Titan bases contain over 2,500 feet of underground passages, built to withstand a nuclear attack as close as 3,000 feet away (photo copyright Jon Haeber).

Over 1/2-mile of underground passageways; three 150-foot-deep launch silos; PCBs, lead paint, zinc, cadmium, mercury — it’s a toxic soup, stagnant for over 40 years.

Photo courtesy SiloWorld.com

In 1962, these gigantic underground complexes began to take shape. Menacing images of power domes 150 feet across and two stories high put anyone lucky enough to see these underground cities in awe. They were said to support a 150-man army for 30 days. They could withstand a nuclear blast from less than 3,000 feet away.

Photo copyright Jon Haeber

And today, frozen icicles of contaminated groundwater hang from its rusticated quonset-hut-like ceilings. Breathing the air inside of a Titan base is not recommended. One breath will make you wonder how anything could survive within it.

The U.S. had 54 of these silos dotting the Midwest and West Coast. From Beale A.F.B in California to Lowry A.F.B. outside of Denver, CO these places were once the bargaining chips in a Cold War standoff with the Soviet Union. These were missiles that could travel across the upper atmosphere at speeds 25 times the speed of sound. They could hit targets over 6,000 miles away and deploy a 4 megaton nuclear warhead, a yield of destructive force that is theoretically 200 times the 20 Kt bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Photo copyright Jon Haeber

Today, only an empty shell remains. Some are filled in with water, others turned into tourist destinations; and still others on the market as potential “wine cellars or underground rock climbing gyms”

Photo copyright Jon Haeber

There’s one thing this author knows: Walking through an abandoned Titan missile base is a life-altering experience. Straddling the precarious catwalks and 2,500 feet of underground passages, looking down into the abyss of the 155-foot launch silo, and donning a P95 respirator to protect yourself from the toxic fumes — all of it makes you feel as if you’re walking in an alien environment and that you’re one of the few lucky people to have seen this modern wonder. At one time, these places were the landmark sites of the U.S. military industrial complex. Today, they only represent the incredible amount of money spent (wasted?) on the U.S. war machine.

Further Research

• KOMO TV article on Washington Titan Base for Sale http://www.komotv.com/news/archive/4120821.html
• Denver Westword article on exploring a Titan base
  http://www.westword.com/2003-11-20/news/search-party/print
• Missile Threat Titan 1 Statistics
  http://www.missilethreat.com/missilesoftheworld/id.171/missile_detail.asp

The hunt came to an end for writer Nick Tosches, who finally discovered that photographer Peter Burian of Ontario, Canada was behind the famous Windows XP background: Autumn (c) Peter K. Burian. Visit Peter’s incredible collection of images, at http://www.peterkburian.com

Geography is sometimes right in front of you — especially if you work in a cubicle.

Ever wonder who took the famous autumn picture that Windows XP offers as part of its desktop theme? Nick Tosches, Vanity Fair Contributing Editor ended up in a worldwide cat-and-mouse-game trying to find out.

His search went through public relations firms, photo stock agencies, freelance photographers, editors, even the personal e-mail inbox of Bill Gates himself. The elusive coordinates of the “Autumn” scene were finally discovered, but only after months of searching.

WE all know the image — a long line of golden trees surround the faint outline of a barn, rustic fences buffet the edge of the path — it all just looks so dreamy and so very uncubicle-like. Really, it’s an iconic symbol of post-modern technology. Bill Gates’ Corbis agency owns the rights to the image, but declined to offer the photographer’s name.

So Tosches e-mailed Russian image sellers, talked to Vermont tourism agencies, a New York ad exec, and even his own brother. After an exhaustive search, he found the place: Kilbride, Canada — a quaint village in Ontario.

Now if only every office was Kilbride. And every tree-lined lane looked like the bucolic path to the Harris Homestead… Ah, it would be great to go to work via that path every day…

Source:

http://www.vanityfair.com/ontheweb/features/2007/02/autumn200702?printable=true&currentPage=all

The Optics and Calibration Lab at San Francisco’s Hunter’s Point hosts what was once the world’s tallest industrial lift, now abandoned and the site of a superfund cleanup effort (photo copyright Jon Haeber). See also incredible photos of the same escalator by Todd Lapin.

In Coney Island, we saw some of the most bizarre rides invented. There was “The Jump” — a parachuting thrill spurred on by the military industrial complex. The Jump was modified from its inception as a military paratrooper training aid to the delight of many-a-Coney-Island visitors. Remarkably nobody died in its three-decade stint as a ride.

The parachute jump was declared a New York landmark in 1977, so it remains as New York’s unofficial “Eiffel Tower”

There, too, was the Human Roulette Wheel in the Steeplechase Park section of Coney. This bizarre contraption spun like a washing machine, kinetically throwing outside stragglers to the mercy of momentum! Poor, poor souls.

Some Coney Island attractions survived and we may little take notice of their auspicious beginnings. One is ingrained in our culture so much now that we don’t even realize that it was invented as an amusement park ride.

Jesse W. Reno (courtesy Lehigh University)

It was in 1892 that Jesse W. Reno invented the “inclined elevator.” There had been earlier patents, but none come to fruition as Reno’s escalator had. At first, Reno went to New York with a grand scheme for the city’s subway system. A recent graduate of Lehigh University, he had been toying around with the idea of moving stairs since the early age of 16.

Reno’s 1902 patent for an escalator. The word comes from the Latin for ‘steps’ (scala) and ‘elevator’ (which had been invented 50 years prior).

Reno approached the city of New York in the Spring of 1896 with the idea of a double-decker subway system, complete with inclined escalators. The city rejected his plans, so he opted to give the escalators a whirl at Coney Island. And whirl it did! Seventy-thousand patrons crowded its steps for its two week stay at the Island.

But Reno had bigger plans. He wanted the escalator to be used for practical purposes. So, in 1902, he founded Reno Electric Stairways, Ltd. Some of his greatest ideas came during this era. Only four years after he formed his company, he was toying around with the idea of spiral escalators, and the London Underground had comissioned the world’s first spiral escalator at the Holloway Road Station for the Great Northern, Picadilly, and Brampton Railway.

The spiral escalator first invented under a partnership between Reno and William Henry Aston, who held the patent for the flexible chain drive. (source: BBC)

The Halloway spiral escalator was a thing of beauty to behold — and over 80 years ahead of its time — but it didn’t last long. Sadly, Reno’s spiral escalator never went into operation. London authorities never approved its use due to safety reasons. Fast forward 90 years, and an odd contraption is discovered at the bottom of an abandoned tube at London’s Holloway Station. Reno’s escalator had been sitting there for 90 years, virtually untouched. The London Transport Museum recovered the components of the “world’s first spiral escalator” and now have them on display.

A portion of the Reno’s spiral escalator invention, which had remained undiscovered lost in the London Underground for 90 years.

The 1950s saw a boom in escalator production. Yes, there was a whole industry devoted to the appreciation of these people moving wonders. In fact, there was even a monthly full-color journal devoted to them and their couterpart elevators.

Even the government caught on to the furor. Government buildings, municipal subway systems, and yes, even the Navy’s own 1948 Optics and Calibration Lab used escalators to their advantage. The Optics and Calibration lab used its escalators to transport naval workers up its three-story, 42-foot rise. Not only do these moving stairways speed up the work flow, they also look really, really cool!

Today, Hong Kong boasts the largest escalator system in the world. A half-mile of twisting, winding, contorting tracks slithering through the urban landscape as it makes its way from shopping mall, to condominum, to office, and back again.

In the future, who knows what role escalators will play.

Further Research

Lehigh University’s Bio on Jesse W. Reno

The Invention of the Escalator at “The Elevator Museum”

Pruned Blog on Hong Kong’s Escalators

Telstar Logistic’s Image of the “World’s Highest Industrial Lift”