3 ms·

Metro Dig at Tysons Stirs Underground Intrigue

22 points by jballanc 17y ago

gregking 17y ago
LOL. I live in Northern Virginia and that craziness does not surprise me one bit! One night on the way home from grabbing one drink I accidentally turned into a govt complex that was probably CIA or something. I figured I'd tell the guys at the gate I made the wrong turn and they'd let me leave. Low and behold I was held within the gates for 3 hours, subjected to a series of alcohol tests conducted by several feds who rolled up in unmarked black suburbans repeatedly asking me what I was doing there. At the end of all the huffing and puffing I passed every single test and was warned I got off easy as I was clearly intoxicated and next time things wouldn't go so smoothly. This was after I agreed to a voluntary search of my vehicle with hopes of just getting the hell out of there.
- RKlophaus 17y ago
  Yep, when I worked out in Reston (also in Northern Virginia area, for those on the other coast) there was a building like that right next to ours. If you pulled into their driveway by accident, you could expect to have machine guns pointed at you until they determined you were not a threat. Occasionally, we would have an interviewee show up 20 minutes late for an interview in a cold sweat, shaking, and looking like they had seen a ghost--all because of a wrong turn.
  - gregking 17y ago
    Ya, it was Reston where it happend to me also.
wglb 17y ago
So is it just in Illinois that we have http://www.illinois1call.com/ http://www.illinois1call.com/? This seems to be seriously effective. Someone doing work on the yard calls the number and sometime the next day a whole passel of yellow/blue/red flags are planted in the ground, marking where various things are. They are doing resurfacing on the subdivision street, and there are flags everywhere, sometimes augmented with yellow paint on the grass. On the other hand, Chicago is famous for having a $2 billion dollar flood in which nobody was hurt or killed. One of the city inspectors called out apparently did not even know of the abandonded underground railroad that as he "inspected" the area, the flood was just about to get underway. This was a major urban adventure, as they tried to plug the hole. One scene had huge concrete trucks hurtling down city streets in excess of 70 mph flanked by police cruisers. Another scene had unimaginably large pumps brought in to pump out basement complexes. (The Army Corps of Engineers would not let them be used, as the draining would have been too fast, causing collapse of walls) There was even a special extension granted to individuals whose tax returns filed late due to this adventure.
- wglb 17y ago
  Just one more detail--my walking route from the train station to the office took me directly over the Kinzie street bridge, and if, for some reason, I had looked down that morning, I would have seen the swirl. In the days preceeding this, there was a barge driving 70' pilings into the river, and, in this case into this unmarked tunnel.
- larrywright 17y ago
  I think the issue here, at least in part, is that the government likely doesn't advertise their fiber locations. So when those doing the digging seek approval, nobody knows the fiber is there.

22 points by jballanc 17y ago

LOL. I live in Northern Virginia and that craziness does not surprise me one bit! One night on the way home from grabbing one drink I accidentally turned into a govt complex that was probably CIA or something. I figured I'd tell the guys at the gate I made the wrong turn and they'd let me leave. Low and behold I was held within the gates for 3 hours, subjected to a series of alcohol tests conducted by several feds who rolled up in unmarked black suburbans repeatedly asking me what I was doing there. At the end of all the huffing and puffing I passed every single test and was warned I got off easy as I was clearly intoxicated and next time things wouldn't go so smoothly. This was after I agreed to a voluntary search of my vehicle with hopes of just getting the hell out of there.

RKlophaus 17y ago
Yep, when I worked out in Reston (also in Northern Virginia area, for those on the other coast) there was a building like that right next to ours. If you pulled into their driveway by accident, you could expect to have machine guns pointed at you until they determined you were not a threat. Occasionally, we would have an interviewee show up 20 minutes late for an interview in a cold sweat, shaking, and looking like they had seen a ghost--all because of a wrong turn.
- gregking 17y ago
  Ya, it was Reston where it happend to me also.

wglb 17y ago

So is it just in Illinois that we have http://www.illinois1call.com/ http://www.illinois1call.com/? This seems to be seriously effective. Someone doing work on the yard calls the number and sometime the next day a whole passel of yellow/blue/red flags are planted in the ground, marking where various things are. They are doing resurfacing on the subdivision street, and there are flags everywhere, sometimes augmented with yellow paint on the grass. On the other hand, Chicago is famous for having a $2 billion dollar flood in which nobody was hurt or killed. One of the city inspectors called out apparently did not even know of the abandonded underground railroad that as he "inspected" the area, the flood was just about to get underway. This was a major urban adventure, as they tried to plug the hole. One scene had huge concrete trucks hurtling down city streets in excess of 70 mph flanked by police cruisers. Another scene had unimaginably large pumps brought in to pump out basement complexes. (The Army Corps of Engineers would not let them be used, as the draining would have been too fast, causing collapse of walls) There was even a special extension granted to individuals whose tax returns filed late due to this adventure.

wglb 17y ago
Just one more detail--my walking route from the train station to the office took me directly over the Kinzie street bridge, and if, for some reason, I had looked down that morning, I would have seen the swirl. In the days preceeding this, there was a barge driving 70' pilings into the river, and, in this case into this unmarked tunnel.
larrywright 17y ago
I think the issue here, at least in part, is that the government likely doesn't advertise their fiber locations. So when those doing the digging seek approval, nobody knows the fiber is there.