Interesting potential addition to "Armies of Darkness" - Secret NSA NYC fortress

[kato13]

https://theintercept.com/2016/11/16/...n-plain-sight/


They called it Project X. It was an unusually audacious, highly sensitive assignment: to build a massive skyscraper, capable of withstanding an atomic blast, in the middle of New York City. It would have no windows, 29 floors with three basement levels, and enough food to last 1,500 people two weeks in the event of a catastrophe.

But the building’s primary purpose would not be to protect humans from toxic radiation amid nuclear war. Rather, the fortified skyscraper would safeguard powerful computers, cables, and switchboards. It would house one of the most important telecommunications hubs in the United States — the world’s largest center for processing long-distance phone calls, operated by the New York Telephone Company, a subsidiary of AT&T.

The building was designed by the architectural firm John Carl Warnecke & Associates, whose grand vision was to create a communication nerve center like a “20th century fortress, with spears and arrows replaced by protons and neutrons laying quiet siege to an army of machines within.”

Construction began in 1969, and by 1974, the skyscraper was completed. Today, it can be found in the heart of lower Manhattan at 33 Thomas Street, a vast gray tower of concrete and granite that soars 550 feet into the New York skyline. The brutalist structure, still used by AT&T and, according to the New York Department of Finance, owned by the company, is like no other in the vicinity. Unlike the many neighboring residential and office buildings, it is impossible to get a glimpse inside 33 Thomas Street. True to the designers’ original plans, there are no windows and the building is not illuminated. At night it becomes a giant shadow, blending into the darkness, its large square vents emitting a distinct, dull hum that is frequently drowned out by the sound of passing traffic and wailing sirens. ....

[ArmySGT.]

Why above ground? What makes NYC unique and special is the solid homogenous basalt bedrock.....

I love the Government only subways. The subway meets railway terminal beneath the Waldorf Astoria hotel. The Federal Reserve bank. The aquaducts carrying water from upstate NY.

Did any government building (high schools, CD, colleges, or others) get a nuclear reactor, when small scale reactors of the 1950s were the rage?

Don't forget Ft Hamilton! I meant to try and stay there in accomadations for a visit to Manhattan ( though it is in Brooklyn).

[RN7]

This doesn't surprise me at all as the spooky NSA have their eyes and ears everywhere. It's all linked into a Western global intelligence monitoring system called ECHELON or Five Eyes. The five eyes being the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

They can monitor everything; cell phones, telephones, internet, radio, microwave, satellite and fibre optic cables. They have signal intelligence bases on all continents, even within some embassies and the location of some signal stations are unknown to even their own governments. They even tap into submarine fibre optic cables which carries 90% of all international communications traffic, the British specialise in doing this. Very little information gets past them including global financial and bank transactions and data. No country is off limits to their snooping including China, Russia and most other Western and allied governments.

The NSA is also suspected to be running a top secret cyber-espionage unit known as the Equation Group, a name given by Russia's Kapersky Lab who discovered some of their cyber programmes. The cyber snooping or hacking capabilities of Equation is considered at least a generation ahead of any other government. Its true capabilities are unknown but would be at least on a par with what you saw in the latest Jason Bourne movie. The NSA more than likely cooperates with British and Israeli intelligence in developing their cyber warfare capabilities and I'd say the Chinese and Russian have nightmares even thinking about what they could do to them.

I don't think the NSA is allowed to randomly spy on American citizens in the United States, so they use Britain's GCHQ for that purpose!! The Brit's in turn use the NSA to do the same to British citizens.

[Silent Hunter UK]

Originally Posted by ArmySGT.

Did any government building (high schools, CD, colleges, or others) get a nuclear reactor, when small scale reactors of the 1950s were the rage?

I'm just imagining a nuclear reactor in a high school... Now what would be a science lesson.

[ArmySGT.]

Originally Posted by Silent Hunter UK

I'm just imagining a nuclear reactor in a high school... Now what would be a science lesson.

I believe there was in fact two built and run.

[.45cultist]

Originally Posted by kato13

https://theintercept.com/2016/11/16/...n-plain-sight/


They called it Project X. It was an unusually audacious, highly sensitive assignment: to build a massive skyscraper, capable of withstanding an atomic blast, in the middle of New York City. It would have no windows, 29 floors with three basement levels, and enough food to last 1,500 people two weeks in the event of a catastrophe.

But the building’s primary purpose would not be to protect humans from toxic radiation amid nuclear war. Rather, the fortified skyscraper would safeguard powerful computers, cables, and switchboards. It would house one of the most important telecommunications hubs in the United States — the world’s largest center for processing long-distance phone calls, operated by the New York Telephone Company, a subsidiary of AT&T.

The building was designed by the architectural firm John Carl Warnecke & Associates, whose grand vision was to create a communication nerve center like a “20th century fortress, with spears and arrows replaced by protons and neutrons laying quiet siege to an army of machines within.”

Construction began in 1969, and by 1974, the skyscraper was completed. Today, it can be found in the heart of lower Manhattan at 33 Thomas Street, a vast gray tower of concrete and granite that soars 550 feet into the New York skyline. The brutalist structure, still used by AT&T and, according to the New York Department of Finance, owned by the company, is like no other in the vicinity. Unlike the many neighboring residential and office buildings, it is impossible to get a glimpse inside 33 Thomas Street. True to the designers’ original plans, there are no windows and the building is not illuminated. At night it becomes a giant shadow, blending into the darkness, its large square vents emitting a distinct, dull hum that is frequently drowned out by the sound of passing traffic and wailing sirens. ....

They were bunkers for telecomm systems shut down and found on real estate sites every once in a while.

[ArmySGT.]

Originally Posted by .45cultist

They were bunkers for telecomm systems shut down and found on real estate sites every once in a while.

More than that.. and their still for sale.

http://www.missilebases.com/properties

[Silent Hunter UK]

Originally Posted by ArmySGT.

More than that.. and their still for sale.

http://www.missilebases.com/properties

Wow, those are cheap - you can't buy a flat in inner London for less than $500k these days!

[WallShadow]

33 Thomas Street is located inside the curve of the arc of Tribeca, Little Italy, and Chinatown, with the Duke's duchy located below the site.
I wonder what the inhabitants on duty were thinking on TDM...? I wonder what sort of covert actions and missions were launched from there? Being a communications hub, I'm sure they would be in touch with MilGov and/or CivGov.
Speaking of Little Italy and Chinatown, one of the contentious factors between them would be the proximity of a kilometer-long by 150-foot-wide strip of arable parkland of the Sarah D. Roosevelt Park between Chrysler and Forsyth, bounded north and south by Houston and Canal. That's not even considering the dements and others splinter groups operating near the East River.