# What is the deepest building around?



## Indica (Mar 19, 2005)

Ive seen this post before (in the past year, and it hardly had any responses to it), but I couldnt find it so Im starting another one. 

Im talking in terms of underground floors. I heard a rumor that parts of the Pentagon go like 20 floors underground.. probably a big bunker and command center under there for all the countrys leaders in case the shit ever hits the fan for us, big time! There was some Palace in Russia that I heard something simular with as well, though nobody seems to have any info on these. 

Anyone ever see the TV series Stargate? that Military installation that they are in, resembles a real one we have here in the US (Nevada I think) where they built it into the mountain. Apparently, I heard on TV that its fully self sustained, like a small town built underground in that mountain, and can sustain itself for years without outside supplies.. I guess that installation could last through Armageddon possibly? 
It has a stores for the personel living at the base, and everything necessary there, but they didnt go into details about how deep it is. Im sure its gotta be 200 + ft deep, maybe more since it is built into a moutain.. They have been going LOTS deeper for more than a century now, through the process of mining. I would think that they dig out their tunnels the same way they do in the mines, but thats where the simularities end.. The entrance tunnel to this installation above was shown on TV, and its big enough to have trucks drive through it!! Of course it was concrete and steel lined and looked incredible!!

Then there is the famed "Area 51" military installation.. If you saw independence day, then you saw "Hollywood's interpretation" of it.. but I do believe the fictional reference in that movie somewhat in the sense that it probably goes even deeper underground than ones I mentioned above..


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## LeCom (Nov 29, 2003)

That installation is in Cheyenne Mountain by Colorado Springs, CO. It's not that deep at all compared to city level but obviously it's much much deeper than the top of the mountain ground level. It has stuff like its own power and water supply yet it's not so self-sufficient that they pass up a change to order some pizza from the town and have the pizza man drop the box off by the main gates.


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## micro (Mar 13, 2005)

If you count subway stations, some are up to 100 m deep. Stations in Moscow and Pyongyang are among the deepest.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Isn't the NORAD command centre buried deep in some mountain?


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## Spearman (Aug 29, 2005)

Some mines go so deep, they can't take their lunch on the surface (takes too long to get up). Those cantinas are probably deeper than any bunker (that YOU know of ofc )


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## miptag (Jan 26, 2005)

yeah NORAD is in Cheyenne Mountain down yonder


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## rj2uman (Sep 22, 2002)

Here is a great link that might help in your search. 

http://www.subsurfacebuildings.com/default.asp


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## Avian001 (Aug 26, 2005)

It's not the deepest, but The University of Minnesota's Civil Engineering Building is 95% underground, with the lowest level at 110 feet below the surface. A system of mirrors allows sunlight to penetrate to the lowest levels. The major laboratory and testing facilities are at the bottom, carved out of the limestone layer.

For its pioneering design, the building received the American Society of Civil Engineers' prestigious Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award in 1983.

*However, for sheer depth, one of the deepest laboratories in the world is in the small town of Soudan, Minnesota. It is a physics research facility and is at a depth of 690 meters / 2,263 feet below the surface. It is operated by the University of Minnesota*. The web site is here:

http://www.hep.umn.edu/soudan/brochure.html


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## Indica (Mar 19, 2005)

wow, 690 meters?!?!?! damn, is that the type of lab where people can actually go down an elevator, to work in for extended periods of time.. or is this a lab that just has equipment to interact with the surface above, avoiding the need for people to descend into the lab?


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## samsonyuen (Sep 23, 2003)

It'd be interesting to see how the U of Minnesota building looks undergroud, light-wise, with the mirrors...


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## Avian001 (Aug 26, 2005)

Indica said:


> wow, 690 meters?!?!?! damn, is that the type of lab where people can actually go down an elevator, to work in for extended periods of time.. or is this a lab that just has equipment to interact with the surface above, avoiding the need for people to descend into the lab?


It is a fully equipped laboratory. You have to descend in elevators to get to the main lab facilities. The 690 meter level is actually level 27. There are 26 levels above this point. The section of the lab containing the octagon-shaped MINOS neutrino detectors is 82 meters/270 feet long, 15 meters/50 feet wide and has a ceiling height of 13 meters/40 feet high. The twin detectors are each 8 meters wide by 15 meters long and together weigh about 6,000 tons.

Here's a pic of the MINOS lab area, _*half a mile below*_ the surface of the earth (the colorful wall on the right was a mural commissioned by the U of MN) There is a lab technician conveniently located for a sense of scale  :



One of the more fascinating experiments they are conducting is a measurement of neutrino mass. The Fermilab in Chicago is sending a beam of neutrinos underground, *730 kilometers straight through the bedrock* to the detector in Soudan, Minnesota.


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## Avian001 (Aug 26, 2005)

samsonyuen said:


> It'd be interesting to see how the U of Minnesota building looks undergroud, light-wise, with the mirrors...


Here is a shot of the exterior. The "tower" on the left contains a heliostat that follows the sun and directs the light down seven stories to the interior. I've been on the lower levels and there are a couple of places that have "virtual windows" such that you can actually see the landscape above via the use of a clever periscope system.


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## AltinD (Jul 15, 2004)

^ Can't see the pictures


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## Twipsy (Jun 3, 2003)

Switzerland is planning the "Porta Alpina", a train station located 800 metres below surface in the Gotthard Base Tunnel. 

















Here´s a link to the project (only in German):
http://www.visiun-porta-alpina.ch

Here´s a news article from bloomberg.net from November 17:
Swiss Towns Say Survival Depends on World's Longest Elevator 

Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Two small Swiss Alpine towns are asking the government to build the world's fastest and longest elevator, saying it's a question of their survival. 

Disentis and Sedrun are campaigning for an elevator that would transport tourists from a train station 2,624 feet below in two minutes. The station would be part of an 8 billion-Swiss-franc ($6.1 billion) tunnel that will link Zurich and Milan. 

``We need the project to survive,'' said Pancrazi Berther, Mayor of Sedrun, a town of 2,015 inhabitants. Sedrun, located near the source of the Rhine river at the Tomasee and known for its collection of minerals, depends on tourism for about 80 percent of its income, Berther says. 

Switzerland's mountain regions are trying to generate business to stem an exodus of people. About 73 percent of the 7.3 million Swiss lived in or near cities in 2003, compared with 36 percent in 1930, according to the Neuchatel-based Federal Statistics Office. 

The elevator project, first proposed in 1947 by a Swiss railway engineer, would use the tunnel's existing emergency shafts, and will cost 50 million francs, a government report says. Legislators in the capital of Bern will vote on the plan by yearend. 

Construction on the tunnel is proceeding faster than estimated, pressuring lawmakers to decide whether a station and an elevator should be added, some legislators said. 

Decision Needed 

``Work in the tunnel is a year ahead of schedule, so we need a decision this year,'' said Stefan Engler, infrastructure minister for the canton of Graubuenden, in a telephone interview. 

The Gotthard base tunnel, named after the mountain range it will cut through, is 35 miles long and is being built to relieve congestion. About 6 million vehicles and 84,000 trains pass through two existing tunnels in that mountain each year between Switzerland and neighboring Italy. 

A rejection ``would isolate the region further and could lead to an exodus of people and economic decline,'' said Engler. ``The entire Gotthard region has pinned their hopes on becoming more easily accessible.'' 

Opponents of the elevator project say a train stop in the tunnel would slow service, defeating the purpose of a high-speed rail link between the two cities. 

SBB AG, the Bern-based state-owned railway, and lawmakers such as Hans Lauri, the head of the Upper House's finance commission, say the project's feasibility study is incomplete, especially on the impact a train stop would have on service. 

`Dangerous' 

``Billions have been invested for the expansion of the rail transit and it would be dangerous to have an obstacle restricting increased capacity,'' Lauri said in a phone interview. 

More than half of the 153.5 kilometers of access passages, and shafts have already been excavated in the rail tunnel, which is expected to accommodate about 7 million travelers every year after completion in 2015. Some 36 trains per day could halt at the Porta Alpina station, according to a study commissioned by the government and local authorities, attracting an estimated 56,000 one-day tourists annually. 

The study commissioned by the canton of Graubuenden says the elevator would be profitable as annual revenue of between 2.8 million francs and 3.5 million francs would cover operating costs of 2.5 million francs. 

The project's advocates say it will create more than 30 million francs in revenue each year for restaurants, transport and retail businesses in the region. 

Cut Travel Time 

The Swiss government plans to allot 7.5 million francs for initial investment in the project, if it is approved. Regional governments say they will pledge 20 million francs. 

The Porta Alpina project would cut travel time between Zurich and Sedrun and neighboring Disentis to less than 1 1/2 hours by 2025 from close to 3 hours today. The towns say the project is critical to boosting tourism. The number of overnight stays in Sedrun has stagnated over the past five years and is below the peak years of the 1980's, the town's mayor said. 

The elevator would boost the number of visitors by about 30 percent, said Josef Russi, owner of the Sporthotel La Cruna in Sedrun. Overnight stays at the 30-room, three-star hotel have been at 12,000 annually in the past five years, he said. 

Disentis's attractions include a Benedictine monastery that dates back to the 8th century, said Heidi Meier, a spokeswoman for the local tourist office. More recent attractions in the canton of Graubuenden include the sighting of the first wild bear in Switzerland in a century. 

Should the government decide to scrap the project, the region won't just miss the additional business, said Berther, Sedrun's mayor. It will also lose a fifth of its population, as some 400 inhabitants currently working on the tunnel are likely to leave once the project is completed.


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## Avian001 (Aug 26, 2005)

By the way, the Minnesota MINOS Lab is the _receiver_ for the neutrino experiments. The transmitter is in an underground lab in Lombard, Illinois. That lab is 350 feet below the surface and features a 4000 foot/1219 meter tunnel that slopes _down_. The reason for the slope is that it is aimed toward the Minnesota lab 460 miles/740 km away and must compensate for the curvature of the earth.

The depth of the Minnesota lab is such that the new Burj Dubai would fit inside the height of the elevator shaft.

Regarding the new Swiss project, I would think that this could possibly qualify as the world's deepest "building." It's also impressive because it would be a publicly-accessible structure, though the MINOS lab does allow public tours of the facility.


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## PotatoGuy (May 10, 2005)

hmm.. do you mean the most floors that are underground, or the most feet?


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