TOP-SECRET – National Counterterrorism Center Says Urban Exploration Could “Aid Terrorists”

Public Intelligence

The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) is warning law enforcement and first responders that urban exploration, an activity that involves trying to gain access to restricted or abandoned man-made structures, can provide useful information for terrorists conducting surveillance of a potential target. Also known as “building hacking”, urban exploration has been around in its modern form for decades, tracing some its recent history to post-war exploration of the Parisian catacombs and members of MIT’s Tech Model Railroad Club Signals and Power Subcommittee, who organized explorations of steam tunnels and rooftops around campus in the late 1950s.

In an advisory released to law enforcement in November 2012 titled Urban Exploration Offers Insight Into Critical Infrastructure Vulnerabilities, the NCTC warns of the potential risks posed by urban explorers and their online posting of photos and videos depicting their exploration. The NCTC document describes urban explorers as “hobbyists who seek illicit access to transportation and industrial facilities in urban areas” including rooftops, utility tunnels and bridges. According to the NCTC, photos and videos posted online by urban explorers “could be used by terrorists to remotely identify and surveil potential targets” which could “aid terrorists in pinpointing locations in dense urban environments.” The document also makes specific reference to the advancement of navigation and mapping technology, including three-dimensional modeling and geo-tagging, as potentially aiding terrorists to conduct online surveillance of a target. Corporate websites can often provide “information about buildings” and “social media postings of explorers’ activity often identify access points and security flaws” that could be exploited by terrorists.  A 2010 bulletin issued by the Department of Homeland Security expressed similar concerns about the use of Google Earth and other publicly available mapping software for terrorist surveillance.  The bulletin stated that “live Web-based camera feeds combined with street-level and direct overhead imagery views from Internet imagery sites allow terrorists to conduct remote surveillance of multiple potential targets without exposing themselves to detection.”

The NCTC advisory also lists several locations, such as bridges, utility tunnels, rooftops and subways, where an urban explorer might reveal “security flaws”. Along with each location, there is a list of potential access locations and security vulnerabilities that the NCTC believes an urban explorer’s postings could potentially reveal. For example, urban explorers could discover and document the use of a bridge’s “ladders, crosswalk scaffoldings, trap doors, scuttles, and hatches” and reveal methods of accessing “structural components, including caissons (the structures that house the anchor points of a bridge suspension system), to identify weaknesses.”

Past activities by urban explorers have occasionally been mistaken for potential terrorist activity. In 2011 four men were arrested in London for “suspicion of railway trespass and burglary” after they were found near an elevator used by private contractors working on the rail lines for the London Underground. The men were arrested at the Russell Square station, one of the locations of the 7/7 terrorist attacks, after security camera operators saw the men in dark clothing with cameras and feared preparations for a terrorist attack around the upcoming royal wedding between Prince William and Catherine Middleton. A few months later, four men were arrested in New York City for criminal trespass after a local resident saw them “carrying Roman candles and cameras” into the Second Avenue Subway tunnel. The men identified themselves as urban explorers and said they planned to use the Roman candles for lighting photographs.

Urban Exploration TimelineThis guide is aimed at chronicling the history of exploring neglected and off-limits areas as well as the history of modern urban exploration culture. Sorry this guide is still a little biased towards English-speaking countries, but so far most contributors have been English speakers. If you have any corrections or suggestions, please get in touch.
Date	Event
Nov 1793	Philibert Aspairt, considered by some the first cataphile, becomes lost while exploring the Parisian catacombs by candlelight. His body is found 11 years later.
1861	Writing in the Brooklyn Standard, poet Walt Whitman describes his visit to Brooklyn’s recently abandoned Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, which in 1844 had been built as the first subway tunnel in the world.
1904	One week after the opening of the subway system, New Yorker Leidschmudel Dreispul is killed by an oncoming train while exploring the new tunnels. The Interborough Rapid Transit company responds by erecting “no trespassing” signs throughout the system.
1916	Harry H. Gardiner, “The Human Fly”, climbs 12 floors and 211 feet up the side of Detroit’s Majestic Building, thereby becoming the first builderer in recorded history.
1921	In perhaps the first organized group expedition to an abandoned building, Dadaists including Andre Breton, Paul Eluard, Francis Picabia and Tristan Tzara organize a trip to the deserted and little-known church of St. Julien le Pauvre in Paris. In promoting the event, the Dadaists promise to remedy “the incompetence of suspect guides and cicerones”, offering instead a series of visits to selected sites, “particularly those which really have no reason for existing”.
1955	Guy Debord publishes his Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography, and develops a practice called dérive, which consists of travelling through urban environments and noting psychogeographical variations. In the decade that follows, members of the left-leaning Situationist International movement argue that society consists largely of passive spectators and consumers of packaged experiences, and suggest that individuals can shake up this state of affairs by engaging in creative play.
1959	In the US, members of MIT’s Tech Model Railroad Club’s Signals and Power subcommittee engage in semi-systematic excursions into steam tunnels and rooftops around campus, a practice they call “hacking”.
1968	Inspired by the publications of the French resistance that operated through the catacomb network during WWII, Parisian cataphiles begin adopting pseudonyms and communicating with each other through printed paper leaflets they call tracts.
1971	Secretly entering Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral at night, Philippe Petit stretches a steel cable between its towers. The next morning he crosses this improvised high wire, only to be arrested upon descending. Three years later, Petit duplicates his stunt between the twin towers of New York City’s World Trade Center.
1977	The San Francisco Suicide Club, a group which lists “fringe exploration” among its many aims, is founded in San Francisco. This group eventually becomes the Cacophony Society.
1980	Eighteen-year-old rail historian Bob Diamond rediscovers Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, which had been sealed up and forgotten since 1861.
1981	Responding to a challenge by a fire marshal who states “Until you climb a building, don’t tell me how to perform a rescue in a high rise building”, Dan Goodwin, aka “Spiderman”, climbs Chicago’s Sears Tower, becoming the first climber to use suction cups to climb glass windows.
1985	In Australia, Sydney drain explorer Rolf Adams begins writing the Sydney Pseudokarst (“false cave”) series in the newsletter of the Sydney University Speleological Society.
Jan 1986	In Australia, Melbourne cave enthusiasts Doug, Sloth and Woody found the Cave Clan, and soon begin exploring storm drains and other man-made caves as well as natural ones. Over the next decade, the Cave Clan absorbs other, smaller draining groups.
May 1987	Members of the Cave Clan discover the drain they dub The Maze, arguably the best storm drain in Australia.
Apr 1989	The first Annual Cave Clan Clannie Awards are held in Melbourne’s ANZAC drain.
Jul 1989	In Australia, Doug publishes the first issue of Il Draino, the Cave Clan newsletter.
1990	In Russia, Moscow-area explorer Vadim Mikhailov and his fellow subterranean explorers form the group Diggers of the Underground Planet.
1990	Eric Bagai publishes an essay called “The First Hackers” in a book called What I Did With My Trash: Ten Years With a TRS-80. Although not widely read, the essay has the distinction of being perhaps the earliest written explanation of what urban exploration is all about.
Sep 1990	Outdoorsman Alan S. North writes The Urban Adventure Handbook, a guide in which he encourages people to climb buildings and explore the city as an accessible alternative to climbing mountains and exploring wilderness. Although not widely read, the handbook inspires a few people to begin using the term “urban adventure” in their writings.
May 1991	After finding a Cave Clan sticker in a drain under Sydney, Predator forms the group’s first official interstate branch, the Sydney Cave Clan. In following years, the Cave Clan founds branches in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth and Hobart.
1994	The Diggers of the Underground Planet find Moscow’s fabled, but officially denied, “Metro-2” subway system. The seven-level-deep system was built in the Stalin era to allow Kremlin officials to evacuate the city quickly.
1994	In the US, Dug Song and Greg Shewchuk publish the first issue of Samizdat, a zine featuring urban stunts involving tunnels and rooftops. They publish two issues before going on permanent hiatus.
1994	In Australia, the Bunker Boyz, a group dedicated to exploring abandoned bunkers and military tunnels, is founded in Sydney.
Feb 1994	The newsgroup alt.college.tunnels is founded and the first message is posted. Early posters include later UE fixtures Eric Chien, Ben Hines and Matthew Landry.
Mar 1995	Kevin Kelm establishes the website Abandoned Missile Base VR Tour, which quickly becomes very popular.
1996	In Russia, the Diggers of the Underground Planet officially register with the Moscow government as the “Center of Underground Research”.
1996	Wes Modes puts up a website called Adventuring, archiving his writings about freighthopping and buildering. The site brings the term “urban adventure” from North’s book to the web.
Apr 1996	Ben Hines puts up the website College Tunnels WWW Resource Site, the official web counterpart to the alt.college.tunnels newsgroup.
Sep 1996	In the US, Max Action and his fellow University of Minnesota explorers form the group “Adventure Squad”, which they later rename Action Squad.
Oct 1996	Ninjalicious publishes the first issue of the paper zine Infiltration. In the editorial of the first issue, he coins the term “urban exploration” and introduces the idea of exploring off-limits areas of all types as a hobby.
Nov 1996	The newsgroup uk.rec.subterranea is founded and the charter is created.
1997	With the third issue of their magazine Jinx, long-time New York City explorers Lefty Leibowitz and L.B. Deyo begin featuring articles on urban mountaineering and exploration. Jinx goes online at planetjinx.com (later jinxmagazine.com).
Apr 1997	Ninjalicious establishes an Elevator Action-themed website for Infiltration and links his site to five or six other sites he finds related to exploring storm drains, college steam tunnels or abandoned buildings.
Jul 1997	In response to increasing spam on the newsgroup alt.college.tunnels, Paul Allen Rice establishes a mailing list where vadders can discuss college tunnels and any manmade underground structures, the Underground list.
Aug 1997	Melbourne explorer Gunny establishes a website for the Cave Clan and annoys some members of the Melbourne Cave Clan by publishing its location lists. Following this controversy, Gunny and Silk go independent and establish the website of the Melbourne Drain Team.
Sep 1997	Berliner Unterwelten, or the Berlin Underground Association, is founded in Germany.
Sep 1997	Ninjalicious establishes the infiltration-l mailing list, which is devoted to exploration of off-limits areas both above and below ground.
Sep 1997	In Scotland, the Milk Grate Gang forms with the purpose of exploring the Glaswegian underworld, and places its adventures online at Subterranean Glasgow.
1998	Explorer and photographer Stanley Greenberg publishes Invisible New York: The Hidden Infrastructure of the City.
Feb 1998	Gunny and Lord Emor of the Melbourne Drain Team establish the Draining webring. In May, Emor hands the ring over to Ninjalicious, who expands the ring’s scope by renaming it the Urban Exploration Ring. The renamed ring quickly expands from six to eighteen websites across Australia, Canada, the US and Britain.
Sep 1998	Wanting to conceal his identity from some people who are harrassing him, Gunny adopts the persona of a New York-based science fiction author named “Johnathan Littell”. Later shedding this identity and adopting the alias Panic, the Melbourne-based explorer apologizes for having mislead people about his identity, explaining “This was done more out of self preservation and an attempt to continue to take an active part in the UE community than an attempt to hurt, mislead or deceive people.”
Dec 1998	Julia Solis establishes a Dark Passage website.
Dec 1998	Yahoo stops lumping 30+ exploration sites into the category Recreation:Cool Links:Recreation and Sports, and creates a new category, Recreation:Hobbies:Urban Exploration.
Dec 1998	German explorers Dietmar and Ingmar Arnold, of Berliner Underwelten, publish Dunkle Welten, a German-language guide to the worlds beneath Berlin.
Jan 1999	Ninjalicious establishes the Infilnews mailing list and sends out the first edition of a semiannual e-mail newsletter covering events of interest to urban explorers.
Mar 1999	Paul Allen Rice creates the domain Urbanexplorers.net, and a website containing many useful links for college tunnelers goes online there shortly afterwards.
Apr 1999	Julia Solis and her explorer friends stage an event called “Dark Passage” in the subway tunnels beneath New York City.
Jun 1999	The Sydney Cave Clan holds the first Golden Torch Awards awards night at the Glebe Island Silos.
Aug 1999	Members of the Sydney Cave Clan publish the first issue of the zine Urbex. They publish three more issues on paper before switching to an electronic format.
2000	Lefty and L.B. found the Jinx Athenaeum Society, which convenes in New York City to hear speeches and debates of interest to urban explorers and others.
2000	Eku Wand and Dietmar Arnold, of Berliner Unterwelten, release Berlin im Untergrund: Potsdamer Platz, an interactive multimedia CD offering tours of subterranean Berlin.
Aug 2000	Minneapolis-area explorers from Mouser’s Under-MN mailing list convene for the first Mouser Week, a weeklong festival of group exploration.
Aug 2000	Canadian explorer Mr. Sable creates a public MSN group and invites members of the Urban Exploration Ring to sign up in order to exchange messages, links and photos. The group, called Urban Explorers, quickly grows to include a membership of more than 100 explorers from Australia, Canada, the UK, the USA, Ireland, France and Holland. An Australian subgroup, Urban Exploration Australia, is also popular for a time, until it is censored by Microsoft.
Oct 2000	Max Action puts up a website for Action Squad.
2001	Julia Solis stumbles upon an unmoderated DMOZ category called “Urban Speleology”, which she adopts and adapts to urban exploration.
Aug 2001	Max Action finds a vast maze of interconnected utility tunnel systems under Minneapolis and St. Paul that he dubs the Labyrinth, and over the next two years, Action Squad thoroughly explores (and Jim Hollison thoroughly maps) the system.
Sep 2001	Terrorists attack the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, and the US and the world go on high alert.
Jan 2002	Ben Brockert establishes a UE News section of his website, but abandons it a few weeks later due to lack of user participation.
Mar 2002	Daniel Joseph Konopka, who had been in touch with the Chicago Urban Exploration group, is arrested after being found with hazardous chemicals in the tunnels under the University of Illinois at Chicago; he is subsequently sentenced to 13 years in prison for having stored cyanide in Chicago’s subway tunnels. Konopka tells authorities he found the cyanide while engaged in urban exploration at an abandoned warehouse in Chicago.
Spring 2002	New York City’s LTV Squad, a graffiti-turned-exploration crew, holds its first spring invitational, gathering 30+ explorers for a day of exploring and socializing in Brooklyn.
Summer 2002	Explorers establish stronger international ties when Canadian Agent K visits Australia, American Jim Hollison and various members of the Australian Cave Clan visit Europe, and Australians Gilligan and Panic independently visit both Europe and North America.
Aug 2002	Julia Solis and her collaborators in New York City form Ars Subterranea, a society populated by artists, architects, historians and urban explorers.
Sep 2002	Julia Solis publishes New York Underground: Anatomie Einer Stadt, a German-language book about subterranean New York City.
Oct 2002	When 922 audience members are taken hostage by Chechen rebels during a performance at a Moscow theatre, Vadim Mikhailov, of the Diggers of the Underground Planet, leads the Russian authorities into the theatre by a little-known underground route.
Nov 2002	Ars Subterranea holds its inaugural event, an exhibit on Underground New York, in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue tunnel.
Nov 2002	Avatar-X launches the website Urban Exploration Resource, and creates a message forum that can be shared across multiple websites. Several other Canadian websites soon begin to use UER’s message board system. Before long, UER replaces the MSN message board as the net’s largest and most active exploration message board.
Mar 2003	Doug launches a full-colour publication called The Cave Clan Magazine and prints 100 copies of the premiere issue.
Mar 2003	Max Action records and releases versions one and two of “UE Favorite Things”, a song which quickly becomes an anthem of sorts.
Apr 2003	The 15th Annual Cave Clan Clannie Awards are held.
Apr 2003	Explorer and photographer Stanley Greenberg publishes Waterworks: A Photographic Journey Through New York’s Hidden Water System.
May 2003	Frustrated by infighting between various branches of the Cave Clan, and particularly the increasing independence of the large and important Sydney branch, Doug quits as editor of Il Draino and hands the publication over to Beanz.
Jul 2003	Jinx releases its book, Invisible Frontier: Exploring the Tunnels, Ruins & Rooftops of Hidden New York.
Aug 2003	An unidentified satirist debuts the website of the Secret Urban Exploration Ninja Mafia, thoroughly mocking the boasting and illiteracy that have become common on some exploration websites and message boards.
Oct 2003	Explorers John Gray and Mark Gerrity publish Abandoned Asylums of New England, a photography book containing more than 220 images of New England asylums.
Apr 2004	The owners of the site Urban Exploration Alberta take most of their content offline after learning that information on their site was used by criminals.
May 2004	Webmasters White Rabbit, of Underground Ozarks, and Mike Dijital, of Abandon Spaces, take their sites offline after being separately threatened with trespassing charges based on information on their sites.
June 2004	Roughly 65 explorers from across North America and a couple from beyond converge on Toronto for a successful four-day exploration convention trickily-titled Office Products Expo 94.
July 2004	A smaller group of explorers from the US and Canada meet up in Rhinebeck, NY, for a weekend of abandonment exploration dubbed NEOPEX (North East Office Products Expo).
Dec 2004	Roughly a dozen explorers convene in Orlando, Florida to attend a successful three-day event called Sexfest (South Eastern eXploration Festival).
Jul 2005	Explorers from the world over unite again for a weekend of exploration and seminars in Montreal, Quebec, organized by the fine people at Urban Exploration Montreal. This year’s event is, naturally, named Office Products Expo 95.
Aug 2005	Ninjalicious publishes Access All Areas: a user’s guide to the art of urban exploration, a more than 240-page book full of UE knowledge, advice and theory.
Aug 2005	Ninjalicious, founder of Infiltration zine and infiltration.org, dies of cancer in Toronto at the age of 31.

For a longer-term and more fun version of this history, check out Max Action’s delightful Rambling Essay on the Past, Present and Future of Urban Exploration.