Original subtitles

Tom ward (narrates): A Florida ruin built on a dream

to reach the stars.

The challenge was astronomical.

We were planning to visit another body

in our solar system.

An Indonesian community shattered by an unseen force.

Today this place is a wasteland of rubble,

debris, and earth.

A Bulgarian structure that concealed an ulterior motive.

This place was hiding

ambitious plans from the rest of the world.

And an entertainment paradise in the mediterranean

that was years ahead of its time.

This place was once the life and soul of the party,

but the music would soon come to an end.

Decaying relics,

ruins of lost worlds,

ruins of lost worlds,

sites haunted by the past,

their secrets waiting to be revealed.

Deep in the Florida everglades is an industrial ruin

that competed in the greatest race human kind has ever witnessed.

These are normally built in the middle of nowhere

to keep them a secret,

but here the land is so flat

it is hardly under the radar.

As you get closer,

you can see these buildings have been abandoned for a long time.

The roofs are mostly missing, there's debris everywhere.

Where once high-tech equipment filled the cavernous spaces,

where once high-tech equipment filled the cavernous spaces,

today only ruins remain.

Inside some of the buildings

are little more than empty warehouses

with walls made of corrugated metal.

And in one section,

you see an enormous circle sealed in concrete in the floor,

it seems to be hiding something important.

Beside the buildings is a long canal,

it's not clear what this is used for,

but presumably,

it's connected to the buildings in some way.

What links this overgrown waterway to the industrial remnants?

And what role did they play

in one of america's greatest triumphs?

I first found this place

just digging into different types of historical places in Miami.

This was an urban legend

that I'd heard of many times throughout my life here

and I decided to do a little bit of research on it.

Carolina florez first visited this location in 2020

after learning about the secrets held inside.

It's definitely got an aura of mystery to it,

especially because it's not really a place where you're supposed to go.

It looks like they had to just pack up and leave

and didn't have time to take anything out.

The ceilings are falling, there's water everywhere.

The rangers of the everglades do not venture in this area,

so, if you get lost, if something happens to you,

you're on your own.

For Carolina, the risk is worth the reward.

For Carolina, the risk is worth the reward.

This site is incredibly important to world history

and most people don't even know that it's here.

Its story begins in the early '60s,

a time when america was striving to reach the final frontier.

We choose to go to the moon in this decade

and do the other things,

not because they are easy but because they are hard.

The challenge was astronomical, literally astronomical,

we were planning to have human beings leave our planet

and visit another body in our solar system.

But at this time in 1962,

the us space program was in its infancy,

we'd only launched four people into space at this point

for relatively short duration flights

in the Mercury capsule

that only held a single astronaut.

That only held a single astronaut.

If they were going to send three astronauts, a lunar lander

and a return module to the moon,

they were going to need a bigger rocket than ever.

Kennedy identified one of the ways

the monumental feat could be achieved,

the simultaneous development of liquid

and solid fuel motors

to see which was best for the job in hand.

He didn't have any idea whether this was really possible,

the people at NASA didn't know if it was possible,

it involved technologies that hadn't been built yet.

(Explosion)

California based weapons maker aerojet took up the challenge,

and in 1963

the company were awarded a $3 million contract

to develop solid fuel rocket motors.

So, they started looking for a location

to build their rocket engine

that was close to cape canaveral,

at the same time

at the same time

the town of homestead was looking to bring some developments

to its area.

So, aerojet and homestead came to an agreement

that aerojet would build a massive industrial facility

out in the swamps of the everglades,

far enough away from the city

so that no-one would be hurt if something blew up.

Within a year,

the aerojet dade rocket development facility

was a hot bed of activity.

The company's greatest minds

focussed on creating the biggest solid fuel motor

the world had ever seen.

The solid rocket fuel

in comparison to the liquid rocket fuel

was a lot more powerful and had a lot more thrust,

it was very volatile.

These chemicals are incredibly hazardous

and dangerous to work with.

Solid rockets are like big fireworks,

solid rockets are like big fireworks,

you make this cake of explosive chemicals

and then you light the end of it, and boom,

you get tonnes of thrust out of it.

This thrust was the key to reaching the moon.

To break completely free

from the gravitational pull of the earth

and then sail on to the moon,

you need a rocket that can travel about 25,000, 26,000mi per hour

and do it while carrying a load of about 90,000 pounds.

This looks to be one of the labs for the aerojet facility,

this could have been a white board that they used,

but they've got the very typical fluorescent lights

that they need for a laboratory,

so, this area was obviously very important.

But aerojet had a problem,

the rocket booster they were planning to build

was going to be 150ft long,

packed full of rocket fuel and extremely heavy,

there was no way you could put that on a railcar or a truck.

There was no way you could put that on a railcar or a truck.

Aerojet needed to find another way to get its giant rocket motor

to the cape canaveral shuttle launch site.

So, the plan was to transport it by barge,

so, they dug a canal over 15mi long to the coast.

When it was built, there was a lot of controversy,

when a canal is dug in the everglades,

it completely cuts off the water flow

since the everglades is essentially a slow moving river.

That canal runs from...

Deep in the everglades,

a river of freshwater that supports a unique ecosystem.

The canal drains a good deal of that water

off to the east, out in to the Atlantic ocean

when in fact that water is needed to replenish and supply

the southern portion of the everglades.

And so it's really bad for the environment,

and so it's really bad for the environment,

despite that, they decided to go ahead

and build the canal.

Now, the race was on for aerojet to prove its design,

the aj260, was ready to take man to the moon.

The question is

did the biggest solid rocket fuelled engine ever built

have any chance of actually working?

One of their key needs

is to have a way to test this giant rocket,

but this rocket's going to be so powerful

you can't just put it in a stand and light it,

it would probably break through any kind of restraint system

you designed.

So, the way they tested the engine

was by putting it in a hole in the ground.

Measuring 150ft from top to bottom,

it was one of the deepest silos

ever excavated in the state of Florida.

So, directly below us is the drop

so, directly below us is the drop

where the rocket is not even 10ft away from us.

It looks like about half of the hole

is submerged in water,

but you can still see the top half of the rocket

to the right.

They tested the rocket in this location three times

and the way that they did it was that they turned it upside down

so, that the nozzle was pointing up.

And then they could ignite it and test it without worrying

that it was going to fly off somewhere.

Each time it must have been an amazing sight to see,

the tower of flames shooting up out of the middle of the everglades

was something you could see from miles and miles away.

The early tests were a resounding success

and the team at aerojet were confident

their launch vehicle was fit for purpose.

Aerojet was making great strides,

building and testing

the monolithic solid fuel rocket NASA wanted.

The monolithic solid fuel rocket NASA wanted.

And the rocket seemed to perform as predicted.

So, you have all these engineers

and scientists high-fiving each other,

they're excited, "we did it, we did it."

But then in 1967,

NASA changed course.

NASA decides to ditch solid rocket engines

and there are a million and one technical reasons why that was,

but essentially a solid rocket just wasn't the right choice.

The final rocket

which became known as the saturn 5 used exclusively liquid fuel.

Just six years after work at the facility began,

aerojet's funding was withdrawn

and the pioneering project was mothballed.

So, although it was a lot more powerful

to use solid fuel, liquid fuel

just became more controllable

and they shut this entire place down.

It was useless.

A lot of the things were removed from the factory when it closed,

but there is one thing that remains, the aj260 itself.

It's buried under a concrete slab never to be seen again.

One of the ironies of this story

is that when NASA was looking for a way

to replace the giant saturn 5

with a more affordable, reusable system

they returned to the idea of using solid fuel rockets.

The ground-breaking work carried out here wasn't wasted.

The technology developed during those years

was used in the solid fuel boosters of NASA's new space shuttle.

If you remember those iconic pictures of the shuttle,

the two long tubes on either side were two solid fuel boosters.

The two long tubes on either side were two solid fuel boosters.

The feats, the achievements

that took place in the American space program

at that time

is really a testament to human ingenuity and imagination.

I mean, to boldly go where no man had gone before

was their literal mission.

On the Indonesian island of sulawesi,

a gentle sea laps the coastline of palu city.

There's this beautiful mosque

that kind of sits right on the water line.

But inside things soon turn ugly.

The walls are mainly beige and tarnished by sea water.

All along the coast are signs of destruction.

You can see either side of the river that there used to be

you can see either side of the river that there used to be

a massive bridge here.

And two miles inland is a scene of complete devastation.

To this day,

scientists are still trying to uncover

what happened here.

The obliteration of these sites appear to be linked,

but how?

Like many residents, writer and researcher neni muhidin

understands the importance of his hometown's

most distinctive mosque.

(Speaks foreign language)

The idea of a mosque the idea of a mosque

that seems to be levitating above the water was very poignant

and beautiful for a lot of people.

On 28 September 2018,

worshippers gathered in the mosque as usual.

And the surrounding beaches were full of people

preparing for an annual music festival.

At the floating mosque,

the (indistinct) Was about to call for prayer.

(Speaks foreign language)

Without warning, disaster struck.

Suddenly around 6:00pm about 48mi north of palu city,

there was an earthquake of 7.5 magnitude.

(Speaks foreign language)

Indonesia lies in one of the most

geologically active regions on earth,

the ring of fire

and palu city sits between two major faults.

(Speaks foreign language)

Neni watched in horror

as the powerful quake destroyed his city's infrastructure.

(Speaks foreign language)

The earthquake caused great damage right across palu city.

But the devastation of the floating mosque

was caused by something far more deadly.

About eight minutes later,

a Tsunami came roaring up the inlet.

The earthquakes are believed to have caused a landslide

under the sea.

Sending a Tsunami thundering towards land.

(Speaks foreign language)

When it hit the coast,

the Tsunami was travelling at 250mi an hour.

(Speaks foreign language)

There were actually people praying in the mosque when it hit.

The mosque was lifted from its pillar supports

and crashed in upon itself.

The people who were in it were washed,

some of them out to sea.

But it wasn't just one Tsunami wave,

it was a series of them

and you can only imagine how terrifying it must have been.

(Speaks foreign language)

The beaches were teaming with people

and hundreds lost their lives to the killer waves.

When neni headed inland,

when neni headed inland,

he discovered that the horror was far from over.

The neighbourhood of balaroa

which was way beyond the reach of the Tsunami

had suffered an even worse fate.

(Speaks foreign language)

Throughout the night,

a series of relentless mud flows had engulfed balaroa.

In the harsh light of day,

the destruction was clear for all to see.

(Speaks foreign language)

(Speaks foreign language)

But as balaroa lay far from the deadly flood waters,

many struggled to understand why it had been engulfed.

(Speaks foreign language)

Balaroa was built in the 1980s on top of a swamp.

But was it really safe to build a residential area

on a swamp?

There were many people who had their doubts.

The concerns proved chillingly accurate

when the 2018 earthquake struck.

When the waves of...

An earthquake hit that kind of ground,

it forces water up into the soil.

This makes the particles in the soil lose contact with each other,

so soil which is solid loses those characteristics

and gains those of a liquid.

Essentially it flows.

This process known as liquefaction

created the mud flows

that had submerged balaroa.

More than 1,700 homes

and at least 600 lives were lost that night.

Entire houses, livestock, and vehicles

were swallowed by debris

were swallowed by debris

and churned up with soil and sediment.

And the mosque itself was moved over 250m

from its original spot.

(Speaks foreign language)

The survivors tried to make sense of what had happened.

(Speaks foreign language)

Today much of the devastation in palu city has not been repaired.

Today much of the devastation in palu city has not been repaired.

You can still see the scars

of this disaster throughout the city,

the residents have asked for it to be kept this way.

(Speaks foreign language)

On Spain's balearic isles

are the remains of an ibizan legend.

Breaking through the tree line,

you see a very odd structure dug into the hillside.

There's this big amphitheatre

and other outdoor spaces that look like they're set up

for certain kinds of performances.

Clearly this site has been abandoned for some time.

Clearly this site has been abandoned for some time.

Pooling water on the floors, wires hanging from the ceiling,

chunks of concrete littering the rooms,

this place looks broken.

As you peer out of what used to be a doorway,

there's this pile of burnt out cars.

On the artwork covered walls are some tantalising clues.

A lot of people have come here

specifically to make some kind of creative expression.

Some of it very almost trippy and mystical.

The graffiti on the steps say, "don't stop the music."

These defaced ruins are part of the story of how Ibiza

became the party capital of the world.

In the 1960s,

this area like much of the island was rural and quiet.

Vicente mari tur grew up less than a mile away.

(Speaks foreign language)

In 1969, when construction began,

the owners had to bring everything in

from the power to the water supply.

They even had to build the road to get there.

This is festival club.

This place is one of the first on the island

to put together the concept of a large multi-purpose nightclub.

The festival club was meant to be a kind of 360 entertainment zone,

not unlike a Disney world

or a combination of a music venue

and an amusement park and a cultural centre.

Its doors opened in 1972.

Vicente remembers the first time he came here.

(Speaks foreign language)

Drinks were not the only attraction,

live music was central to the experience.

(Speaks foreign language)

The main stage would have acts ranging from magicians,

orchestras playing Spanish music

and covers of famous songs from the time.

And covers of famous songs from the time.

Apparently 'Delilah' by Tom Jones was a big hit here.

And of course

there was the night time attraction of the,

the grand discotheque.

Guests were also drawn

to a very Spanish form of entertainment.

This strange circular structure, it wasn't a stage.

It was actually a ring

where they used to put on bullfights.

They didn't actually stage true bullfights,

but they did demonstrations of what bullfighting

was like with young, not particularly dangerous bulls,

so people got a taste of bullfighting

maybe the way someone in the us might go to a wild west town

and see a staged gunfight.

But, you know, no animals or people were harmed in the production.

With everything on offer,

the club represented a massive investment,

especially for the early 1970s.

Today we're so used to hotel resorts and entertainment complexes,

today we're so used to hotel resorts and entertainment complexes,

but back then this would have seemed quite massive.

They really needed to have a few good seasons in a row

in order to get this thing in the black.

The business model was based

on a supposedly guaranteed source of revenue

provided by a revolution in international travel.

The package holiday was bursting on to the scene

with all your flights, accommodation, and entertainment

all rolled in to one price.

Travellers would just pay an agency

that would put them on a plane, then put them on a bus

and large busloads of people

were expected to be rolling up to the gates

of the festival club

as part of these package tours.

But an evening here was a far cry

from partying in one of Ibiza's modern clubs.

(Speaks foreign language)

And the guests were expected to behave accordingly.

This is the waning days

of the generalissimo Franco dictatorship.

It was a very conservative country both politically and religiously,

very catholic country.

So much so, a bishop even opened the club.

(Speaks foreign language)

Despite occasionally offending local sensibilities,

the club continued to attract visitors

from around the world.

But only one year after it opened, tragedy struck.

Events thousands of miles away would spell the end of the party

at the festival club.

In 1973, opek,

a group of oil producing states decided to protest

the way various countries around the world

were dealing with Israel by embargoing their oil.

All those tour operators

who'd made huge profits bringing tourists to the island

found themselves facing higher costs

and they passed those costs on to their customers.

As a result,

50,000 fewer tourists made the trip to Ibiza.

Faced with a lack of visitors,

the owners just couldn't afford to keep the lights on,

and the festival club closed its doors in 1974.

After the recovery from the oil crisis,

tourist numbers in Ibiza sky-rocketed

and they've pretty much increased year on year ever since.

(Speaks foreign language)

Despite being abandoned in the 1970s,

that wasn't the end of the music at the festival club.

As the rave scene came to the fore in the '80s and '90s,

as the rave scene came to the fore in the '80s and '90s,

the ruined club became the perfect location

for illegal raves.

Hundreds of people would descend on to the dance-floor

with huge sound systems

and the DJs would set up on the old stage

and party deep into the night.

When the authorities put an end to the illegal raves,

the ruined buildings became a mecca for graffiti artists.

For Vicente though there is beauty in the deserted festival club.

(Speaks foreign language)

In the Bulgarian seaside resort of sozopol,

is an island of ghostly ruins which are impossible to ignore.

Is an island of ghostly ruins which are impossible to ignore.

From the town, you can't help but be captivated

by the imposing structures standing on Saint kirik.

A man-made breakwater connects the island to the town,

but public access is strictly forbidden.

The main building used to be beautiful and grand,

but now it's decaying and full of weeds.

At first glance, it looks like an embassy

or a government building of some sort.

You definitely get the sense that

at one time something vital was happening here.

The depths of this ruin is a crumbling room

with dusty photos on the walls.

These images are the remnants of a secret operation

destined to alter the course of Bulgaria's history.

Destined to alter the course of Bulgaria's history.

This was part of an ambitious and covert plan for revenge.

(Speaks foreign language)

Author Maria dimolareva

has been researching the island of st kirik since 2004.

But this is her first time here.

The island's most prominent structure

is shrouded in mystery.

Maria is on a mission to find out the real reason

behind its construction.

(Speaks foreign language)

The building was commissioned by the Bulgarian government in 1924

for a staggering amount of money,

equivalent in today's terms to $25 million.

The official line was

the Bulgarian government was establishing a fishery school.

Which was notably unusual at the time

when fishing was learnt at home, not in the classroom.

Electricity and even central heating

were going to be seen for the first time

in this sleepy backwater.

According to Bulgarian officials,

there was a very good reason for the new venture.

Since the beginning of the 20th century,

Bulgarians had really gravitated towards the countryside

rather than towards the coast.

Now, the Bulgarian state needed a new generation of men

that could take advantage of the coast

and use the sea to generate revenue.

(Speaks foreign language)

The admission criteria for prospective students

looked like an attempt to right past wrongs.

The school was created

with the goal of bringing in orphans

or refugees from the first world war.

It was a four-year course with full board

and the novice fishermen

were even given an interest free loan

to buy all the equipment they would ever need.

The motives for establishing the school

appear to be sound.

But all was not as it seemed.

There were rooms and features that really didn't add up.

The first sign something wasn't right

surfaced when construction began.

The first stone was laid in 1924

the first stone was laid in 1924

and unusually the ceremony was attended

by top governmental officials and even the king of Bulgaria.

During the ceremony, the king gives a rousing speech

and the words are very evocative and emotional.

(Speaks foreign language)

It was a speech

that seemed better suited to naval cadets

than humble fishermen.

(Speaks foreign language)

But what could the king but what could the king

really be trying to accomplish with all this?

The king's inspiring words threatened to give the game away.

(Speaks foreign language)

But Bulgaria was prohibited from having a Navy

or investing in any kind of military organisation.

Post world war one was a really humiliating period for Bulgaria.

They had picked the losing side in the war

joining the central powers cause.

Like many of the defeated countries,

Bulgaria was forced to sign a treaty ceding land

and committing to drastically reduce its army and Navy.

The prohibition

on more than one service academy meant that

on more than one service academy meant that

they would never be able to have a Navy again.

Bulgaria was not going to take any of this lying down.

The Bulgarians were quietly seething

and they developed a plan

to seize some of their territory back.

The sozopol fisheries school was central to the ambitious scheme.

Bulgaria was secretly preparing for war,

this wasn't just a fishery school.

And this is going to be a way to maintain the capability,

the skill set of navigation and ship management

and all of the requirements for a naval officer

in spite of the allied restrictions.

Suddenly,

the king's speech began to make sense.

These seemingly innocuous apprentice fishermen

were actually secretly training to be naval warriors.

Were actually secretly training to be naval warriors.

And in 1939,

Bulgaria got the chance to put its plan into action.

When world war ii started, Bulgaria sided with Nazi Germany,

another country

that shared its resentment at the peace treaty

and a strong desire to return to its former glory.

During the war,

the school became exclusively a military zone,

all civilians were forbidden.

After it became clear

that Bulgaria had once again picked the wrong side,

it looked like history was about to repeat itself.

That was until the Soviet red army

invaded in September 1944.

The Bulgarian authorities very wisely seeing

which way the wind is blowing, switched sides.

They abandoned their Nazi allies and joined Stalin instead.

Under the newly installed communist government,

the military presence here was quickly expanded.

When Bulgaria became a satellite of the Soviet union,

when Bulgaria became a satellite of the Soviet union,

more buildings were put up,

which you can see today encircling the original one

from the 1920s.

St kirik became an official naval base,

home to two naval divisions and a repair depot.

(Speaks foreign language)

After the collapse of the Soviet union,

the island remained in military hands

until shut down in 2007.

The 38 buildings that remain on the island

are all completely abandoned

and there's no access to the public, they're very strict about this.

Today, the Bulgarian government is still deciding

what is next for the island of st kirik.

The hope is that it can be reinvented

as a place for the people.

And now that Bulgaria...

Is no longer interested in exercising

its force overseas with violence,

this island can go back to being a regular island.

There are talks of making the island into a tourist attraction,

which makes sense considering its complex past,

but nothing's really come of it yet.

(Dramatic music)

Captioned by ai-media ai-media. TV