pureheart
11-11-2009, 11:53 AM
Unlike many other large cities, Los Angeles does not have an extensive underground network of tunnels. Subways exist (notably the Red and Orange Lines), but most public transportation is conducted by above ground rail or bus. Large sewer networks and access tunnels have, of course, been carved, but the massive tunnels of the old sewers have been bricked up for years. For reasons no one can positively identify, Los Angeles is a city that avoids looking underground. There are, of course, many practical reasons (from geology, to finance, to economic viability and government corruption) for this, but many cannot help but wonder if something else is responsible.
Regardless of the efforts of city government and police to keep things quiet, stories persist. Stories of abandoned tunnels, storage bunkers, lost crypts and forgotten platforms constructed or discovered when the subways were first being carved, only later to be sealed away. And if you look out the window in just the right spot you can catch a glimpse of strange things as the train passes. Abandoned platforms, empty tunnels, boltholes, fallout shelters, and even stranger things.
For example, a proposed line to Santa Monica was abruptly abandoned during construction. Officially a geological instability that resulted in the loss of a boring machine created concerns about the tunnel’s safety, thus forcing its closing. Unofficially, the workers that had built the tunnel were given a generous severance package, quietly split up, then let go. The tunnel plans have subsequently been “lost” by the Department of Transportation. Other stories from the 1940s discuss the discovery of a body washed out into the bay. Although not a terribly uncommon event, a subsequent search of the sewers discovered several other bodies (mostly of the homeless) that appeared to have been mauled to death, though zoologists failed to identify what had inflicted the wounds. The animal responsible was never found, but workers reported seeing strange things and hearing odd noises out of the shadows. Four months later the Department of Sanitation ordered several sections sealed off without explanation. In the seventies some of these tunnels were reopened and searched by police, but within a few weeks were sealed again. No one, not even work crews, have set foot in the tunnels since.
Most people scoff at such tales, and even vampires are skeptical, but sires tell their childer to beware the underground, just in case. Hopi legends were said to describe a race of “lizard people” who built three great underground cities near the Pacific Coast, including one beneath Los Angeles, some 5,000 years ago. In 1934, mining engineer W. Warren Shufeld took up the cause of researching these legends and locating the cities. Shufeld reported that the city beneath Los Angeles was laid out in the shape of a lizard that extended from Dodger Stadium to the downtown Central Library. Using a device Shufeld called a “radio X-ray,” he claimed to have located tunnels and a treasure room beneath Fort Moore Hill in downtown Los Angeles. After acquiring funds to do some excavating, Shufeld obtained permission from the authorities to drill a 350-foot shaft. The work was interrupted by cave-in concerns and, shortly thereafter, Shufeld disappeared.
Still, the curious flock into the subways and the old sewers seeking some inkling of the truth, whatever it may be. Most return with nothing but filth, or perhaps some interesting stories. Others never return at all. A small group of loosely aligned vampires, known as the Tunnel Rats, do make their lairs underground, but these strange Kindred do not speak of what, if anything, they have ever encountered. Yet the filthy, bedraggled, and more than slightly insane look that many of these vampires sport leads some to wonder…
http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/la-requiem/wikis/underground-la
Other stories here:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2009/04/gold-hunters-dig-for-lost-underground-empire-of-the-lizard-people.html
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sumer_anunnaki/reptiles/reptiles27.htm
Does anybody here live in LA and have any comment?
Regardless of the efforts of city government and police to keep things quiet, stories persist. Stories of abandoned tunnels, storage bunkers, lost crypts and forgotten platforms constructed or discovered when the subways were first being carved, only later to be sealed away. And if you look out the window in just the right spot you can catch a glimpse of strange things as the train passes. Abandoned platforms, empty tunnels, boltholes, fallout shelters, and even stranger things.
For example, a proposed line to Santa Monica was abruptly abandoned during construction. Officially a geological instability that resulted in the loss of a boring machine created concerns about the tunnel’s safety, thus forcing its closing. Unofficially, the workers that had built the tunnel were given a generous severance package, quietly split up, then let go. The tunnel plans have subsequently been “lost” by the Department of Transportation. Other stories from the 1940s discuss the discovery of a body washed out into the bay. Although not a terribly uncommon event, a subsequent search of the sewers discovered several other bodies (mostly of the homeless) that appeared to have been mauled to death, though zoologists failed to identify what had inflicted the wounds. The animal responsible was never found, but workers reported seeing strange things and hearing odd noises out of the shadows. Four months later the Department of Sanitation ordered several sections sealed off without explanation. In the seventies some of these tunnels were reopened and searched by police, but within a few weeks were sealed again. No one, not even work crews, have set foot in the tunnels since.
Most people scoff at such tales, and even vampires are skeptical, but sires tell their childer to beware the underground, just in case. Hopi legends were said to describe a race of “lizard people” who built three great underground cities near the Pacific Coast, including one beneath Los Angeles, some 5,000 years ago. In 1934, mining engineer W. Warren Shufeld took up the cause of researching these legends and locating the cities. Shufeld reported that the city beneath Los Angeles was laid out in the shape of a lizard that extended from Dodger Stadium to the downtown Central Library. Using a device Shufeld called a “radio X-ray,” he claimed to have located tunnels and a treasure room beneath Fort Moore Hill in downtown Los Angeles. After acquiring funds to do some excavating, Shufeld obtained permission from the authorities to drill a 350-foot shaft. The work was interrupted by cave-in concerns and, shortly thereafter, Shufeld disappeared.
Still, the curious flock into the subways and the old sewers seeking some inkling of the truth, whatever it may be. Most return with nothing but filth, or perhaps some interesting stories. Others never return at all. A small group of loosely aligned vampires, known as the Tunnel Rats, do make their lairs underground, but these strange Kindred do not speak of what, if anything, they have ever encountered. Yet the filthy, bedraggled, and more than slightly insane look that many of these vampires sport leads some to wonder…
http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/la-requiem/wikis/underground-la
Other stories here:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2009/04/gold-hunters-dig-for-lost-underground-empire-of-the-lizard-people.html
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sumer_anunnaki/reptiles/reptiles27.htm
Does anybody here live in LA and have any comment?