is under the "Quad" a central quadrangle which is bordered
by the library and several of the major buildings for arts and sciences.
This was easily accessed by a couple of points in the quad area.  In this
area, the tunnels range from wide walking tunnels to belly-crawls between
steam pipes.  

At this time, I located a map of most of the system (which I no longer
have).  Much of it is disconnected, meaning that a Quad explorer can't get
to many of the interesting spots on other parts of the campus.  There was
an intriguing connection, I believe, to a tunnel which led beneath a road
to the Journalism school building.  I attempted it on a summer day only to
find myself pinched out about halfway beneath the road in a maze of pipes.
 It could be passable given a very nimble explorer.

A few warnings for those who would attempt to explore this system: The
pipes may be wrapped in asbestos, which is not always in great condition
(hence can become airborne with ease and you will inhale it).  Large
cockroaches, rats, etc., are found frequently and usually right in front of
your nose when you are belly crawling through a tight spot.  Lighting is
rare, so three sources of light are advisable, as when caving.  If you get
stuck somewhere, expect a LONG wait for help, if it ever arrives.  The heat
can be unbearable at times.  And, much of the tunnel system is floored with
dirt, which means mud since these tunnels are barely above the water table.
 You will exit smelling terrible and extremely dirty, which is sort of
conspicuous.  For this reason, I only explored after dark.

Finally, it goes without saying that the University considers this to be
trespassing and will probably expell anyone caught in the tunnels.  Ask
yourself if it's worth it before you go.  (As I was a fairly
undistinguished student, already booted from one college, I figured it
was.)  If you have a nice scholarship, stay in the dorms at night.

Good luck

I'd appreciate remaining anonymous ...

I have explored the steam tunnels under the University of Arkansas in
Fayetteville four times. A few of my friends and I were talking one day
and someone brought the subject up. We all admitted that we had been
curious about the access panels in the sidewalks. There are small holes
in a few of them, sometimes when the lights were on, you could see the
tunnel from up top. We decided to explore them one day.
	 After upsetting our friend one night by carving into a drawer in his
room, the carver (sKnowmaN) and I vowed to replace the drawer.First we
tried to break into another dorm room which we knew was unoccupied. This
didn't work. sKnowmaN looked at me and said, "I know where we can get a
drawer". I asked where and he replied, "There is an RLDS(Residence Life
and Dining Services) storage under Kimpel Hall. I said, "We're not going
to break into Kimpel Hall". He replied that we could use the tunnels to
get to the basement. It was a crazy night anyway so I said, OK!
	We had been paying attention to the access panels and decided to use
one in the center of campus, away from occupied buildings and streets.
This was an on-the-spot mission and we didn't have flashlights. Since I
am very clausterphobic, I let sKnowmaN drop into the first tunnel and he
walked a few yards to a junction where the perpendicular tunnel was lit.
He opened a chain-binder and let me in.
	The tunnels in this area were about six feet tall and about two feet
wide between the pipes. We tried to walk in the general direction of
Kimpel Hall but heard banging noises coming from the direction of the
Heating Plant. We stayed quiet for a few seconds and decided to book!
The rest of the night was spent "exploring" up top.
We looked at all of the access panels and assumed direction of the
tunnels by the patterns of access panels. We felt a rush from exploring
the tunnels. We alerted ArCh AnGeL about our excursions and planned for
our next trip.
	Me and sKnowmaN went to the local Wal-Mart and bought a few supplies.
An 18" MAG-LITE for me, a small MAG-LITE for him. And to prove that we
were REALLY stupid, we bought Dicky uniforms that looked just like the
ones Physical Plant workers wore! ArCh AnGeL brought a camcorder and we
set out that night.
	We went in the same place as before. This time we went in the opposite
direction of the heating plant. To make a long story short, we spent
about two hours exploring that night. We learned about the layout of the
tunnels, steam pipes, phone and electric cables. The sanitary and storm
sewers are not located in the steam tunnels. We named the four big pipes
"mains" and the places where two tunnels met "junctions". We dodged the
HUGE hot valves and crawled under pipes where the tunnel took 90 degree
turns. Some of the tunnels were lighted and some were not. We were
afraid to touch any switches. Our main fear was, however, that a pipe or
valve would break and we would be boiled alive before we could get out.
	We discovered basements to buildings and kept our direction straight by
popping out an access panel everynow and then to check our position. We
did find a basement to Kimpel but no RLDS storage. We really didn't care
about the drawer anymore though. This was SO cool! Some tunnels were so
small you had to walk sideways whereas the main tunnels (aside Garland
and Dickson streets) were so big two people could walk side-by-side. We
discovered that the banging noises were solenoid operated valves which
were actuated by air pressure(info provided by Physical Plant Homepage).
We didn't touch anything though for fear of blowing up the whole freakn'
campus.
	When we reached the basement of Yocum Hall, AnGeL went through the
steel cage where the pipe went through(burning himself). Since I could
not fit, and sKnowmaN didn't want to leave me alone, AnGeL went to a
panel just outside Yocum. He stamped his foot on it, indicating that the
coast was clear. We climbed out and went to watch our tape. After
watching the tape we decided to go again and went to bed.
	We got some headsets and the camera and went again a few weeks later.
This time was weird though. I'm still not sure what it was. After being
in the tunnel for only a minute, AnGeL and sKnowmaN started to casually
comment on how it looked and feeled different this time. It was kind of
spooky. Well, this ruined it. We took the tunnel goin towards Science
Engineering and the Heating Plant once again. We were looking for ENGR
hall. When we got about half-way AnGeL stopped us. He asked if we heard
voices. SKnowmaN said he did. I heard nothing.
	We walked(ran) the other way which was the same direction we had taken
before. We didn't want to take the same route since we had already
explored it. This was a T-junction. We had gone left towards Garland St.
earlier, this time we headed right, back towards Old Main. Before we
went, ArCh AnGeL looked back. He said he saw something. He then asked
sKnowmaN to look for him in case his eyes were playing tricks. sKnow
said he saw something. I was really getting freaked out. I looked and I
actually think I thought I saw a figure walking toward us. Now however I
believe it was a combo of heat and paranoia. Now you see why sKnow and
AnGeL's previous conversation ruined the whole trip. sKnowmaN went into
the right tunnel and we stayed behind to keep watch. He walked down for
a few minutes and then we heard the spookiest thing ever over the
headset. "Oh my God! I've never seen anything like this before!". I was
like "What the hell is it?" I could just picture some dead corpse with
its face rotting off or something. Finally he said, "This is cool!". I
relaxed then. He came back and said for us to follow. It was a brand new
wide tunnel. All the materials looked new as did the concrete. It was
about ten feet tall and we could all walk side-by-side. What really
tripped us out was that it only ran to two buildings.
After this episode we left. That trip kinda sucked since we were so
spooked out.
	The next time we went we took another guy along. We stayed down for
over three hours and explored a few basements. Nothing much really to
say about that trip. It was
pretty ordinary. 
	In conclusion I would like to make a few random statements:

	We found newspapers and Victoria's Secret catalogs down there.
	
	ArCh AnGeL and I are clausterphobic and get spooked out easily,
	sKnowmaN seems to have no fear of anything.

	We didn't break or harm or mess anything up. We merely wanted to
	explore.

	Solenoids suck

	We read the University Rule book and the Physical Plant homepage, 
	nowhere did it say, KEEP OUT OF TUNNELS. On the access panels
	it did not say KEEP OUT OF TUNNELS. The only KEEP OUT sign we
	saw was on the inside of an access panel we came across while we were
	in the tunnel. How can you say we were wrong?

	Valves are hot

	On older buildings that were built before the tunnels, the building was
not
	accessible to humans, the pipes broke through the foundation

	Turning on the lights doesn't blow anything up

	All of our explorations took place between 12:30am-4:30am

	
	That's it for now. I just found this Web Page and couldn't believe that
there were so many others who enjoyed this activity. I'll continue to
support it. I will try to get more info and draw a map.
				
					Reverse_Logic  U of A 4/1/97 5:32am

University of Evansville, Evansville, IN, USA

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 11:30:27 -0700
To: bhines@ucsd.edu
Subject: Tunneling at University of Evansville, Evansville IN

Back when I was a freshman at UE in 1985/1986 school year, a friend and
his cousin and I went tunneling. We entered at the Engineering/Science
Building and exited at the Union Building. It was pretty fun though. The
tunnel we were in followed the front circle which starts with the
Engr/Sci bldg then goes to the old library and then to the admin hall,
then to Hyde Hall and finishes at the Union building. There were several
turns you could make that went to other parts of campus but we never
took the opportunity to look.

When we got under the admin building, there were many phone lines and
unused coaxial cable that was going to be used for the futire network.
We looked at it but left it alone. There were some side rooms and I
picked up some magazines and instituitional catalogs that were back from
1969-1970. I took them back to my room and looked at them. It was pretty
interesting seeing the color patterns and especially the hairdo's on the
women modeling in the pics. My friend's uncle went to UE during the 1960
and we saw some old papers like grade cards that were filed away. He was
able to find one of his uncle's grade cards which had an F for one of
his classes. He took the card and took it home and showed it to him. His
uncle laughed.

We steered clear of the library since it was rumored that there was an
alarm system hooked in. This was a time when the new library was being
built. We finally exited at the Student Union Building at the North
Stairs in the basement. We non-chalantly walked out and walked back to
our dorm rooms. We noticed Campus Security was standing at the front
door of Union and steered clear of them. We overheard their radios
mention something of looking for people tunneling.

University Of Queensland, Australia

Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 12:52:40 -0400
Subject: tunneling
X-URL: http://sdcc17.ucsd.edu/~bhines/ctunnels.shtml

well, i dont go to VA Tech anymore nor do i have a map.
but i just wanted to inform you that VA Tech has a fairly complex
grid of tunnels. some of the tunnels lead to the old stadium as well as
an old library [ i never found the library ] 

unfortunatly after going down into the tunnels the second time, me and
my cohort got aprehended by the campus police. [ long story ]
so we never 90t to fully explore. the tunnels go down at least 4 floors
and it can get rather wet in places. also whoever goes down in them
pretty much has access to any building they would like to cut the lock
to get into.

there are a lot of sub tunnels as well.

Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 15:43:13 -0700
To: bhines@sdcc17.ucsd.edu
Subject: University of Michigan Tunnels


Please keep me anonymous. I have sort of a respectable job, and I'd rather
not have someone come across my past adventures...

I used to explore the tunnels a lot when I was an undergraduate at
Michingan back in 1971-1975. We usually used to enter via the law school,
through a flimsy padlocked door near the men's bathroom in the basement of
the Law Club, Hutchins Hall (?) on the State Street edge of the Law Quad.
We used to use the tunnels to get onto the basketball courts at the old
Waterman gymnnasium before it was torn down. (The construction site of the
then new IM building was a great place to easily enter the tunnels during
my senior year, because it was completely open and unlocked. We got written
up in the Michigan Daily when we turned off the President's hot water from
underneath his house -- we actually tried to inform the Daily by tunnelling
into their building via a trapdoor in its first-floor broom closet, but the
door out of the closet was locked from the outside. When you head north
from the law school up toward the LS&A building, and there are very old
sections, such as at the north end of the Diag near the Chem and Nat Sci
Buildings. There were at least two, and possibly three sets of tunnels that
came together at the Power Plant. One was the set under the Diag and the
other was the set that connected Markley and the various dorms in that area
with the Med School complex. I heard there was another set that fed the
northwest edge of the campus near the Rackham building, which I never set
foot in. The major highlight, I suppose, were the fetuses in jars in a
storeroom of the Buhl Medical Science Building at the Med School accessed
via a part of the tunnels known "Hole in the Wall". I never tried to see if
the tunnels under the Diag connected to those feeding the hill dorms & Med
School because I was too paranoid to go near the Power Plant, especially
from the Med School system, because it was a long straight and usually
well-lit (and very exposed) passageway leading to the power plant (and I
wanted to graduate without a police record). I imagine there are nasty
security devices down there now.

Places I used to get in or out (remember, these are 21 year-old
recollections -- things may have changed):

Central Campus

1) Grating in front of the Dental School.
2) CC Little Building - easy out, hard to find in.
3) The Law School - any of the doors at the entrance to each dorm, under
each archway leading into the law quad (or the door described above).
4) Either of the two stairs leading down from the lowest floor of the Nat
Sci Building (great way out, locked doors always prevented entry)
5) Trapdoor in broom closet on first floor of Michigan Daily offices. (A
great concept.)
6) Basement of Martha Cook residence (they used to store bikes etc. there)
7) Various doors in West Quad.
8) I never explored around East Quad, so I don't know if there is an
entrance there. However, my tunnelling career began when two guys in tunnel
garb from East Quad popped their heads out of a wall on the loading dock of
Markley (see below), and asked me where they were. A whole new world opened
up before me....
(The only thing is that to get from East Quad to Markley, they would have
had to go through or perilously close to the Power Plant.)
9) The basic layout, visible with snow on the ground, is a big loop around
the very center of campus with various offshoots, such as across South
University between the Art Museum and the Law Quad.
10) There was a rumor of an old swimming pool under the Michigan Union. The
tunnels go into the sub-basement of the Union, and that in itself looked
like an interesting area to explore, but I never did.

Hill/Medical Complex

1) Stairway in Boiler Room off the loading dock of Markley Hall. There was
a locked door at the bottom of the stair, but a convenient hole was punched
into the wall next to the doorknob. At the time, the Boiler Room could be
conveniently entered through a hole created by 4 missing cinderblocks above
the door!
2) The Victor Vaughan Building
3) Fetus Storeroom in Buhl Medical Building (Hole in the Wall)
4) I never found a way in/out of Alice Lloyd, though the tunnels put you
into the foundation. I can't remember if there was a door in or out of
Mo-Jo or Couzens. There was a small door leading into Stockwell, but it was
always locked.

Rackham

1) Total mystery to me. I never set foot in those tunnels, if they exist.


Remember, Please don't use my name. Thanks.

Notre Dame

Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 23:16:56 -0500 (EST)
From: bweissha - at nd.edu Barry Weisshaar
To: bhines@ucsd.edu
Subject: Tunneling reports at Notre Dame

Hello,

I'm glad to see a page on this addicting acivity.  My father was a
visiting prof for a year at MIT, and I loved to explore the tunnels every
chance I could...MIT, by the way, probably has one of the largest tunnel
systems of any College or University in the country, with some of the
weirdest and most secretive items either stored or created in the rooms
they connect. (One of the ways I knew was by the numerous "radiation
hazard", "biohazard" as well as numerous 10 digit keycard locks on all the
doors).

Anyway, now that I am up at Notre Dame, I have taken a very strong
interest in the steam tunnels.  I haven't had a chance to take my first
expedition, but I have heard several rumors you might like:

1.  Carroll Hall, one of our outlying dorms, has a one lane bowling alley
in its side building basement, which, though the building has been
remodled, traces can be seen.

2. The extra memoriabilia room in the joyce center's second floor, which
reportedly contains various "junk" such as autographed
jerseys/footballs/posters of alumni such as Joe Montana, Cotton Bowl
trophies, and other priceless stuff.

3. The legendary first floor Joyce Center Spa, which can only be reached
by an anonymous first floor door....

4. The tunnel which connects the Morris Inn to the CC, supposedly
containing lots of football memorabilia too.

5. The Cryo lab, which is part of IU medical school as south bend...smells
like $^#^&...our dorm is right near the building it's in, this is
something you can nearly smell at night just by walking by.

I stress again, most of these are just rumors, so there's a high chance
they could be total B.S., just like the time when someone told me that
they used steam tunnels to shuffle bigwigs around in secret (hah!  with
the size of those things).

I'd love more info from anyone about the great potential for finding
hidden/secret stuff on this campus.

-Barry

Oregon Institute Of Technology

Pennsylvania State University

Here's some information for you about Penn State's steam tunnels. Not much,
I'm afraid -- I'm about as lame a tunneler as I am a hacker, so I never got
to see much.

It's been nearly two decades since I slunk around in the occasional steam
tunnel or two, but I can give you a few bits and pieces of information.
This is based on my rather spotty memory, so don't rely on any of it for
absolute accuracy.

Penn State has an extensive steam tunnel system, running from the steam
plant at the southwest side of campus to just about everywhere else. One
tunnel apparently runs beneath the west walkway of "the mall", the wide
promenade from the campus gates to Pattee Library, or so it is presumed
from the fact that snow melts much sooner on the walk there. I have not
verified this underground.

There is (or was) access to at least part of the tunnel network from the
sub-basement of the Hetzel Union Building. Forgive me if I misremember the
details, but my recollection is that you take the elevator adjacent to the
main desk down to the basment, then go down a nearby flight of stairs to
the sub-basement. This contains the usual assortment of storage rooms,
utility rooms, the campus sign-printing facility (is it still there, I
wonder, now that everybody has a desktop publishing program?), and the lot.
The campus model railroad club's layout is there, too, in its own room. Of
more interest, there is a door which leads to the tunnel system. If I
recall correctly, it's either just before or just after the model RR area.
It connects to another door elsewhere in the HUB, and a locked door in the
tunnel presumably connects with the rest of the system. I can't remember
where the other door in the HUB is, but I seem to remember having found
that one first, and come out near the RR room -- that being how I found the
model railroad club, in fact.

Another tunnel connected to the basement of Electrical Engineering West, I
believe via the so-called "Wumpus Room", a storage room full of an amazing
amount of clutter behind the computer room of the Hybrid Computer Lab that
occupied that end of the basement. I never got in the tunnels there, but
occasionally a cockroach would get out. Big suckers -- the kind you don't
want to squash because you'd need a mop and a bucket to deal with the mess.

Strange but true: I almost got thrown out of elementary school for
infiltrating! It helps to have gone to an elementary school that was once a
high school, and whose basement featured not only the usual janitors'
offices and such, but a Civil Defense food/water storeroom (part of a
fallout shelter) with huge steel drums of water that echoed when you
thunked them, a shooting range (never got in there, just found out about it
from the principal when I got caught tunneling, because someone had swiped
the logbook from the range at about the same time), various other
interesting rooms, and a really nifty spiral staircase that, unfortunately,
exited in the teachers' lounge. (yes, I was smart enough to check for
teachers before exiting -- but a janitor had seen me on the way in) There
are all sorts of odd spots in that basement. I suppose if I'd been a little
boy, it would have been expected -- but they went ballistic, and my
explorations were over.

I can certainly vouch for a substancial steam tunnel system at Penn State.
From what I've been able to determine, there are many tunnels are heavily
fragmented into small inter-building runs. I *know* there are larger
main-line passages (with utility rooms), but have not been successful in
my many attempts to find open access to one. I expect I'll probably need
to infiltrate the actual Office of Physical Plant buidling. Now that I
have a good camera and some [natural] caving experience, I'll probably be
more ambitious in my efforts. Keep you posted. 


Pond Lab Building - PSU UP Campus
Last updated/verified: 11/20/97

Pond Laboratory has a few interesting points worth mentioning. First off,
Pond is the Computer Science Department's new home turf. Back in 1992 or
so, they moved from the 3rd floor of Whitmore Lab across the quad to Pond,
refinishing much of the building in the process. Prior to that point, Pond
was a biochem lab of some sort; some vestiges of that era still remain
(more of this later). Today, there's lots of interesting computer hardware
(if you happen to find that sort of thing interesting) in the building,
including, I'm told, hardware ranging from IBM XTs to SGI MIPs 10000-based
"super" workstations. And lots of Sun hardware in between. 

Pond is normally used by a wide range of people: Undergraduate and
Graduate students, staff, faculty, administration, and OPP workers. Each
type tends to stay in their own area, but for the most part, it's safe to
wander a bit without attracting much attention. Pond has a above-average
number of card readers for access-- every lab, many of the offices, and
even the three main entrances to Pond use card readers. Chances are good
that the entrance doors will be locked outside of normal weekday class
hours. 

Anyway, on to the building itself.. 

Pond is a "three story structure." Of course, this means there's a
basement, first, second, and third floor, as well as maintenance and roof
levels, making a total of six different levels.  It was built back when
brick and steel construction was the way to go (late 1920's/early 1930's
?) so is pretty crumbly. Many doors are old, and maintenance areas are..
brittle and covered with seventy years worth of dust and debris. 

By floor: 

B: Several rooms in the north wing are used as equipment storage space for
the CSE department. In the central hallway area, large electric coils
(huge electromagnets?) have been sitting for several years, presumably
part of a former imaging lab. There's also what appears to have been a
calimetry lab along the western wall in this central section, now used for
storage of electrical 'junk' in three rows of filing cabinets. In the
southern wing is an OPP steam line/sump, the new elevator mechanics room
(hydraulic), and what we believe to be an OPP workshop. In the northern
wing are what we believe are OPP offices, as well as another OPP workshop
"building" nestled in the hillside on the north side of Pond. A menacing
hum emanates behind a locked steel door (Rm 003: transformer room). Room 3
has an outside door, reachable from a stairwell along Pond's central east
wall from the outside. Also at the bottom of that stairwell is the door to
a large electrical equipment room underneath the quad between Pond and
Whitmore, which is sometimes unlocked. 

1: Two large computer labs and office space. Near northwest entrance is a
metal security box with character LCD display, basement access stairwell.
Not exciting. 

2: Main CSE dept offices, faculty offices. Not exciting. 

3: Pond's only classroom, faculty offices, padlockable maintenance-level
access via ladder+trapdoor near southwest elevator shaft. Not exciting. 

M: The maintenance level of Pond IS interesting. The southern end of the
building has a sort of vaulted concrete structure to it, with little
six-inch cement mounds every few feet, lots of thin steel support beams,
and the occasional disused vent shaft in the floor. The doorways are
arched brick. In the center section, the floor seems much more current,
with flat hard concrete. There's an elevator mechanism enclosure for the
old/small elevator, with the relays/controls for the elevator, as well as
the cable drum. On the northern end, there's very little flooring, with a
catwalk along the outside walls. Headroom is low on both the northern and
southern wings. There's stair and iron rung roof access. The second rung
from the top of the rung ladder is loose and should be used with caution.
The trap door is simply a hingeless heavy cover. 

R: Pond's roof is essentially wooden boards (pre-particle/plywood
construction) covered with a sort of fiberglass like waterproofing
material. In some places, the roof 'cracks' alarmingly with each footstep,
so use caution on this building's rooftop. The roof is tilted at a shallow
angle with the lower end near the edges (traditional roof shape), and
there are no protective ledges at each edge to hide behind or to stop you
from sliding, so Pond's roof is probably one of the more dangerous. There
are neat stone facades just below the roof edges. In general, expect to be
very visible from the north as well as offices in Davey Lab, Osmond Tower,
and other taller surrounding buildings. Dress dark, vad late. 

Whimore Lab - PSU UP Campus


Whitmore laboratory was probably built around the same time as Osmond and
Pond Labs (eg:  1925-1935ish). It once housed some of the Computer Science
department, which was later combined with the computer engineering
department and moved across the quad to Pond Laboratory around 1992.
(There's still a bulletin board on the third floore that says "Computer
Science.")

Whitmore is a "three story stucture," with basement, first, second, third,
maint, and roof levels. As far as I can tell, there are perhaps two or
three separate departments that use space in this building. 

B: A number of labs and offices, old equipment. One lab had an ancient
computer rack with a gigantic hard drive storage unit. Another contains a
mass spectrometer and related equipment.  Some seemingly abandoned offices
(although they still contain files, etc.) Liquid nitrogen storage near the
glass lab on the south-eastern corner. To the northwest, OPP steam
maintainance room with locked access to steam tunnel "zone J" north,
storage room with locked access to "zone J"  (south?). Open/Public tunnels
to sub level connecting to Davey lab (and later, Osmond) at southwestern
corner. 

1: General chem labs? Math dept course office? Chem storage office.
Nothing of great interest. 

2: Labs. Boring. 

3: Abandoned Labs, Math dept computer server room, nice (Chem eng?)
administration offices [along east side of building], hidden behind
mundane doors. M-level access ladder to padlockable trap door at northern
end of hallway. Yawn. 

M: On the Maintenance level, there's a large number of ventalation fans,
presumably for the chem labs below. After walking the length (and stepping
over/under/around things), there's a roof access ladder/trap-door at the
south end, along with a ladder leading down to a door that gives access to
the nice administration offices below. One of my first vads. 

R: The roof is the standard gravel sort, found on most office-type
buildings. Fairly safe, with nice ledges. Lots of vents, some A/C
equipment. Slightly lower rooving along the north and south ends of the
building, with adjoining ladder access from the main roof.