100 Places You Will Never Visit (3 page)

6 Google Data Center, The Dalles

LOCATION Wasco County, Oregon, USA

NEAREST POPULATION HUB Portland, Oregon

SECRECY OVERVIEW High-security location: Google’s first purpose-built data center.

Google is one of the world’s leading internet companies, helping to shape modern culture while making an awful lot of money. As proprietors of perhaps the world’s leading search engine, the business requires vast banks of computer servers to keep things working. Its enormous Data Center at The Dalles was built amid great secrecy at a cost of US$600 million and opened in 2006.

Famously, Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were still studying at Stanford University, and incorporated as a private company in 1998. Its mission, in its own words, is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Since the initial launch of its search engine, this mission has seen Google diversify into software, social networking and even computer operating systems.

The company is, unsurprisingly, unwilling to divulge great detail about its server centers around the world, though estimates suggest there may be more than ten of these facilities spread across the globe, housing perhaps a million individual server units.

When Google came to construct its first custom-designed facility, a site on the Columbia River not far from the Dalles Dam offered not only suitable land on which to build and a local population to work there (employees number around 200), but also the possibility of plentiful and green hydroelectric energy. A business such as Google inevitably consumes enormous quantities of electricity, and the chance to build a more environmentally friendly facility fitted in neatly with the company’s declared motto: “Don’t be evil.”

The Data Center, codenamed “Project 02” in its early days, was shrouded in secrecy when it opened—even visiting journalists were required to sign confidentiality agreements. Although the secrecy level has since declined, security—both of the site itself and the data it contains—remains of paramount importance.

A full-time Information Security Team works to ensure the integrity of electronically held information, while the center itself is surrounded by a perimeter fence that is patrolled by guards and constantly under closed-circuit surveillance. While Google wishes to make the world’s information universally accessible, it clearly harbors no such ambitions for its own data centers.

7 Hawthorne Army Depot

LOCATION Mineral County, Nevada, USA

NEAREST POPULATION HUB Sacramento, California

SECRECY OVERVIEW High-security location: the world’s biggest ammunition storage facility.

Situated on the southern shore of Walker Lake, in the Great Basin region of west Nevada, this huge depot covers 59,500 hectares (147,000 acres) of semi-arid land and is scattered with almost 2,500 “igloos” storing army reserve ammunitions (for use after the first 30 days of a major conflict). Its other roles include renovating, demilitarizing and disposing of conventional ammunition.

The facility began operating in 1930 as the Naval Ammunition Depot Hawthorne. It came into being after enormous explosions in 1926 at the Lake Denmark ammunition depot in New Jersey led to high numbers of civilian casualties. The accident also badly damaged the neighboring Picatinny Arsenal. A subsequent court of inquiry concluded that a new depot should be built to serve the Pacific area, in a remote area within 1,500 km (930 miles) of the west coast. Hawthorne was chosen, and building got underway in 1928. The facility was brought under army control in 1977, and in 1994 ended its previous supplementary duties as a center for ammunition production.

Today, the Hawthorne Depot supports a mostly civilian community of some 4,500 people and is furnished with extensive railroad connections. At its peak toward the end of the Second World War, it employed more than 5,500 people. Hawthorne is now also used as a training base, boasting a large live-fire ordnance test facility and even a small, simulated Afghan town, used for the training of troops facing deployment to the region. The “Afghan neighborhood” is replete with multi-story structures and dummy enemy soldiers, providing an unnerving setting amid the desert lands and mountains of Nevada. In 2005, Hawthorne was listed as one of several bases to be considered for closure, but it was later removed from the list, largely on account of the unique training opportunities it offered.

Security at Hawthorne is handled by a private contractor, Day and Zimmerman Hawthorne Corporation, although the depot was protected by the Marine Corps in its earlier days. As well as permanent on-site security, the depot has its own fire and emergency rapid response departments—this is one place where you really do get more bang for your buck.

1 HEAVY METAL One of the most important tasks undertaken at the Hawthorne facility is the disabling of obsolete or decommissioned ordnance. The depot’s experience in handling dangerous chemicals means that it has also been selected as the major center for the storage of US strategic mercury reserves. The toxic metal is kept in steel flasks within large UN-approved drums.

2 UNDER COVER The hummocky “Igloo” bunkers at Hawthorne Depot are designed to store and protect enormous quantities of reserve munitions. A total of 2,427 bunkers are scattered across the site, providing some 56,000 square meters (600,000 sq ft) of storage space. Emergency services are permanently on hand to respond in the event of an accident.

8 The Skunk Works

LOCATION Palmdale, California, USA

NEAREST POPULATION HUB Palmdale, California

SECRECY OVERVIEW Operations classified: a private facility for high-tech research, often with military applications.

The “Skunk Works” is a widely used nickname for the home of Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs (ADP), which has for decades been involved in landmark top secret projects for the public and private sectors. Such is its fame that the name has since become a generic term for cutting-edge, often highly autonomous, technological projects.

Lockheed Martin came into being following a corporate merger in 1995 but the Lockheed part of the company traces its history back to 1912. In 1943, the US Air Force’s Air Tactical Service Command opened talks with Lockheed executives about developing a jet fighter. A small team of engineers under Clarence “Kelly” L. Johnson developed blueprints for what would become the XP-80 Shooting Star aircraft in less than a month. Their plans secured Lockheed the government contract, and the Skunk Works came into being, with Johnson at its head. The name is derived from Al Capp’s Li’l Abner strip cartoon, which featured a mysterious brewery, the “Skonk Works,” known for its strange concoctions.

STEALTH FIGHTER The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, developed at the Skunk Works, was a ground-attack aircraft operational between 1983 and 2008. Its unique shape allowed it to scatter radar waves off its surface without reflecting them back to enemy receivers.

Kelly put together small, hand-picked teams to work on a string of boundary-busting research projects in the years that followed. By the 1950s he had established 14 Rules & Practices, the thirteenth of which states that outside access to a project and its personnel must be strictly controlled by appropriate security measures. The organization regularly worked with the CIA and the Air Force, with testing often taking place at the legendary Area 51.

The Skunk Works quickly became renowned for its levels of secrecy and absence of official paperwork (contracts often followed long after projects began). It played an instrumental role in developing such ground-breaking technology as the U-2 spy plane in the 1950s and the “Have Blue” project that led to the commissioning of the stealth fighter in 1978. It continues to develop breakthrough technologies including—in its own words—“landmark aircraft that continually redefine flight.”

Although based in Burbank, California, for many years, Skunk Works is today located at US Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. It is estimated that Lockheed Martin receives somewhere in the region of 7 percent of the US Department of Defense’s annual budget. Skunk Works remains its most important and innovative division, with some 90 percent of its work classified.

UNDER THE RADAR The Darkstar unmanned aerial vehicle was developed at the Skunk Works in the 1990s and built to fly for up to eight hours at a height of 14,000 meters (46,000 ft). Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was commonly mistaken for a UFO.

9 US-Mexico drug smuggling tunnels

LOCATION Multiple locations along US-Mexico border

NEAREST POPULATION HUB San Diego, California, USA/ Tijuana, Mexico

SECRECY OVERVIEW Access restricted: secret underground routes for the movement of narcotics.

Stretching for more than 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles), the long frontier between the United States and Mexico has a reputation as one of the world’s most porous borders. Here, the governments of both nations have long been engaged in a bloody battle to stem the cross-border flow of illegal drugs, and in recent years the trade has literally been driven underground.

While the narcotics trade has clearly damaged communities on both sides of the border, it has effectively transformed some of Mexico’s cities into war zones. Worth billions of dollars each year, the business is estimated to have accounted for some 40,000 Mexican lives between 2006 and 2011. After the government launched a crackdown in the mid-2000s, the drugs cartels arguably became even more efficient, better armed and organized with military precision.

Their ruthless pragmatism is reflected in the drug tunnels that ease the passage of narcotics from one country to the other. Some run for up to 800 meters (half a mile) and are equipped with sophisticated lighting and ventilation systems, wooden props to support the walls and even tracks for electric carts.

The tunnel floors are routinely lined with wooden boards and in some cases cemented over, while drainage systems counter the risks of groundwater. Access may be via a rope ladder, although some of the more sophisticated examples boast wooden staircases and even hydraulic lifts. Such impressive construction suggests cooperation from engineers and building professionals.

Entrances are centered around Tijuana on the Mexican side and San Diego on the US side. They are generally found in private properties, with Tijuana in particular amply endowed with disused warehouses.

California’s clay soil seems particularly conducive to tunnel digging, although some tunnels have been routed into Arizona, where they link to an existing network of underground drainage canals. It is estimated that each tunnel takes on average six months to a year to construct, using a mixture of hand-held tools and pneumatic drills. According to official figures, more than 150 illicit tunnels have been discovered since 1990, leading to the recovery of hundreds of tons of marijuana alone. They are often found around the time of the marijuana harvest in October, suggesting a seasonal construction timetable.

1 ON THE BORDERLINE Main: a Mexican soldier inspects a tunnel on the Tijuana side of the border following the discovery of 20 tons of marijuana in November 2010. Inset: a narrow fence and half a world separate teeming Tijuana from the heavily defended San Diego side of the US-Mexico border.

10 Area 51

LOCATION Southern Nevada, USA

NEAREST POPULATION HUB Las Vegas, Nevada

SECRECY OVERVIEW Operations classified: US defense testing base and alleged location of extraterrestrial artifacts.

Area 51 is part of a United States’ Air Force facility in Nevada, believed to be attached to the Edwards Air Force Base in California. As a center for the development and testing of aircraft and weapons, you might expect it to be secretive. But Area 51 is perhaps the best-known “secret place” on the globe, and for good reason. Conspiracy theorists hold that here you will find irrefutable evidence that aliens have visited Earth.

Situated roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the nearest town, Area 51 covers 36,000 hectares (90,000 acres) of sparse Nevada desert and includes a large hangar, seven runways, radar antennae and an assortment of smaller administrative, accommodation and catering buildings. Its chief role is as a testing and training facility for new defense technologies and systems.

The large salt flat of Groom Lake, which lies entirely within Area 51, was used for testing bombs and artillery during the Second World War. In the 1950s, after the government entered into a partnership with the Lockheed Skunk Works, it became the test site for the U-2 spy plane. It also hosted vital work on the development of radar systems and stealth bombers, and today remains a center of cutting-edge military development. Captured Soviet aircraft were allegedly brought here in the Cold War to add greater reality to war games.

As such, confidentiality has always been highly prized. Employees must swear an oath of secrecy and buildings within the complex are said to be devoid of windows so that development teams do not have knowledge of each other’s specific work.

However, the air of extreme secrecy that surrounds Area 51 has inspired those of a suspicious bent to claim that the base undertakes work beyond the bounds of our Earthly imagination—there have been claims of research programs aimed at controlling the weather, mastering teleportation and even achieving time travel. Most famously, though, Area 51 has been identified by assorted conspiracy theorists as a place where scientists have studied unidentified flying objects and alien life forms.

Such arguments often center on the claim that the wreckage of a spaceship and its alien occupants were brought to Area 51 after crash-landing near the town of Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. In July of that year, the Army Air Field at Roswell put out a press release saying that it had recovered an unidentified flying object. In the days and weeks before, various members of the public had reported seeing a disc-like object in the skies. A short while later, the army statement was retracted (in later years declassified papers suggested the object was actually a secret surveillance balloon) but by then the press had got hold of the story.

The legend of Roswell continued to grow until it reached a crescendo in the 1970s, fostering a small industry of conspiracy-laden books, reports, documentaries and films. An alien spacecraft was recovered, it was said—and its crew, too, according to others. There were even claims of conveniently lost film footage recording the autopsy of an alien corpse. In 1989, one Bob Lazar added fuel to the fire with an interview in which he claimed to have been a physicist at Area 51, and to have seen no less than nine alien spacecraft, which the authorities were attempting to reverse-engineer.