Word: steams
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...connecting almost every Harvard building, you can hear no noise from the street, feel no breeze, smell nothing. The air is humid and temperatures in the tunnels reach 120 degrees in the places, creating a tropical atmosphere. The eight-foot gray concrete walls shelter the University's vital organs--steam, water, and electric lines...
...certain mysticism surrounds the tunnels which span about three miles and connect the basements of almost every building in the College and much of the University. The tunnels take their name from the three 10-to-12-inch steam lines which provide Harvard with 100 pounds of steam pressure per square inch. In addition, the tunnels carry electric, telephone, and water lines and the cotton-insulated radio cables of WHRB, the student-run radio station...
...School students, faculty, and staff use the public tunnels to travel underground from building to building. Laundry rooms. Coke machines, and bathrooms dot the yellow cement-brick walls, and the steam pipes far above are barely noticeable. People pass through unconcerned by the strange clicking noise can be heard coming from the pipes at intersections. Decorative flagstones pave the floor in some places...
...offense. "As far as we're concerned, if someone's not supposed to be in a place, it's trespassing, whether it's a student or anyone else," says Deputy Chief of Police Jack W. Morse. Possible arrest is not the only hazard faced by would-be explorers. The steam tunnels themselves can be hazardous...
Even a small break in those lines can be dangerous, says Culhane, a night-shift supervisor of Harvard's utilities plant. "You stay keenly aware while walking through the tunnels and listen," he says. "A 100-pound steam line with a pinhole in it can do your skin a lot of damage...