All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S02E03.Arctic.Hell.Pit.1080p.DISC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-DoGSO_track3_[eng]

Narrator: a military base
Lost in the american desert.

It looks like it was hit
By an atomic bomb.

Narrator: a wrecked
Arctic facility that goes deep.

It was almost like
A subterranean space race.

Who could get down
The deepest first?

Narrator: and a vast structure
Abandoned high in the mountains.

It's a surprising building
To find in that location.

Narrator: once, they were some
Of the most advanced structures

Narrator: once, they were some
Of the most advanced structures

And facilities
On the planet,

At the cutting edge
Of design and construction.

Today,
They stand abandoned,

Contaminated,
And sometimes deadly.

But who built them,
And how?

And why were
They abandoned?

*

*

*

*

-- captions by vitac --
Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

Narrator: 170 miles
Southeast of los angeles

Is the salton sea --

A shallow and salty
Body of water

Covering nearly 350 square miles
Of the colorado desert.

*

Gough:
It's an extraordinary feature
Of the california desert --

Gough:
It's an extraordinary feature
Of the california desert --

A 30-mile-long lake
In the middle of the wilderness.

Narrator:
On the northeast corner,

Sun-bleached,
Rotting timbers of a dock

Lie half-buried
In the desert sand.

You have desolation
And, basically, decay.

It's like a graveyard.

Narrator:
A crumbling solitary building

Blasted by the elements
Overlooks the seaside.

And hidden under the desert sand
Are broken concrete roadways,

Foundations for dozens
Of buildings,

And two
4,000-foot-long runways.

*

Gough: there's dead fish
Along the shoreline.

It's one of the most famous
Post-apocalyptic landscapes

In the all of
The united states.

Narrator: why was this
Mysterious installation

Narrator: why was this
Mysterious installation

Built in such a remote
And hostile area of the desert?

And why was
It abandoned?

During world war ii,
In december 1944,

As american forces
Prepare to attack japan,

The u.S. Is trying to perfect
The accuracy

Of its untested
New atomic weapon.

[ explosion ]

[ explosion ]

So, the joint army-navy
Z-46 group

Starts to conduct
Classified tests --

Code-named
"Project y" --

For the now-well-known
Manhattan project.

The location they choose
Is the salton sea.

The salton sea was ideal
For the manhattan project

And its aerodynamic testing.

It was for two reasons --
It was completely isolated,

And two,
That afforded it secrecy.

And two,
That afforded it secrecy.

Narrator: 20,730 acres
Of barren desert land

And the salton sea
Become a vital test range

For the manhattan project.

They did a lot of practice here,
Which was pretty secretive --

In fact,
Very secretive.

Nusbacher:
You will not see anything

As demanding
Of coordination,

Cooperation, and integration
Across industry, academia,

Cooperation, and integration
Across industry, academia,

And the military
As the manhattan project.

Narrator:
And the project's key tests

Are conducted from here --

The naval auxiliary air station,
Salton sea.

Code-named "Sandy beach,"
Its remote location

On the edge of
The shallow salton sea

Makes it ideal
For testing

The aerodynamic designs
Of atomic bombs.

If you're going to drop
The most powerful bombs ever,

You have to be
Absolutely certain

You're dropping them
With precision.

Narrator: america's atomic bombs
Are designed to be dropped

From 31,000 feet,
From a b-29 superfortress,

And explode 2,000 feet
Above the ground.

But it takes just 43 seconds
For the bomb to drop that far.

Teams of observers
Have less than a minute

Teams of observers
Have less than a minute

To assess the performance
Of each type of bomb design

Before it crashes into
The salton sea near this target.

You have almost no cloud cover
In a desert.

So, if you drop a bomb
In daylight,

You can see exactly
Where that thing hits.

That's the target out there
That they used to try to hit,

About a mile and a half
Out there.

Narrator: even though it is
400 feet away from the base,

The target is
Practically invisible

To the b-29 bombers above.

The pilots must be able to
Drop their bombs accurately.

Otherwise, they will not
Survive a real bomb run.

A high-pressure
Blast wave

Traveling at 1,100 feet
Per second

Would knock them
Out of the sky.

[ plane roaring ]

By 1944, '45,
They're doing a vast amount

Of ballistics testing,

Because a very slight
Modification in the shape

Because a very slight
Modification in the shape

Or length of a bomb
On the tail fins

Can affect
That performance.

Gough: salton sea base
Became ground zero

For the dropping of
5-ton concrete bombs.

This is where the testing
Took place, supposedly,

For hiroshima.

Narrator: with only
Three atomic bombs built

By the summer of 1945,

By the summer of 1945,

There is no opportunity
To test a live warhead here.

The trials at salton sea
Are critical to demonstrate

That the weapons will hit
Their targets first time.

You had aircraft
That had automatic cameras.

And when they're
Dropping live bombs,

You can see
Where every bomb falls,

And then, survey,
Mark that spot exactly.

And you might even be able
To recover the bomb itself.

And you might even be able
To recover the bomb itself.

Scientists and engineers
Are testing over and over again

To make sure that
The electronic components

That are going to make
All of that technology

Turn into
The most powerful blast

The world had ever seen
Work exactly as advertised,

And exactly the way
The engineers

And the scientists
Want it to go.

Narrator:
More than 120 test bombs

Narrator:
More than 120 test bombs

Are dropped
At the salton sea base.

Some casing designs
Prove less than accurate,

And four of the giant missiles
Still lie out in the desert

Where they missed the target
And burrowed deep into the sand.

They did drop something right in
The center of a tennis court,

Which didn't go over
Too big.

I guess that's
How you learn.

Narrator:
But will the u.S. Military

Crack the aerodynamic design
Of the atomic bomb in time?

And why was
The salton sea base abandoned?

*

Narrator: hidden beneath
The sand on the southwest edge

Of the deserted
Salton sea in california

Lies a forgotten military
Facility -- the salton sea base.

A major problem solved
While testing at salton sea

Is curing the fat man
Atomic bomb of a violent wobble

That it experiences
When dropped.

That it experiences
When dropped.

The addition of a distinctive
Box-like tail

Containing eight fins,

Named a "California parachute,"
Suppresses the wobble

And improves
The bomb's accuracy.

*

By august 1945,
Because of aerodynamic tests

Conducted here,
And successful atomic bomb tests

At the white sands missile range
In new mexico,

At the white sands missile range
In new mexico,

America is able to deploy
Both the fat man

And little boy bombs
On hiroshima and nagasaki

To secure allied victory
Against japan.

Nusbacher: salton sea
Was vitally important

To the manhattan project.

Nobody can afford
To have the brain power

That's been assembled
For the manhattan project

Build a bomb that's not
Gonna hit the target.

Narrator: for several years
After the war,

Narrator: for several years
After the war,

Testing for the nuclear program
Continues at the base.

But during the 1950s and '60s,
As the nearby salton city

Becomes a popular
Recreational resort,

Military secrecy
Becomes impossible.

So, in 1971, the base is
Shut down and abandoned.

Today, the area has been
Reclaimed by the sand,

Today, the area has been
Reclaimed by the sand,

And the salty environment
Has eaten away at the buildings.

There's little that remains
Of the salton sea base

To show how vital
Its contribution was

To allied victory
During world war ii.

There's no plaques,

There's no statues,
Nothing to tell you

That this was once
A very important site.

Narrator: all that is left
Is a stark reminder of the costs

Narrator: all that is left
Is a stark reminder of the costs

And perils of nuclear
Development and all-out war.

Over 5,000 miles away,
On the kola peninsula

In the far northwest
Of russia,

On the border of norway,

Is a bizarre
Deserted industrial site.

Forgotten in the barren arctic
Tundra on the peninsula here,

Surrounded by lakes,
Is a decrepit cluster

Surrounded by lakes,
Is a decrepit cluster

Of two-story buildings.

The only living creatures
To be seen

Are arctic rabbits taking
Shelter among the debris.

Dickrell: it's so remote,
Extremely dry, cold conditions.

It's just not
A great place to be.

Narrator: concrete buildings
Lay derelict

With twisted wreckage,

Smashed and scattered
Equipment.

Smashed and scattered
Equipment.

And at the center of it,

One building looks like
It's been ripped apart.

It's all of these buildings,
Partly derelict.

What was going on here?

Was it some sort of
Concentration camp?

Was it some sort
Of military base?

Narrator:
So, what took place here

In this bleak
And inaccessible corner

Of russia's arctic north?

And why was
This site abandoned?

*

*

In the 1960s, the soviet union
Is in a scientific

And technological race
With the west

To understand
The inner depths of our planet.

*

But this investigation is not
Part of the soviet union's

Open military rivalry.

It's a scientific step
To understand the geology

That is hidden
Thousands of feet beneath us.

Jerram: at the moment, the way
That we look inside the earth

Is through what we call
"Seismic waves."

You make a big explosion
On the earth's surface,

And we see the way the shock
Waves travel into the earth

And back out again.
And we come up with structures.

We find barriers in there.

But what are they?

Meigs: in the '60s and '70s,
There was this huge fascination

With the structure of the earth,
And trying to figure out

If you could drill down
Through the earth's crust,

The top layer, into the mantle,
Which is the soft,

The top layer, into the mantle,
Which is the soft,

Kind of plastic layer
That lies under the crust.

It was almost like
A subterranean space race.

Who could get down
The deepest first?

Narrator:
This complex is the site
Of an extraordinary project

To uncover the secrets of the
Earth's geological structure.

This is the kola
Superdeep borehole.

Only about 9 inches
In diameter,

This metal lid opens
A new scientific frontier.

This metal lid opens
A new scientific frontier.

But it's undertaken
In competition with america.

Meigs: in the '60s,
The americans had started

A project called "Mohole"

To try to dig down
Through the crust.

They didn't get very far,
But they learned a lot.

Narrator: with the mohole
In guadalupe island, mexico,

American geologists only reach
601 feet through the seabed,

11,600 feet
Under the water.

11,600 feet
Under the water.

But the russians
Are aiming for something

Over four times deeper.

And then, the russians
Came back in 1970

With this
Superdeep borehole.

Narrator: and they have
A distinct advantage

In drilling
In such a cold location.

*

The kola peninsula sits in
An area of very, very old crust.

It's called a "Shield,"
Really old crust.

And what's important there is
That the temperature increase

And what's important there is
That the temperature increase

As you go with depth
Is very light,

So you have much more chance
Of getting deeper

Before it gets too hot.

Narrator: will the soviets
Get further into the crust

Through the kola borehole?

And why was it abandoned?

*

Narrator: deep in the heart
Of the arctic,

On the kola peninsula,

Is a russian project
To challenge america.

This is the kola
Superdeep borehole.

Its scientific aim is to dig
Deeper into the earth's crust

Than ever before.

Construction of this remote site
Begins in 1965.

Construction of this remote site
Begins in 1965.

And in may 1970,
Drilling begins.

The prize for
Soviet engineers

Is not just
Outperforming the u.S.A.

And gaining
New geological data.

They also want to control
The earth's resources.

And they want to do it
From a remote base.

Meigs: this is a very
Out-of-the-way place.

They had to bring in all
Their materials and expertise.

But the soviet union
Did a lot of that.

But the soviet union
Did a lot of that.

They were good
At infrastructure,

And building big, sophisticated
Bases in remote locations.

[ man speaking russian ]

Translator: the digging
Of the well itself

Is a big difficulty.

I have never drilled
Anything like it.

No one could advise us
On the way to do it.

Narrator: but drilling into
The earth's crust in this

Out-of-the-way location
Is easier said than done.

The first problem
That has to be overcome

The first problem
That has to be overcome

Is one of
Basic physics.

Even though the borehole will
Only be 9 inches in diameter,

The immense torque
Of turning drill tubing

Weighing over a million pounds
Makes the task impossible.

So, soviet engineers
Use a radical new way

Of overcoming
This difficulty --

An annular-shaped
Core drill.

Jerram: the technology
With drilling is,

You actually just have
The drill bit at the end moving.

You actually just have
The drill bit at the end moving.

You force mud and other things
Down to keep this thing moving,

And that's where it's
Grinding away at the rock.

And in between,
You can take out,

Essentially,
The shaft of rock,

What we call "The core,"

And look at
The structure of the earth.

Meigs:
The deeper you drill,

The harder it is to manage
The drilling process.

Equipment can get stuck
In the hole.

The temperatures
Get really high.

The rock doesn't
Behave properly.

So, this was a huge
Technological achievement

For its day.

[ man speaking russian ]

[ man speaking russian ]

Translator: the difficulties
Were colossal.

We had to develop everything
There and then.

And we contended with
The difficulties of the north,

Being short summers, cold,
And remoteness.

Narrator:
For over a decade,

They drill into the crust
Using a 200-ton,

200-foot-high drilling machine
Housed in a huge yellow tower

In the center of
The borehole site.

Drilling deep into
The earth's crust,

Drilling deep into
The earth's crust,

Averaging 190 feet
A month,

It wears out
Nearly 25 miles of pipes

Just from
Friction and heat.

And they borehole becomes
The deepest hole in the world

At an astonishing
39,000 feet.

*

Dickrell: the borehole beat
The world record in 1979.

It was almost 40,000 feet
Below the surface,

Which is an amazingly
Deep distance

Which is an amazingly
Deep distance

When you think about it.

The marianas trench, which is
The deepest place in the ocean,

Is not even near
That deep.

Narrator: as news spreads
Of the incredible depths

Being reached
By the kola site,

Rumors about its discoveries
Begin to spread.

The fact that the borehole
Had been dug so deeply

Was used to create
A hoax,

Which was called
"The well to hell."

If you listened really close,
And put a microphone underneath,

You could actually hear
People screaming.

You could actually hear
People screaming.

[ ominous noise plays ]

This was later debunked
As a complete hoax,

But the fact that
The hole goes so deeply

Ignited people's imaginations
That, you know,

Perhaps you could hear people
Screaming down in hell.

Narrator: drilling continues
To 39,587 feet,

When there is
A significant setback.

One of the pipes
Twists off,

And shuts down
The whole operation.

And shuts down
The whole operation.

Can the russians
Continue to drill deeper

Into the earth's crust?

And why was the kola superdeep
Borehole abandoned?

*

Narrator: far out in the arctic
Tundra of russia,

The kola borehole
Hopes to dig over 9 miles

Into the earth's crust,
To a depth of 49,000 feet.

But at 39,587 feet,
There is a catastrophic failure.

When you're drilling so deep
Into the earth's crust,

When you're drilling so deep
Into the earth's crust,

You're actually miles away from
Where you are on the surface,

And you're drilling
And drilling away.

That's one thing.

If you then
Take the drill bit out,

And then you try
And re-enter the hole,

That's when it can cause
Many, many problems.

It's like trying to find
That needle in a haystack

Down to where
You were drilling before.

And the drill bit itself
Can get stuck,

And you can break
The drill string.

And in this instance, thousands
Of feet of drill string

Were broken.

Narrator: engineers now have
To start a new hole

From an offshoot
At 23,300 feet.

From an offshoot
At 23,300 feet.

It takes another 5 years
To borehole down

To the amazing depth
Of 40,230 feet.

But at this
Incredible depth,

Drilling becomes
Practically impossible.

The soviets discover that, when
You get far enough underground,

The rocks are
No longer rocks.

The rocks are
No longer rocks.

Meigs: because, as you go down,
It starts getting hotter.

And as it gets hotter,
It's harder for the equipment,

For your drill equipment,
To hold up.

But also, the rock itself
Begins to get a little bit soft.

It gets to flow a little bit
Like silly putty.

Dickrell: the temperatures
Of the borehole itself

Were getting
Extremely hot --

So hot that
The drill head itself

Was becoming almost
Impossible to operate,

Due to just
The elevated temperatures.

Just so hot down there.

Just so hot down there.

Narrator: with their equipment
Failing rapidly

As they encountered
Staggeringly high temperatures

At these depths,

The engineers at kola
Have no option

But to stop
Further drilling.

Though they fail to reach
Their target depth,

They push scientific knowledge
Of the earth's structure

Further than ever before,

And make astonishing
Discoveries.

One thing that surprised them
Was, they discovered

A lot of water deep,
Deep down in the borehole --

A lot of water deep,
Deep down in the borehole --

Way below where you
Would find groundwater

Or any effects
Of ocean water.

Dickrell:
Scientists also found there was
A tremendous amount of hydrogen

Trapped in the rocks,
Which was completely unexpected.

They theorized it came from
Water that had been squeezed

So strongly that it actually
Released hydrogen gas.

Narrator:
But that isn't all they find.

Translator: we did find life,
Bacteria,

At the depth of
24,600 feet.

Dickrell: the microfossils
Found that deep

Dickrell: the microfossils
Found that deep

Were actually
Single-celled organisms

That had existed long,
Long ago.

And scientists
Were very surprised

That life could even exist,
Or could be found, that deeply.

Narrator:
The kola borehole penetrates
Nearly a third of the way

Through the baltic
Continental crust.

It's the deepest
Artificial point on earth,

A record that is
Still held today.

But with a lack of funding,

Russia closes
The facility in 2005.

Today, a simple welded
Steel plate is the only sign

That the world's
Deepest hole

Lies directly beneath
One's feet.

Jerram:
You wouldn't necessarily know,

But you could be standing
On that little metal plinth,

That beneath you there's more
Than 7 miles of knowledge

Of what's going on
Inside the earth's surface.

And that, to me,
Is really fascinating.

From something that looks
Completely bizarre,

From something that looks
Completely bizarre,

We actually have a window
Into the interior of our planet.

*

Narrator: on the other side
Of europe,

On the border
Of france and spain,

A tiny village of 500 people
Sits in a steep-sided valley.

But 4,000 feet up,
In the pyrenees mountains,

Opposite the small
Cluster of houses,

Is a gigantic
Derelict building.

Is a gigantic
Derelict building.

Bell: it's a surprising building
To find in that location.

It's grand.
It's almost palatial.

And yet, there it is,
Plonked down

In the middle of
The pyrenees mountains

With not that much
Civilization around it.

Narrator: this is no
Disused factory or power plant,

But a glass
And marble palace.

But a glass
And marble palace.

Its ornate, three-story facade
Has a total of 365 windows,

156 doors,

And stretches 800 feet
Along the narrow valley floor.

Nusbacher: the idea that anybody
Would build something so grand

In a place that is almost
Impossible to get to,

That is astonishing.

Narrator: immense effort
Has gone into creating

This incredible structure,

This incredible structure,

But why was it built here?

And why was it abandoned?

In the mid-19th century,

Spain is cut off
From france and europe

By the pyrenees
Mountain range,

Which covers 260 miles
Of the border,

Crippling
The nation's economy.

To establish
A reliable trade route,

A train line
Has to be constructed.

Meigs: the idea of a train line
That would cross the pyrenees

Was extremely appealing.

And when that
Was undertaken,

It was a massive
Engineering project.

It was almost like a
Panama canal type of a project,

With super long tunnels,
And bridges.

Years of very, very
Challenging engineering.

Narrator: they try to connect
To europe with this,

The canfranc
International railway station.

Building begins in 1923,

But there is
A fundamental difference

Between the french and spanish
Rail systems.

Megs: spanish trains ran on
A different width of track

Than french trains.

So, they had to find
A station big enough

To unload
The french trains,

Load everything onto the
Spanish trains, or vice versa.

Narrator: the only solution
Is to create a transfer point

Narrator: the only solution
Is to create a transfer point

From one track gauge
To the other.

Completed in 1928, the station
Becomes one of the longest

And highest altitude
Major rail stations in europe

At nearly 4,000 feet.

It is dubbed
"The titanic of the mountains."

[ camera shutter clicking ]

*

Bell: by building this huge,
Impressive station

Bell: by building this huge,
Impressive station

In the pyrenees,

It would open up new,
Strong trade routes into france,

And then,
Into the whole of europe.

[ man speaking spanish ]

Translator: it's very modern
And spectacular.

It gives a sense of the great
Investment that was made

To build this grand
International railway.

Narrator: on july 18th, 1928,
King alfonso of spain

Formally opens
The canfranc station,

And declares the pyrenees
No longer exist.

And declares the pyrenees
No longer exist.

With posts for customs
And border protection,

A hotel, restaurants,
And 2,000 staff,

Canfranc rivals any of
The major stations of europe.

Nusbacher: spain, they think,
Has finally arrived,

And is once again
A player in europe.

Narrator: but dark clouds
Loom over its future.

Just 8 years
After canfranc's opening,

Spain falls in the grip
Of a bloody civil war.

Canfranc becomes the last stop
On a railway to nowhere.

Meigs: the canfranc station
Had the misfortune of sitting

Right on kind of
A geopolitical fault line.

Tunnels were closed
For a time then,

Because the spanish
Government

Was afraid of people
Smuggling in supplies.

Narrator:
For several years,

Canfranc does not
Formally operate,

As the spanish dictator
Francisco franco

Gets the help of hitler

To brutally squash spain's
Republican and communist forces.

When the spanish civil war ends
In 1939,

Canfranc finally reopens,

And the station begins dealing
With a new flood of passengers.

Fleeing jews and refugees head
South through this station,

Away from german
Prosecution.

*

But ironically,
Canfranc also becomes

The vital shipment center
For tons of valuable metals,

Including gold and tungsten,
For hitler's war machine

As payback for his helping
Franco win the civil war.

When the nazis invaded france
In the second world war,

Canfranc station provided
A really important railway link

Canfranc station provided
A really important railway link

For jewish refugees
Escaping france into spain.

[ train whistle blows ]

But going the other way, it also
Provided a route for the germans

To export gold ore
From spain into france,

And, effectively,
Into the german reich.

Narrator: but will this gold ore
Help the german war effort?

And why was the canfranc
Station abandoned?

And why was the canfranc
Station abandoned?

*

Narrator: the abandoned,
But incredibly ornate,

Canfranc international
Railway station

Plays an important role
In world war ii.

By 1945, towards
The end of the war,

Spain has sent tons of gold
To help the nazi war efforts.

However,
After germany's defeat,

Nazi leaders
With tons of looted gold

Nazi leaders
With tons of looted gold

Pass back through canfranc.

Because almost the only way
To get from france into spain,

And onto a ship to somewhere
Else in the world --

Because that requires you to get
Off the train at canfranc,

To walk through
Canfranc station,

That one facility
Becomes a route

For evil people
To get away,

And seek safety
In south america.

And seek safety
In south america.

This train line was a vital link
Between southern france

And, essentially,
The outside world.

It allowed supplies
And information,

Travel to
The french resistance.

They were even used
For some spy missions,

Where some very brave
Young women

Would carry packages
Of information out to spain,

Where they would ultimately
Be delivered on

To the allies
And britain.

To the allies
And britain.

Narrator:
After the war,

With just a trickle
Of international passengers,

The majestic halls
Of canfranc

Grow more and more
Shabby and neglected.

And 42 years after
It opens its doors,

It is forced
To shut down for good.

As vital as it was, the rail
Line was never profitable.

And then, in 1970,
There was a train accident

That destroyed
One of the bridges.

That destroyed
One of the bridges.

They never rebuilt it.

I think it became kind of
An excuse to let the rail line

Just fall into decay.

Because, by that time,

Air travel was becoming
More affordable.

Highways were better.
Trucks were better.

They had more
Alternatives to this

Very difficult
Railroad line.

Narrator: with the rail line
Out of action,

Canfranc is abandoned
In the 1970s, and left to decay.

*

*

But today, the station's
Old grandeur still remains.

Meigs: a lot of travelers
Want to make a pilgrimage

To see this magnificent
Train station.

There's something poignant
About people working so hard

On some ambitious technology
And infrastructure

That never quite works.

And then, it has
To be abandoned,

And it just kind of
Slowly rots away.

[ man speaking spanish ]

[ man speaking spanish ]

Translator:
It will come back to life.

There was a bid of over
$33 million made recently --

Which is a substantial
Amount of money --

To finish renovating
The station,

To build a new one
On the other side,

And to urbanize
Its surroundings.

That is the future.

Narrator: we will never
Truly know what treasures

And who
Passed across these platforms.

Those secrets will forever
Stay hidden in the shadows

Of the pyrenees mountains.

Of the pyrenees mountains.

*

600 miles away, south of
The belgian capital of brussels,

A desolate
Industrial area

Spreads along the banks
Of the river sambre.

Looming like a monolith
Over the wasteland

Is a squat
Concrete tower.

It is around 200 feet
At its base,

And rises 354 feet
Into the air.

And rises 354 feet
Into the air.

Its corrugated sides
Slope upwards

To reveal a silent,
Gaping mouth.

*

It's certainly impressive.
It's amazing to see.

Agrawal:
It's quite beautiful.

They've got these really
Flowing shapes.

Narrator: mysteriously, the wide
Base is pierced all around

By numerous gaps.

The tower's interior looks
Like an unfinished beehive

The tower's interior looks
Like an unfinished beehive

Covered with rotting wooden
Slats and weed-clogged channels.

But what lies behind the bizarre
Features of this massive tower?

And why was it abandoned?

In 1921,
The city of charleroi

Is in belgium's
Industrial heartland.

After 4 years of german
Occupation in world war I,

After 4 years of german
Occupation in world war I,

Its hundreds of factories
Need to go into overdrive

To get the nation's economy
Back on its feet.

But all of them
Are starved for power.

So, a state-of-the-art
Power station is proposed --

The enormous
Power plant I.M.

In the process
Of generating power,

Typically,
Steam engines are utilized.

To make steam,
You need water.

And when you make steam,
That water gets quite hot.

To create new steam,
You need to take the hot water,

To create new steam,
You need to take the hot water,

Cool it down,
And then, recreate steam.

Narrator: power plant I.M. Is
One of the largest power plants

Of its kind in europe.

*

And at its heart
Is a dramatic cooling tower,

Designed to cool
The water back down

And produce more steam-based
Energy by burning coal.

*

We all recognize a cooling tower
When we see one,

We all recognize a cooling tower
When we see one,

And that's because they've got
That characteristic shape.

It's called a "Hyperboloid,"
This 3-d form

That's quite wide at the base,
And then kind of funnels in

Before coming back out again
At the top.

The reason they have this shape
Is because as the air,

The warm air, is drawn up
Through that tower,

It's accelerated through
That funnel, where it narrows,

And that draws more air in
From underneath -- cooler air --

Which does the job
Of a cooling tower.

Narrator:
So, will the I.M. Cooling
Tower's pioneering design

Help kick-start
Belgium's war-torn economy?

And why was it abandoned?

*

Narrator: in the city
Of charleroi, in belgium,

Is the power plant I.M.

To produce steam-based energy,
Its cooling tower

Is able to cool
An incredible

480,000 gallons of water
Every minute.

But this is only possible
Because of the unique use

Of its cone-like
Hyperboloid shape.

Of its cone-like
Hyperboloid shape.

The hyperboloid shape
Of a cooling tower

Is extremely effective
In terms of heat transfer

Between the hot water
And the rising air.

In that way, the design
Has persisted through time

As a very classical
And effective way

To do what you need to do.

*

Narrator:
For all its simplicity,

The cooling tower itself
Is no easy build.

The hyperboloid shape is not
Simply a matter of styling,

The hyperboloid shape is not
Simply a matter of styling,

But a brilliant solution to
Creating mass without weight.

So, creating these large,
Flowing, beautiful shapes

Is actually
Quite challenging,

Because if any of you have
Ever tried creating

That shape just on
A pottery wheel,

You know, that size,
It's really hard.

You're trying to use form work
And molds to create this.

You need to change the way
The mold fits the higher you go,

So that you get
Your curvy shape.

You're at a height,
As well,

You're at a height,
As well,

And you're trying to
Pour concrete down here.

And then, think about doing
All of that without computers.

You're basically sitting there
With a pencil

And a piece of paper,
Working out what you need to do,

And then doing it
On this really grand scale.

Narrator: the plant starts
Operating in 1921.

Hot water from
The plant's machinery

Is blasted into the tower
Through its central vent.

It's collected
In hundreds of shallow channels

It's collected
In hundreds of shallow channels

Designed to increase
Its surface area

And lower
Its temperature rapidly,

And with extreme economy.

*

They're using this principle
That hotter air is less dense,

And therefore, lighter,
And cooler air is more dense,

And therefore, heavier.

And so, what happens
In these towers

Is that the hot air rises up and
The cool air stays at the base.

And the shape here helps,

And the shape here helps,

And gives it a bit of
An aerodynamic quality

To allow this flow to happen
Very smoothly.

Narrator: by the early
20th century,

The new plant and its tower
Successfully power

A huge industrial expansion
In belgium.

But engineers at the time
Have no idea

That hanging over its future
Are two deadly byproducts.

The coal-powered plant produces
Alarmingly high co2 levels,

The coal-powered plant produces
Alarmingly high co2 levels,

And lurking in the channels of
The tower is a killer disease.

Inside a cooling tower,
It's warm, and it's damp.

And at the exact temperature,
In those conditions,

They can become
A breeding ground

For legionnaires' disease,
Which can be fatal.

Narrator:
Though no one dies,

The tower continues to operate
Effectively for 50 years.

But by 2007, the buildup
Of carbon dioxide emissions

But by 2007, the buildup
Of carbon dioxide emissions

From the charleroi plant
Rises to the incredible level

Of 10% of the co2
In belgium,

Which are
Unacceptable levels,

So it is forced
To close down.

Too unsafe and contaminated
To be repurposed,

The site lies abandoned.

*

Today, the futuristic appearance
Still amazes the few people

Today, the futuristic appearance
Still amazes the few people

Prepared to penetrate its
Daunting maze of concrete beams.

It is now being preserved
As a icon of design

For future generations.

After decades
Of being seen

As a piece of industrial
Engineering,

Its beauty has actually
Shone through,

And that's the reason
They now want to keep it.

Narrator: already nearly
A century old,

Narrator: already nearly
A century old,

Power plant I.M.
And its iconic cooling tower

Show that, when engineers
Get a design right,

It becomes timeless.

For me, I just love
The mathematical

And structural perfection
That these towers represent.