I love exploring in places that I am not supposed to be; both figuratively and literally. While many of you will immediately read into this as a sinister intonation of base instinct, in this case I will be speaking literally.
I had spent most of my adolescent and pre-adult years indulging a dangerous hobby of urban (and in most cases suburban) exploration - read: trespassing in (usually condemned) spaces closed off to the public, for reasons of structural instability, chemical or radioactive danger or unexplained circumstances. Another term for this is a Spelunker:

n. One who explores caves chiefly as a hobby; a caver.

I was an infamous break-and-enter conquistador. I used bolt cutters to break locks, kicked in gigantic multi-hinged security doors, destroyed windows with large cylindrical objects and have even used shotguns to render what was once sealed revealed. I was certainly not a conventional vandal, and took umbrage with any discoveries of graffiti or signs of destruction. My usual reasons for these explorations was just to see what was in there. Later on I had started taking photographs.
With the hour or two of free time that I try to allot myself every few late nights, I try to harness the power of Google and other search methods to research (what seems to be) arcane subject matter. One disturbing find - People that share my interest are legion.
Ok, so I am not a criminal nut. Take one look at the site Infiltration.org and you will see that this is a very serious pastime for those who are a bit more than thrill-seekers. Inquisitive minds demand answers, and if we have to force entry to get them, we will.
The city of Glen Cove that I grew up in is very old, very historic and very weird, in a fascinatingly good way. There are ruins of Gargantuan mansions and estate gardens all over the town, towers, terraces, foundations, hillside bunkers, bomb shelters, tunnels and whole, intact structures still standing (containing within them bomb shelters, tunnels, secret rooms, hidden staircases, etc). Most are the remnants of the age of the Robber Barons - The Morgans, Pratts, Vanderbilts, Whitneys, et al.
My current fascination remains on the old Pratt estate. I referenced it in a past entry here exercising creative license in my impressions of the place. The grounds of Welwyn are incredible. It is approximately 200 acres of semi-abandoned woodland, containing ponds, creeks, a salt marsh, beachfront and multiple buildings, including a large Georgian-style mansion, maintenance buildings, garages, greenhouses and other assorted structures, all dispersed throughout the property, and all, except the mansion itself, derelict. The greenhouse is basically the concrete skeleton of its former glory, having endured glass-breaking vandal through the decades and multiple fires. It is here that a lot of people begin their enchantment with the place as it is such a stark contrasting of natural beauty and growth and despairing entropy. I liken the place to a coral reef where an old sunken ship lies rusting and crumbling away while the sea life takes a hold of it and uses it for its purposes of survival and growth. It is an incredible site, giving off an aura of quiet dignity and eerie sadness.

I will cut to the chase here - in my protracted Google sessions, I have come across sites extolling the beauty of Welwyn, beautiful photo galleries of the aforementioned greenhouses, the speculation of its possible expansion underground, namely, a vast tunnel system that honeycombs throughout a vast network of subterranean passageways.

An arcane Usenet posting has started a miniature storm of X-Files-like conspiracy and unconfirmed mutterings by unverified sources. In other words, it is all hearsay, but interesting stuff nonetheless:

Newsgroups: alt.college.tunnels
Path: news.cs.indiana.edu!usenet.ucs.indiana.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!portal!cpc
From: cpc@shell.portal.com (Chris Cebelenski)
Subject: Glen Cove Tunnels
Message-ID:
Sender: news@unix.portal.com
Nntp-Posting-Host: jobe.shell.portal.com
Organization: Portal Communications Company
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 01:00:52 GMT
Lines: 32

Okay, it's not exactly a college, but the tunnels there do connect to
just about everything, including the Middle School. I grew up in Glen
Cove, NY, and spent quite a bit of time exploring the tunnels:

1. Middle School/Daisy School Tunnels - From the Wunsch (sp?) arts center
dressing rooms (normally locked) you can enter the school twisties. From there
you can get into the main city tunnels
2. Underground river - From the highway there is an underground river entrance,
and lots of rats too. I've been quite a few miles into this and have never
found an exit.
3. From a (mostly) covered hatch in the Wellwyn (sp?) preserve you can enter
the oldest of the tunnels, which consist of a long lost goverment research
center and LOTS of neat abondoned rooms. We've dubbed this "The Lost City",
and it is REALLY extensive. From things I've found there I'd probably date
it to the 1950's. All sorts of abondoned labs, sealed rooms, deep shafts,
etc.
4. And finially-- Some strange underground railway. The gauge is too
small to be a train, but it's similar. It's in very bad repair. I followed
one branch quite far and eventually found myself in some building that I
didn't have the guts to explore. From the compass and distance (pedometer)
I'd say we had left the city limits.

Anyone else explore these?

C.

--
=============================================================
Chris Cebelenski cpc@shell.portal.com
Science Fiction SIG Moderator cpc@cup.portal.com
Portal Communications

Though I can't confirm it at the time of this writing, I believe I know who the writer is. I have tracked down someone with the same name, around the right age who was originally from Glen Cove in Massachusetts. I would like to contact him and find out if he was fabricating this seemingly too-good-to-be-true account, and if not, to tell me where the damn hatch is! The main reason that I do not dismiss this posting as a bunch of useless garbage is that he accurately describes the tunnel system beneath the Wunsch Arts Center in the Glen Cove Middle School. I have been down there hundreds of times in my years there and the description is spot-on. Not everyone knows about this place and it is enough for me to verify that he is truthful in part 1 of the posting. Part 2 is possible but unverified and part 3, until proven is speculative fiction.
This is beginning to look like an episode of Lost. I have reason to believe there is something definitely possible about large underground spaces based on the fact that I know exactly where one is in the middle of the woods at Welwyn. I also believe that this area is largely unknown to the public, and that it has not been visited in some time. I was last there about 4 or 5 years ago and left a few markers there to see if any human activity would follow me. I plan on going back to this place this coming weekend and will take many photographs to prove that this is not all kooky conspiracy theory.

All of my friends are invited to chime in, espesially those who are Illuminated on this topic.