My first couple of months at MIT, I would take my lunch breaks underground, wandering blindly through the warren of interconnected tunnels that course beneath the main campus. At first, these excursions usually ended with me becoming hopelessly lost in the endless labyrinth of crosshatched corridors, deadends, stairwells into the abyss and doors which opened up to brick walls. These days, I can make my way from Kendall to Mass Ave blindfolded. It's a skill set that I can't necessarily transfer elsewhere, but it sure is handy when the weather is awful and the power goes out.
Not that the power ever goes out at MIT. There's something ominous down here, something thrumming and humming, that you hear just below the floor, lurking in a subbasement somewhere. A nuclear reactor? A perpetual motion machine? A ginormous electromagnet? Probably all three. I've looked everywhere, and can't find the source of the power. But MIT never sleeps. Something big is going on down here, you can feel it. Your hair stands on end at times, metal objects come flying out of your pockets, something sounds like it's lumbering up from below.
The main channel of tunnels is just below ground, but there are more networks buried beneath them. How many, I don't know. The map on the MIT site is strictly inbounds, the designated route they don't want you to stray from. But take a chance, and you'll find yourself descending into subnetworks of dank dimly lit corridors, and being confronted with blast doors with all sorts of ominous biohazard and runic symbols all over them. I found an abandoned bomb shelter one day, but can't for the life of me remember where it is now. There was one rickety old stairway which went straight down into pitch black, which I couldn't suck up the courage to descend. I think there's a drunk Irishman down there, with a fondness for Mama Cass.
If I'm never heard from again, you'll find my body somewhere down here - or most likely not. The MIT Tunnels keep their secrets well guarded and hid - and lost bodies even more so. read more