Abandoned places

Abandoned Underground Nuclear Submarine Base

Straight out of a James Bond movie. Until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 Balaklava was one of the most secret towns in Russia. 10km south eas of Sevastopol on the Black Sea Coast, this small town was the home to a Nuclear Submarine Base. Almost the entire population of Balaklava could not visit the town of Balaklava without good reason and identification. The base remained operational after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 until 1993 when the decommissioning process started and the warheads and low yield torpedos were removed. Then in 1996 the last Russian Submarine left the Base, and now you can go on Guided tours round the Cannel System, Base and small Museum, which is now housed in the old weapons stowage hangers deep inside the hillside

Staten Island Boat Graveyard

Off the shore of Staten Island New York rests a veritable graveyard of decommissioned, scrapped, and abandoned ships of various sizes, ages, and states of decay. Things are constantly changing here; new boats are brought in and old ones are chopped up or sunk into the muddy banks of the harbor.

The beauty here is in the untouched rust and rotting wood, where weather and salt water accelerates the rate of decay, transforming these ships of the past into sculptures of steel rising from their watery grave.

NRL Satellite Facility

In terms of industrial archeology, this is very recent. The NRL Satellite Facility is only 40 years old - and derelict.

In the mid-1960s the Naval Research Laboratory built an experimental satellite-communications facility at a former Nike missile control site near (W-45). The facility contained a 60-foot parabolic dish antenna, transmitters, and a low-noise receiving system. It was also equipped fully for satellite tracking, data processing, and communications modulation experiments. The installation was completed in 1967.

The facility was used during the Vietnam War as part of a special operation called "Compass Link", established by the Defense Communications Agency to pass high-quality target photography from Vietnam to Washington, DC. Compass link was established using two DSCSI satellites, providing two hops: Vietnam to Hawaii, and Hawaii to Maryland. From Maryland the imagery was transmitted by land line directly to the White House and the Pentagon. Compass Link was used extensively until the end of the Vietnam War.

The facility was decommissioned by the United States Government General Services Administration (GSA) and were publicly auctioned off in 1998 and then repurchased by a private investor in early 2000's.

The right to demolish and scrap the dishes and other structures was auctioned off on ebay on March 13, 2005 for $136.20. The buildings have been demolished and removed. All that remains are the two dishes, some storage tanks and a bunch of concrete slabs.

Cincinnati's Abandoned Subway System

The site of the country's largest abandoned subway tunnel. The subway was built and never used, no track was laid and no subway cars were ordered. No passengers ever rode between the six stations that were built.

Stalin's Lost Railway

Built under Stalin's order in the middle of nowhere - deep inside Northern Siberia between Salekhard city and Igarka town. It was not connected with any other Russian Federal Railway System and the purpose of it still is not very clear, so as a senseless toy it wayabandoned pretty soon and now rusts accessible only with a helicopter.

California Aircraft Boneyards

Excellent photo set from West Coast aircraft boneyards, where the stable dry climate is perfect to mothball large items such as aircraft, outdoors. The most famous of these is not in California, but in the dry desert of Arizona near Tucson.

Battersea Power Station

Famous to many as the building that appears on the cover of Pink Floyds Animals. Battersea power station was Designed by Gilbert Scott, who was also the architect of the Bankside power station that was developed into the Tate Modern, by Herzog and de Meuron. The superior architecture of Battersea has had a less successful outcome. Aggressive developers ripped out the beautiful art deco control room to try and turn it into a condo development in the 80's.

Abandoned SFO

The abandoned International terminal at San Francisco International Airport.
This structure first opened in 1954 and was renovated and converted to international flights only in the early 80s. Closed since 2002 and sealed from the public when the new terminal opened. There's still a few lights on, but most of the disco-era fixtures and furniture are gone

Abandoned Island Fortress

Fort Alexander sits abandoned on a man-made island off the shore of St. Petersburg. Constructed in the 1800s, the fort has over 100 cannon ports providing 360-degree defense. After the Crimean War it was initially used as a military storehouse before being converted by the Soviets into a dangerous plague research center due to its physical isolation from the mainland. The fort is now deserted and most of its interior objects have been stripped and metal has been melted down for other uses. Even now, however, visitors coming by boat (or snowmobile) are advised to wear a respirator and rubber boots.

Giant Soviet Excavation Machine

The abandoned Lopatino Phosphate Mines. Located close to the Voskresensk city (70 km from Moscow), the area is still famous for its fossil beds (and even dinosaur skeletons) from the Jurassic period. This is what they called heavy machinery in Soviet Russia. This giant excavation device was used for exploitation of phosphorus-field somewhere near Moscow and abandoned after the collapse of the USSR.