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There’s a secret tunnel at my work. I work in a three-level basement. The first two floors don’t extend all the way to the walls of the building - they are steel-frame structures that stand free of the masonry walls (I believe).  The floors on the top two levels are steel, frosted glass, or linoleaum. On the bottom level the floor is concrete. There are drains along the passage between the stacks that are slowly becoming sink holes. There’s a freight elevator that scares the bejesus out of me. This is what I love about working in archives! You’re always in the most out-of-the-way place in any building. I was so happy when I moved out of my standard cubicle at my old job and into my very own basement.

Anyways, on the bottom level there’s an entrance to this tunnel that goes from our sub-basement over to another sub-basement area in the building. Here’s kind of how it looks:

The tunnel goes past an old coal pocket, up and down steps, past a bunch of telecom stuff… I’ve never been all the way through: I don’t think I’m even supposed to be in there. The door on our end is supposed to be closed and locked all the time, but people use it every now and then, and then they’ll prop it open with a chair or a bit of PVC that’s lying around down there. I’d never even seen the door until one day a few months ago when I was down in the stacks evaluating some un-cataloged manuscript collections we have. You know how you have a sub-concious idea of what your surroundings are? Well, in my mind, I was in the corner of the basement, with empty walls around the stacks. I turned my head for some reason, and instead of wall, I saw this open door! And through it were these stairs leading into the dark! I seriously was frightened. Since then there have been a few times when the door has been open and I’ve explored a bit. I’m usually too scared to venture too far on my own, so last time I was there I conned my co-worker into taking a few steps in with me.

This is the stuff I love! The hidden places. It scares me, but also draws me in. This is the part of me that loves subways, bridges, tunnels, waterworks, shipwrecks, abandoned buildings, power stations. I’ll have to explore this more here. I’m not very good at expressing myself what the attraction is. But the secret tunnel is sitting below me right now, and the next time I need to venture to the sub-sub-basement, I’ll be peeking around the last row of the stacks to see if it’s open.