© 2012 john. All rights reserved.
An underground French military command center in the heart of a massive abandoned Maginot Line fortress. From the 1950s until France’s eviction of NATO in 1967, the facility served as one of three command centers for German, French, American, and British forces, to coordinate nuclear response to an expected Warsaw Pact attack. Continue reading
© 2011 john. All rights reserved.
A mine, like so many in the area, that was used to supply limestome and quicklime for construction. Continue reading
© 2011 john. All rights reserved.
A bit of rope work to explore a massive, long-abandoned wine cellar in a Parisian suburb. Continue reading
© 2011 john. All rights reserved.
In the 1950s and 1960s, we were going to Mars, real soon now. Communism would be beaten, General Motors would reign supreme, nuclear-powered household appliances would add excitement to the humdrum lives of tomorrow’s households. So, for that matter, would …
© 2011 john. All rights reserved.
Our first objective was a washout. The château de Montchevreuil, far from being a quaint 18th century ruin ensconced in a forest, with maybe an aging guardian occasionally doddering about the grounds with a shotgun and his trusty basset …
© 2010 john. All rights reserved.
A friend invited me to go exploring in a bunch of electrical cable maintenance tunnels under Eastern Paris. We entered via a manhole, and walked about 3km, including a bit of jungle-jim climbing over flooded parts. The whole thing was …
© 2012 john. All rights reserved.
A trip not really into the bowels of the Earth – but about as close as you’re going to get to it without a whole lot of digging.
Continue reading
© 2012 john. All rights reserved.
A few more pics of the Phoenix Werke, this time with some antiquated kit, proving that newer isn’t always better. Continue reading
© 2012 john. All rights reserved.
Big printing plants are extraordinary things. Gigantic halls of machinery, huge vats of chemicals, incredibly complex arrays of industrial gimmicks, pipes, conduits, etc. etc. etc. Continue reading
© 2012 john. All rights reserved.
In the 1920s, determined to avoid a repeat of the kind of slaughter witnessed in the trenches around Verdun, which bled out a good proportion of its male population, the French government established CORF, the Commission d’Organisation des Régions Fortifiées…
© 2012 john. All rights reserved.
Typical of Maginot Line fortifications, this fortress consists of a long central tunnel with underground electrical railway, separate munitions and personnel entrance bunkers, repair shops, huge magazines, escape tunnels, hospitals, kitchens, command posts, and everything else required to support hundreds of combat troops in relatively sheltered comfort under prolonged direct assault. Continue reading
© 2012 john. All rights reserved.
Abandoned after a well-intentioned but fundamentally ill-conceived government nationalization in the 1970s, this office building once served as headquarters to the family concern that owned many of the surrounding steel mills. Continue reading
© 2012 john. All rights reserved.
The entire network is a mix of passable quarry and what seemed like either natural caves or utterly collapsed segments that required some appreciable climbing. Much of the place was actually destroyed, with rotten overhead support beams providing testimony to the insufficient architectural acumen of the miners… Continue reading
© 2012 john. All rights reserved.
The latest entry in the “oops-bombers-let’s-move-stuff-underground-department”, this large bunker in Northwest Germany is one of the more beautifully intact World War II relics I’ve seen in a while, thanks to my associate D. for the tip and tour. Continue reading
© 2012 john. All rights reserved.
Like so many German industrial sites late in the war, the hail of Allied bombs drove Nazi Germany to start moving vital wartime production underground. Continue reading
© 2012 john. All rights reserved.
A long-empty metal casting and motor assembly plant in one of the grimier outskirts of a major German city. Continue reading
© 2011 john. All rights reserved.
Germany, for three decades, was a crucible of coal and steel, the foundation of a heavy industry that pushed the country back into the big leagues. Continue reading
© 2011 john. All rights reserved.
40 meters under the Belgian countryside, trying to get lost in a derelict limestone quarry. Continue reading