Rassmuson Westward / Northward Tunnels
This tunnel begins inside the primary mechanical room of the library,
just opposite the door into the library public stairwell.
It gets very very low and stoopy after a while, and is very hot, steamy,
wet, and humid. There are several side passages to different
buildings, unfortunately the tunnel to Chapman is blocked by pipes
that turn to go down a side passage. One side passage runs all
the way past the faculty housing, with short tunnels into the basements
of each faculty house (lucky buggers). There are more security gates
which kept us from going farther across campus. There were lots of
other obstacles, like poorly placed valves, and pools of polluted water.
We found tar stalactites, squirrel nests, flood alarms, phone patch
boards, and a little map drawn on the wall (not accurate sadly)
New Photos from 2002/2003:
The small wooden tunnel is what's called a "utiliduct" (meaning "we
were too cheap to build a real tunnel") Annoyingly the official maps show
them as tunnels.
The low headroom and inconvenient fire hydrants offer further proof
of the existence of a crack team of anorexic midget contortionists on the
maintenance crew.
This is the main tunnel leading from the library to the Chapman building,
in sequential order. The 4th photo shows the cramped part
These six photos show the tunnel leading off of the main Rassmuson/Chapman
tunnel toward the Faculty housing
You can easily follow this tunnel on the surface, as the top is a sidewalk
between the houses. The fifth photo shows the squirrel nest we found.
The side tunnel to Wickersham hall, and some pipes in the basement
of Wick.
Some gates we ran into.
In the days before OMFG TEH 9/11!!
Look really close at the consequences of trespassing...
A gate near the cop shop.
A victim of ignoring the previous warning? (Nope, just clumsiness)
The first trip into this section of tunnels, and the dangers of not
watching where you're going.
Supposedly the tunnels are used by the fire department for drills, and for getting quickly between buildings (This would be impractical in the narrower ones). Another rumor claims they used to be open for student use, but the high crime rate and lack of security ended this. (I'm not too sure if this is true, as there doesn't seem to be any graffiti or painted over graffiti anywhere in the tunnels except what was left by explorers. If the tunnels really were open once, shouldn't they look like these? (From the Infiltration Site)).
