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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:02,240 --> 00:00:05,360 Tom ward (narrates): A country village eerily empty 2 00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:07,320 which hides a sad secret. 3 00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:10,440 All of the citizens of this village 4 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:13,800 have just been made to disappear at a stroke. 5 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:18,920 A mysterious tower battered by the elements and scarred by war. 6 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:24,240 You're out here really in the middle of nowhere. 7 00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:27,400 A town ravaged, 8 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:30,480 desolate and forgotten decaying in the desert. 9 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:35,760 Why on earth would anyone choose to build a town 10 00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:37,600 in such a remote location? 11 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:44,480 And a disused railway deep beneath the streets of London. 12 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:47,360 There's actually a hidden system, 13 00:00:47,400 --> 00:00:48,760 a hidden system of tunnels 14 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:51,040 that you don't get to see they're there. 15 00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:57,280 Once they were some of the most advanced structures 16 00:00:57,320 --> 00:00:59,480 and facilities on the planet, 17 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:02,720 at the cutting edge of design and construction. 18 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:08,520 Today they stand abandoned, contaminated and sometimes deadly. 19 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:10,840 But who built them and how 20 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:12,880 and why were they abandoned? 21 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:19,080 (Theme music) 22 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:37,560 On the south west coast of england 23 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:40,120 almost 200km from London 24 00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:43,760 is what looks like a normal English country village. 25 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:44,880 But it's not. 26 00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:54,400 The village pond looks like any other village pond in england 27 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:56,960 except there's no wildlife there. 28 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:01,480 There are no ducks, it's eerily empty. 29 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:05,280 (Rattles) 30 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:07,320 The feeling is very much 31 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:11,280 as though all of the citizens of this village 32 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:14,400 have just been made to disappear at a stroke. 33 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:16,200 (Eerie music) 34 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:19,600 Travel further in and it gets even stranger. 35 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:23,240 A few hundred yards from the village green 36 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:25,800 is a school that looks perfectly preserved. 37 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:30,760 The desks are still there, the books are still there, 38 00:02:30,800 --> 00:02:33,480 it's laid out as if the children had only been there yesterday. 39 00:02:37,040 --> 00:02:38,240 There are still pegs 40 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:41,040 with their names on out in the corridor. 41 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:43,320 It feels as if it's a school that's still being used 42 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:45,200 but from another age. 43 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:49,440 You get the feeling that it's break time 44 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:51,720 and the children have just gone through the door 45 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:53,880 and are running about outside playing. 46 00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:57,960 The village church too, is in perfect condition. 47 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:03,000 The pew seats seem freshly polished. 48 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:05,520 And the stained glass windows are as immaculate 49 00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:07,000 as when they were first installed. 50 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:10,560 And that's not all. 51 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:17,880 In the middle of the village there's an old white telephone box 52 00:03:17,920 --> 00:03:21,240 which seems something of an oddity in this day and age 53 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:24,120 and even more odd is the local story 54 00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:28,360 that even though it was disconnected decades ago it still rings. 55 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:30,840 (Telephone rings) 56 00:03:30,880 --> 00:03:33,880 But other buildings hint at a darker past. 57 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:36,560 Such as the cottages 58 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:38,960 which are little more than empty shells. 59 00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:43,880 And these are in an unusual state of disrepair, 60 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:45,800 the roofs have gone, the fittings have gone, 61 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:46,880 the windows have gone 62 00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:49,680 but yet at the same time these wrecks, 63 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:52,160 these husks have been strengthened. 64 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:58,680 It's almost as though somebody is about to film a movie 65 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:01,480 about 1930s england. 66 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:06,360 Why on earth are these buildings like this? 67 00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:07,640 How can you have 68 00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:09,560 a little school room that looks intact, 69 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:13,000 a church that looks intact but a lot of ruined cottages? 70 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:16,416 What could have happened to leave the village 71 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:18,080 so completely abandoned? 72 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:27,720 To find out what's behind the mystery, 73 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:29,840 we need to go back to a single day 74 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:32,680 that would change the course of world war ii. 75 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:37,720 In 1943, britain was at war. 76 00:04:37,760 --> 00:04:40,920 To win, the allies had to invade France 77 00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:43,720 and liberate north west Europe from Nazi control. 78 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:50,480 The first phase was code named operation Neptune 79 00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:54,040 but it's known to history but its legendary name d-day. 80 00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:58,040 It was an enormous undertaking that would require 81 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:00,480 unprecedented planning and training 82 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:02,760 if it was to have any chance of success. 83 00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:08,120 The scale of the preparations certainly overwhelms the mind. 84 00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:12,960 Tens of thousands of troops found themselves billeted 85 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:14,960 mainly in the south of england 86 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:16,920 to be put through the intensive training 87 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:18,800 they'd need to make the invasion. 88 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:23,640 Very few of them knew when or where it would be made, 89 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:25,200 they just knew it was coming. 90 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:31,200 It was a daunting prospect for the British army. 91 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:33,240 They had to train vast numbers of recruits, 92 00:05:33,280 --> 00:05:36,000 many of whom hadn't seen combat before 93 00:05:36,040 --> 00:05:40,200 and they needed space and terrain and environments that were fitting 94 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:41,976 and that were like what they were going to face 95 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:43,280 when they arrived in France. 96 00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:46,920 But what does all this have to do 97 00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:50,720 with a small and isolated village in rural england, 98 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:53,160 a world away from the bullets and shells 99 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:54,480 and chaos of war. 100 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:01,240 By 1943 the south coast of england 101 00:06:01,280 --> 00:06:04,840 had been transformed into an armed camp, 102 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:08,200 11 million acres, much of it farmland, 103 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:11,800 became air fields, camps and training grounds. 104 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:16,200 And even more land was needed 105 00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:19,920 particularly to train British and American tank crews. 106 00:06:22,280 --> 00:06:24,440 If you're training people to operate tanks 107 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:27,280 it's not enough to just learn how to drive it. 108 00:06:27,320 --> 00:06:29,216 The really key thing is learning how to shoot it. 109 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:34,960 So, you need long distances to practice firing those shells 110 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:38,640 where you're not gonna hit anything you don't want to hit. 111 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:42,800 And this was the ideal location. 112 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:49,480 It was remote and situated close to a firing range. 113 00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:51,720 It was the village of tyneham. 114 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:56,280 The only stumbling block 115 00:06:56,320 --> 00:06:58,880 was that 200 people lived in the village. 116 00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:04,120 How do you tell them they need to leave their homes, 117 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:06,440 their jobs and their neighbours for good? 118 00:07:10,200 --> 00:07:12,800 Lynda price, a local historian, 119 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:15,680 has spoken to many former village residents. 120 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:20,800 The final blow 121 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:24,800 came in November, 1943. 122 00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:28,040 And totally out of the blue, they all got a letter. 123 00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:35,240 They came from a gentleman from southern command and on it, 124 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:40,000 he said that the area was needed for military training 125 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:43,240 and they had basically a month to get out. 126 00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:46,040 It must have been heart breaking. 127 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:50,240 These were people who'd lived in this village for generations 128 00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:53,080 and all of a sudden to be uprooted and told that you have to leave. 129 00:07:53,120 --> 00:07:55,200 And they expected to come back, 130 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:56,856 you know, that's what's very poignant about it. 131 00:07:56,880 --> 00:07:59,200 They thought the war would end and they would come back 132 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:01,040 and all would be as it was. 133 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:05,880 But why exactly 134 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:08,440 did the ministry of defence choose tyneham? 135 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:14,600 Tyneham was a backwater in a backwater. 136 00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:18,560 I mean, it was practically off the map. 137 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:20,360 They didn't have electricity, 138 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:23,320 most of them didn't even have indoor plumbing. 139 00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:25,560 People forget how primitive 140 00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:27,840 the English countryside could be back in that era. 141 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:31,240 They lived in little cottages, 142 00:08:31,280 --> 00:08:34,280 most of which were owned by the land owner, 143 00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:37,720 in fact the whole estate was owned by the bond family 144 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:40,160 and most of these people, 145 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:42,320 their lives would have been tied into the bonds. 146 00:08:45,560 --> 00:08:49,120 So, in some senses, it was already a way of life 147 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:52,560 that was passing or perhaps for most people even passed. 148 00:08:56,320 --> 00:08:59,240 So, the inhabitants were simply ordered to leave 149 00:08:59,280 --> 00:09:00,360 by the British government. 150 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:05,080 By why then is so much of the village destroyed 151 00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:07,640 while other parts are almost perfectly preserved? 152 00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:12,560 The army knew that the church was vulnerable to attack 153 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:13,760 in the run up to d-day. 154 00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:18,120 They removed the heavy oak pulpit and the pews 155 00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:21,000 and carefully transported the stained glass 156 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:22,120 to a place of safety. 157 00:09:27,560 --> 00:09:29,680 Tyneham is now abandoned 158 00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:31,720 although it hasn't been completely forgotten. 159 00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:37,280 The sacrifices of the villagers certainly helped the allies 160 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:39,920 make a vital step towards final victory. 161 00:09:44,400 --> 00:09:46,960 The morning of 6 June, 1944 162 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:50,160 was like no other the war had ever seen. 163 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:52,680 Over 150,000 English, 164 00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:55,800 American, Canadian and other soldiers boarded ships, 165 00:09:55,840 --> 00:09:59,920 vessels, barges of all descriptions and attacked the French coast. 166 00:10:02,480 --> 00:10:04,160 By the time the battle there was over 167 00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:07,000 and the forces were able to push down into France, 168 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:09,920 the course of the war had been changed forever. 169 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:14,200 D-Day was a resounding success 170 00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:17,920 but the villagers weren't the only ones who'd made sacrifices. 171 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:20,520 Two and a half thousand us troops, 172 00:10:20,560 --> 00:10:23,160 many of whom had trained at tyneham, 173 00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:25,400 lost their lives on Omaha beach. 174 00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:37,520 After the war tyneham continued to be used 175 00:10:37,560 --> 00:10:40,600 as a training ground for tank crews. 176 00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:43,120 And so, the villagers were never allowed back. 177 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:47,440 However in these more peaceful times, 178 00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:49,720 the village is open to visitors. 179 00:10:52,280 --> 00:10:54,200 When I look at tyneham, 180 00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:57,960 what I think about is how much dislocation, 181 00:10:58,000 --> 00:10:59,240 how much destruction, 182 00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:03,960 what a human cost there is even to winning a war, 183 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:06,720 even to non-combatance. 184 00:11:06,760 --> 00:11:10,120 The level of self sacrifice that was necessary 185 00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:13,000 to conduct the kind of total war 186 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:15,760 that was required to defeat the Nazis, 187 00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:19,800 that kind of effort boggles the modern mind. 188 00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:31,480 Twenty seven kilometres west of mackinaw city 189 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:34,760 at the northern tip of lake Michigan in the usa 190 00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:36,960 is a peculiar tower like structure. 191 00:11:43,120 --> 00:11:44,160 A mountain, 192 00:11:44,200 --> 00:11:49,440 a rock sticking out of a vast cold lake. 193 00:11:52,480 --> 00:11:56,040 You're out here really in the middle of nowhere. 194 00:11:57,960 --> 00:12:00,200 And here, standing out in the water 195 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:04,280 is this odd kind of half-broken down structure 196 00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:06,080 that's kind of crumbling around the edges. 197 00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:12,400 Sometimes dazzling sunshine reflects from the water 198 00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:13,960 on to the concrete and brick. 199 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:19,000 But rubble and dead birds litter its interior. 200 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:27,800 It's made up of three sections which each contain a mystery. 201 00:12:30,120 --> 00:12:32,920 What was enclosed in the caged top? 202 00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:35,080 And the height of the tower itself, 203 00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:38,200 height always creates a vantage point but for what? 204 00:12:38,240 --> 00:12:40,840 Attack, defence, a warning? 205 00:12:43,600 --> 00:12:44,640 Look closely 206 00:12:44,680 --> 00:12:47,360 and a more perplexing picture emerges. 207 00:12:48,640 --> 00:12:51,840 On the walls are large ominous looking cracks. 208 00:12:52,880 --> 00:12:55,680 Inside everything's been stripped out 209 00:12:55,720 --> 00:12:57,760 apart from strange metal piping. 210 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:02,560 And some say it is haunted by the ghost of a man 211 00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:04,000 who met a mysterious end. 212 00:13:06,720 --> 00:13:09,000 The amount of damage on a tower suggests 213 00:13:09,040 --> 00:13:12,240 it's been weathered more than just harsh winters. 214 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:17,000 And although the pitted base may well be from crashing waves, 215 00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:20,280 is there another reason why great chunks are missing? 216 00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:27,240 I mean look at that, a remote tower 217 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:30,880 in the middle of nowhere in america, 218 00:13:30,920 --> 00:13:34,640 the last thing you expect to see is battle damage. 219 00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:44,800 The roots of this strange story can be found in trade 220 00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:46,640 and its importance to the Great Lakes 221 00:13:46,680 --> 00:13:48,720 during the early 19th century. 222 00:13:51,280 --> 00:13:54,360 Before america builds railways, 223 00:13:54,400 --> 00:13:57,600 america's arteries are waterways. 224 00:13:57,640 --> 00:14:00,040 The Great Lakes and the great canals 225 00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:05,320 are what enables america to become an industrial powerhouse. 226 00:14:06,960 --> 00:14:10,120 The Great Lakes together form 227 00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:13,400 really a massive inland sea 228 00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:16,120 for the United States and Canada. 229 00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:19,840 And this waterway was important for shipping goods 230 00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:23,000 so, you had fur pelts 231 00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:26,000 then later, grain, iron ore, 232 00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:30,920 all these products moving through this area dating from really, 233 00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:33,760 you know, very early in the history of North America. 234 00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:39,440 The Great Lakes connect the mid west with the Atlantic ocean. 235 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:43,760 Measured by total area, 236 00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:47,160 they are the largest group of freshwater lakes on earth. 237 00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:52,800 And by volume, they contain 21% of the world's surface fresh water. 238 00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:58,720 Their total surface area measures nearly 3/4 of a million kilometres. 239 00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:02,320 The Great Lakes are noted 240 00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:05,120 for their extraordinary sea-like characteristics. 241 00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:08,200 Here, rolling waves, 242 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:11,120 powerful winds and strong currents are common. 243 00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:15,160 In fact, according to Chris west 244 00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:17,840 who has sailed these waters for most of his life, 245 00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:19,960 they are more like inland seas. 246 00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:28,920 You think of lake Michigan, we can't see the other side. 247 00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:33,800 You can travel from Chicago which is the southernmost point 248 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:35,480 to the upper peninsula of Michigan 249 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:37,600 and that's about 400 or 500 miles long. 250 00:15:37,640 --> 00:15:40,320 So, it's a very big area of water. 251 00:15:43,920 --> 00:15:46,280 However, at the straits of mackinac, 252 00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:47,880 it narrows dramatically. 253 00:15:49,880 --> 00:15:52,040 This is a major shipping Lane 254 00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:54,360 which connects lake Michigan to lake huron. 255 00:15:56,280 --> 00:15:59,480 But it is just 5.5km wide 256 00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:03,000 with treacherous underwater currents which have often proved fatal. 257 00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:08,800 If you're on a ship in the ocean 258 00:16:08,840 --> 00:16:11,880 and a storm comes up and blows you a few miles off course, 259 00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:14,320 you've got thousands of miles of ocean around you. 260 00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:17,360 But if that happens in lake Michigan, 261 00:16:17,400 --> 00:16:18,760 it's relatively narrow. 262 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:20,200 There's all these shallows. 263 00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:22,560 You could be on the rocks in just a few minutes. 264 00:16:24,600 --> 00:16:27,600 In the straits of mackinac there's over 80 shipwrecks. 265 00:16:28,640 --> 00:16:30,080 This was the most dangerous spot, 266 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:31,800 they were coming up from Chicago 267 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:34,720 and they were making the corner to go into the straits of mackinac 268 00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:37,920 and there was this spot that there was 4 feet of water 269 00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:39,920 so these ships just kept running aground. 270 00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:47,840 The us government decided it had to intervene, 271 00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:50,360 to try and put a stop to the tragic accidents. 272 00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:56,080 This was how the waugoshance lighthouse. 273 00:16:57,680 --> 00:16:59,080 But how did they go about building 274 00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:03,320 a structure as impressive as this in the middle of such a huge lake? 275 00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:09,880 You start with a wooden crib structure 276 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:11,760 that rests on the bottom 277 00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:14,040 and then you bring out rocks on barges 278 00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:16,920 and you fill this crib with rocks. 279 00:17:16,960 --> 00:17:21,000 Now, you have a stable structure that you can build on top of. 280 00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:26,000 It's a feat today to build something like that. 281 00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:28,160 And obviously back in the day, no power tools. 282 00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:32,000 It was nails and, you know, big hammers and pulleys 283 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:36,080 and so, it was very labour-intensive to do something like that. 284 00:17:38,080 --> 00:17:40,960 The lighthouse began operating in 1851. 285 00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:46,520 It was a lifeline to all of the maritime traffic. 286 00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:47,800 This gave them their road map 287 00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:50,600 of how to get through the straits of mackinac. 288 00:17:50,640 --> 00:17:53,080 So, it was hugely important for the area. 289 00:17:57,720 --> 00:18:01,160 Its light attended by a keeper and his assistant 290 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:03,200 was visible for miles around. 291 00:18:05,760 --> 00:18:08,560 The lighthouse keeper's job was both incredibly boring 292 00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:10,760 and incredibly important at the same time. 293 00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:13,040 You had to keep that light working. 294 00:18:13,080 --> 00:18:14,320 You had to keep it going. 295 00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:17,600 It was a pretty remote life. 296 00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:22,880 The light keepers would go out when the ice went out 297 00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:28,560 which... April-ish they would be out there until November. 298 00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:31,240 And so, they're there for essentially seven months 299 00:18:31,280 --> 00:18:33,800 by themselves not seeing another human. 300 00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:39,080 The light was generated by an oil burning lamp 301 00:18:39,120 --> 00:18:41,840 which required constant attention and refuelling. 302 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:46,760 When the light was made invisible by mist and fog, 303 00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:49,160 a fog horn was used to warn ships. 304 00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:52,400 It was powered by steam 305 00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:55,200 and it worked by emitting a low frequency warning 306 00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:57,400 through two huge metal pipes. 307 00:18:57,440 --> 00:18:59,840 (Horn hums) 308 00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:02,680 These are the stove pipes. 309 00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:06,520 They were for the fog signal for the light house. 310 00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:07,976 They were in the fog signal building. 311 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:10,760 You can still see the holes in the ceiling 312 00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:12,920 of the fog signal building where these went through. 313 00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:16,280 So, down these steps 314 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:20,320 brings you into the basement of the living quarters. 315 00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:23,400 And so, down here there would have been boilers 316 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:26,520 and there would have been supplies for the lighthouse keepers. 317 00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:30,880 Then first floor would have been living room, a kitchen. 318 00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:32,240 Then you go up to the top floors 319 00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:34,960 and that's where the bedrooms of the keepers would have been. 320 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:42,040 One of the waugoshance lighthouse keepers 321 00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:44,960 was a hard drinking man called John Herman, 322 00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:46,760 a notorious practical joker. 323 00:19:48,120 --> 00:19:50,320 One night, Herman drunkenly 324 00:19:50,360 --> 00:19:53,040 locked his assistant into the lantern room. 325 00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:55,400 It was the last prank he ever played. 326 00:19:57,960 --> 00:19:59,480 John had had a few 327 00:19:59,520 --> 00:20:01,720 and John decided he should lock the door on him. 328 00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:06,320 While all this was happening, a storm came up. 329 00:20:06,360 --> 00:20:09,880 Unfortunately, John fell off the side of the lighthouse. 330 00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:11,320 (Water splashes) 331 00:20:11,360 --> 00:20:12,920 And ever since then, 332 00:20:12,960 --> 00:20:16,440 he's been the notorious John Herman of waugoshance lighthouse. 333 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:21,800 The assistant managed to escape 334 00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:25,360 but John Herman disappeared beneath the waters forever. 335 00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:29,920 Legend has it that his ghost now haunts the lighthouse. 336 00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:34,200 But what caused it to finally be abandoned? 337 00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:41,920 As shipping through the Great Lakes began to become even heavier 338 00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:46,720 and the boats got bigger, and they required a deeper draft, 339 00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:51,080 they rowed lower in the water, that channel was no longer adequate. 340 00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:54,480 There was another channel farther out into the lake 341 00:20:54,520 --> 00:20:56,080 that was much deeper 342 00:20:56,120 --> 00:20:59,680 so they built another lighthouse to Mark that channel 343 00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:03,280 and the waugoshance lighthouse became kind of obsolete. 344 00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:09,960 In 1912, the last keepers left the lighthouse for good. 345 00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:13,320 But that wasn't the end of the story. 346 00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:18,280 Waugoshance would play an unlikely part 347 00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:21,080 in the development of a top secret super weapon 348 00:21:21,120 --> 00:21:22,400 during world war ii. 349 00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:28,720 The us Navy starts to develop 350 00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:32,840 a remotely piloted aircraft, a drone, 351 00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:35,000 that can drop bombs 352 00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:38,520 and sink Japanese warships. 353 00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:42,680 These early drones were piloted 354 00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:45,080 from another aircraft 355 00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:50,600 and the operators were able to steer them using radio control... 356 00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:55,440 Looking through early television cameras 357 00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:59,040 to see what that drone can see. 358 00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:00,120 (Explodes) 359 00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:02,080 The project was top secret. 360 00:22:02,120 --> 00:22:04,160 It was called stag one. 361 00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:07,920 They need to practice. 362 00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:09,440 Guess what they picked? 363 00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:12,640 Our little lighthouse sitting out there, you know. 364 00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:14,480 It no longer was needed as a lighthouse 365 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:16,200 but it made a fantastic target. 366 00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:19,320 They bombed the hell out of it. 367 00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:26,560 This is one of the remnants of the bombing run. 368 00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:29,880 You can see the amount of impact that it had 369 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:32,640 because this is 1/4 inch thick boiler plate 370 00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:34,360 and then you have 371 00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:37,280 about 2.5-3 feet of brick used to come out to here, 372 00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:39,360 come out to where the boiler plate is right here. 373 00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:41,920 So, when the bomb hit, pretty intense impact for it 374 00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:44,520 to be able to take 2.5 feet or 3 feet of brick 375 00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:46,120 and just kind of blow it out of there. 376 00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:49,640 After the war ended, 377 00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:52,080 there was no further use for the lighthouse 378 00:22:52,120 --> 00:22:55,240 and it was eventually completely abandoned for good. 379 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:06,200 Today, it's home only to the ghost of John Herman... 380 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:10,080 Although there are plans to restore it. 381 00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:13,360 So, here's this lighthouse 382 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:16,600 that stood there protecting the ships for so long 383 00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:20,320 and then perform this important service 384 00:23:20,360 --> 00:23:22,200 during world war ii. 385 00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:25,640 And let's not let it just crumble into the lake. 386 00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:36,080 In the extreme north west of Chile, close to its border with Peru, 387 00:23:36,120 --> 00:23:39,200 there is a strange almost apocalyptic site. 388 00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:48,440 It looks almost like some kind of film set 389 00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:50,360 for an old western movie. 390 00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:53,080 Everything's somewhat decayed. 391 00:23:53,120 --> 00:23:55,880 Everything's rusty but it's still standing 392 00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:58,760 and in other words, it seems very much untouched. 393 00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:06,520 There's something unnerving about the row after row of houses. 394 00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:12,320 What's really strange is where the town is located. 395 00:24:12,360 --> 00:24:15,680 It's in the middle of the desert, miles away from anywhere. 396 00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:19,360 Why on earth would anyone choose 397 00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:22,120 to build a town in such a remote location? 398 00:24:25,360 --> 00:24:28,640 There is a swimming pool long ago emptied of water... 399 00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:33,360 With a diving board last used years ago... 400 00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:37,440 And a ghostly playground 401 00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:41,120 that will never again hear the sound of children's laughter. 402 00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:46,240 Any time you see a place that had been inhabited by humans 403 00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:49,720 and then it looks as if they suddenly left. 404 00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:51,440 It gives you an unsettled feeling. 405 00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:52,680 It gives you a sense of dread, 406 00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:54,560 maybe something terrible happened here. 407 00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:03,600 But journey beyond the houses and the buildings suddenly change. 408 00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:12,160 You see, sort of, rusted bits of machinery. 409 00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:15,640 There's clearly an engineering type of feel to it. 410 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:18,800 There's a rusted locomotive 411 00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:22,320 and tracks that lead to what looks like an old factory. 412 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:25,200 Whatever happened here 413 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:30,600 was clearly an extensive and complex industrial operation. 414 00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:31,680 But what was it? 415 00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:36,360 What's even more confusing 416 00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:40,200 is that most of the machinery was made by British manufacturers. 417 00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:43,800 What was its function 418 00:25:43,840 --> 00:25:47,360 and how has it ended up here in this remote part of Chile? 419 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:53,680 What you're seeing is the global economy 420 00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:56,000 dropped down here into this remote desert. 421 00:25:57,200 --> 00:25:58,920 Why is it all here? 422 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:09,200 Clues lie in the population explosion 423 00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:11,320 that happened in the new industrial world 424 00:26:11,360 --> 00:26:13,840 towards the end of the 19th century... 425 00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:18,360 And in the need to feed huge numbers of people. 426 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:24,120 For thousands of years, 427 00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:28,120 farmers grew their crops using whatever nutrients were on hand. 428 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:31,280 The manure from animals was collected 429 00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:33,800 and that was good enough for a time. 430 00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:36,160 But in the 19th century, they started to discover 431 00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:39,640 that you could add additional chemicals to the soil 432 00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:43,640 and make your farms dramatically more productive. 433 00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:48,320 Large deposits of a mineral 434 00:26:48,360 --> 00:26:50,880 that would revolutionise food production 435 00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:53,560 and transform the fortunes of Chile 436 00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:56,440 were discovered here in the atacama desert. 437 00:26:58,120 --> 00:27:01,520 The atacama covers a 1,000km strip of land 438 00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:04,000 to the west of the andes mountains, 439 00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:06,160 and it's the driest desert in the world. 440 00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:11,400 Some areas have an almost other worldly appearance, 441 00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:14,200 so much so that the soil has drawn comparisons 442 00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:16,080 with the surface of Mars. 443 00:27:18,640 --> 00:27:20,560 One 16th century traveller 444 00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:24,880 described the atacama desert as "without men, 445 00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:27,360 "where there is not a bird "nor a beast 446 00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:29,640 nor a tree nor any vegetation." 447 00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:32,080 The arid barren landscape 448 00:27:32,120 --> 00:27:34,480 has barely changed over the centuries. 449 00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:39,480 However, one mineral was in plentiful supply. 450 00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:44,560 This part of the atacama desert 451 00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:48,160 is rich in a mineral that then was called saltpetre. 452 00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:52,480 Saltpetre is a name for various forms of nitrate. 453 00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:54,160 And this is a chemical 454 00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:56,680 that essentially can work as fertiliser 455 00:27:56,720 --> 00:27:58,280 once you break it down. 456 00:27:59,960 --> 00:28:01,880 And there's very few places on the planet 457 00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:04,640 where you can actually find this material, 458 00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:07,480 this particular type of mineral 459 00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:09,240 in effect just lying on the ground 460 00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:12,160 very, very easy to excavate and mine. 461 00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:17,440 Saltpetre, then known as white gold, 462 00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:21,040 was in effect Chile's gold rush. 463 00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:24,120 It accounted for 80% of Chile's exports. 464 00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:27,760 The country's economy depended on it. 465 00:28:30,360 --> 00:28:32,680 At the time, the northern part of Chile 466 00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:34,200 and southern part of Peru 467 00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:37,800 were actually the main provider of saltpetre 468 00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:39,120 to the whole of the world. 469 00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:43,120 Small mining villages were springing up all over the place 470 00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:45,120 to take advantage of this. 471 00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:50,840 Humberstone was one of those villages. 472 00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:54,320 It's situated in that bleak desert 473 00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:58,840 almost 1,500km from the Chilean capital of Santiago 474 00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:00,480 and it was the centre 475 00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:02,400 of the country's saltpetre production. 476 00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:06,040 But why does it have 477 00:29:06,080 --> 00:29:08,520 the very English sounding name of humberstone? 478 00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:13,400 James humberstone was an englishman 479 00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:16,280 who arrived in this area in the late 19th century 480 00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:19,600 with a better way to process the saltpetre. 481 00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:24,360 He took over the nitrate production facilities. 482 00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:26,800 And he did it so well that within a couple of years, 483 00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:28,480 he'd doubled the productivity. 484 00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:35,960 Patricio Diaz valencia is director of investigations at humberstone 485 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:37,600 and an expert on its history. 486 00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:45,040 The people who used to work here came from different countries. 487 00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:46,400 They were Bolivian. 488 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:47,840 They were Argentinean. 489 00:29:47,880 --> 00:29:49,480 They were Chilean. 490 00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:54,240 They all came together in this area and created a new society. 491 00:29:57,040 --> 00:29:59,560 Humberstone was a company town 492 00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:05,240 the 3,700 men, women and children who lived there owned nothing, 493 00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:08,280 certainly not their houses or even their furniture. 494 00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:12,520 But these conditions were common in Chile, 495 00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:15,320 and violent worker strikes were not unknown. 496 00:30:17,080 --> 00:30:19,480 Men in humberstone were paid in tokens 497 00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:23,200 that could only be exchanged in the local general store. 498 00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:25,280 It was a harsh tough life. 499 00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:31,400 Tokens were paid according to the effort invested. 500 00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:33,040 There was a minimum. 501 00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:36,640 For example, in order to receive the minimum wage 502 00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:38,280 so they could live, 503 00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:42,520 they had to load at least two wagons every day. 504 00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:46,240 This took approximately 12 hours each day. 505 00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:52,560 Digging for saltpetre was a gruelling business. 506 00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:57,000 The workers were outside all day in the blistering sun 507 00:30:57,040 --> 00:30:59,160 with little water or shade. 508 00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:04,320 They scrape up this powdery substance 509 00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:08,120 off the desert floor, crush it, boil it 510 00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:09,976 and then they went through a series of processes 511 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:12,160 that would separate out the valuable parts 512 00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:14,680 of these compounds from everything else. 513 00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:17,600 All day long, 514 00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:20,960 crushers ground the nitrate-rich crust of the desert. 515 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:26,080 That was then dissolved in boilers forming a toxic soup of chemicals 516 00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:28,880 from which they'd eventually extract the nitrate. 517 00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:35,560 Can you imagine what a brutal job this must have been working 518 00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:37,960 in one of the hottest, driest places, 519 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:40,400 boiling these nasty... 520 00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:41,440 (Laughs) 521 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:43,200 You know, chemicals all day. 522 00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:48,160 The chimneys would have been bellowing black smoke. 523 00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:51,280 The boilers would have been seeping out hot steam. 524 00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:56,000 And the sheer danger of the work of mining was ever-present. 525 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:02,640 So, what caused the town to be abandoned? 526 00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:05,080 Was it because of an industrial disaster 527 00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:07,120 or some other calamitous event? 528 00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:12,760 Two things killed humberstone, war and technology. 529 00:32:12,800 --> 00:32:15,400 During world war I, the British blockaded the shipments 530 00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:17,920 of saltpetre from Chile going to Germany. 531 00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:20,680 And at the same time German scientists developed 532 00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:23,440 synthetic ways of creating fertiliser 533 00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:26,000 and so, had no need to have saltpetre shipped 534 00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:27,840 from the other side of the planet. 535 00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:34,760 The industry collapsed and so, that was the end of humberstone. 536 00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:38,880 The houses and factories were abandoned 537 00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:41,640 and the people simply upped and left the town. 538 00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:47,720 No-one has lived or worked here for half a century. 539 00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:57,840 The town's survival is a freak economic accident. 540 00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:02,920 After the last inhabitant left, it was sold to a developer 541 00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:05,600 but he went bust before he was able to do anything 542 00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:07,240 with the town to strip out all the bits 543 00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:09,240 that he was going to sell. 544 00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:13,360 As a result, it's been preserved by the dry desert air 545 00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:16,960 and is now a United Nations world heritage site. 546 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:19,760 You can see exactly how these people lived. 547 00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:26,760 You see also how their fortunes were on the flick of a coin, 548 00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:32,080 because once the need for that mining left, they left. 549 00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:35,000 But they left everything in place. 550 00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:45,960 In england, beneath the busy bustling streets of London, 551 00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:48,680 lies a secret subterranean world. 552 00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:58,880 There's actually a hidden system, a hidden system of tunnels 553 00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:01,720 that you don't get to see they're there. 554 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:04,960 What are they and what were they used for? 555 00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:09,360 It looks like these things haven't been used 556 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:10,640 for quite some time. 557 00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:15,080 You've got stalactites hanging from the ceiling, 558 00:34:15,120 --> 00:34:18,680 you've got bits of water flowing along the bottom, 559 00:34:18,720 --> 00:34:19,840 and then there's water 560 00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:22,400 kind of dripping down the sides of the tunnel as well. 561 00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:24,640 So, it's quite a spooky place to be. 562 00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:30,480 It looks like a little hobbit railroad. 563 00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:35,840 The track is very narrow, only about 2 feet across. 564 00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:37,480 The ceilings are very low. 565 00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:41,760 So, it's really kind of mysterious. 566 00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:46,160 Who made these little miniaturised tunnels? 567 00:34:46,200 --> 00:34:47,960 These twisting tracks 568 00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:51,480 stretching far into the distance provide clues. 569 00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:54,280 As you move around the tunnels, 570 00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:57,600 you suddenly come into open spaces, actual stations. 571 00:34:57,640 --> 00:35:00,480 So, there are stations in these tunnel networks. 572 00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:04,520 Away from the stations, 573 00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:07,680 there are more signs of activity but from long ago. 574 00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:12,176 There's empty filing cabinets. 575 00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:15,440 There's desks with old broken telephones on. 576 00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:19,880 When you see overalls draped over things, 577 00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:22,800 your telephones, kiosks, everything, 578 00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:25,840 it's almost as though this place was abandoned fairly quickly. 579 00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:30,200 It seems like there wasn't enough time to remove everything 580 00:35:30,240 --> 00:35:32,000 and clear out when you left. 581 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:36,680 If it was an area that was more accessible, 582 00:35:36,720 --> 00:35:39,120 you know, scavengers would have come in, 583 00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:40,736 people might have come in and taken stuff. 584 00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:42,360 You'd see graffiti. 585 00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:44,440 But because these tunnels are really quite deep, 586 00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:49,320 they really did not get picked over or stripped. 587 00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:50,960 What was it? 588 00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:52,720 Who worked here? 589 00:35:52,760 --> 00:35:55,400 And why has it been left abandoned? 590 00:35:56,560 --> 00:35:58,560 (Eerie music) 591 00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:03,080 (Suspenseful music) 592 00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:08,960 In the early 20th century, most people communicated by letter. 593 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:13,680 Smooth delivery of mail was critical particularly to London, 594 00:36:13,720 --> 00:36:15,400 the country's financial hub. 595 00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:23,120 So, if you have a legal contract or you have a policy, 596 00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:25,880 you have a negotiation, being able to move those documents 597 00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:27,400 around the city quickly 598 00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:30,480 was part of the key to London's economic dominance. 599 00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:34,800 It could take several hours to deliver mail 600 00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:37,720 from one part of the city to another. 601 00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:40,000 Something had to be done to speed things up. 602 00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:43,760 But that was easier said than done. 603 00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:46,840 By the end of the edwardian era, 604 00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:51,040 the population of London had risen to almost 7 million people, 605 00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:53,680 1 in every 5 britons lived in the city. 606 00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:56,840 The fact was that the streets of London 607 00:36:56,880 --> 00:36:58,760 were becoming more and more crowded. 608 00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:03,680 Although this teaming Metropolis 609 00:37:03,720 --> 00:37:06,480 was still blighted by grinding poverty, 610 00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:10,160 this was a time of tremendous economic growth for the city. 611 00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:12,720 And the mail system had to play its part. 612 00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:16,960 In 1909, a committee was set up 613 00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:19,240 to look into ways of solving the problem. 614 00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:26,360 If you think about the streets of London back then, 615 00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:27,760 they were really busy. 616 00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:31,080 There were horse carriages and animals 617 00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:33,600 and all sorts of things happening up at street level. 618 00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:35,240 So, to find somewhere 619 00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:37,880 where they could very quickly and efficiently move 620 00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:40,320 really important documents around, 621 00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:42,040 they had to go underground. 622 00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:48,040 And this was the result, an underground rail track 623 00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:52,120 stretching 10km across London, the mail rail. 624 00:37:56,040 --> 00:37:58,480 It was a revolutionary piece of engineering. 625 00:38:00,520 --> 00:38:03,800 But the constructors faced many problems and challenges. 626 00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:13,640 London is really built on a big swamp, an estuary. 627 00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:16,480 And so, as a result, when you start digging underground, 628 00:38:16,520 --> 00:38:19,600 it's very damp, muddy, Sandy, silty. 629 00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:22,360 And they in fact encountered 630 00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:25,360 one of the largest subterranean rivers in the area 631 00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:26,960 called the fleet river. 632 00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:29,320 And so, water ingressing into the tunnels 633 00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:31,800 was a big problem during engineering. 634 00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:37,480 Ray middlesworth, one of the last engineers here 635 00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:40,080 is well aware of the dangers they faced. 636 00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:46,120 There were incidents when they were digging the tunnels 637 00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:48,680 and many workers had to run for their lives 638 00:38:48,720 --> 00:38:50,520 to get away from the water bursting through. 639 00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:55,600 But ways had to be found to complete this vital project. 640 00:38:57,720 --> 00:39:00,920 One of the things they did was to add air locks 641 00:39:00,960 --> 00:39:03,920 and then they pushed air into those sections of tunnel 642 00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:05,360 to keep the water out. 643 00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:09,200 They also used flood gates in portions of the tunnels, 644 00:39:09,240 --> 00:39:11,400 so if water did come in, 645 00:39:11,440 --> 00:39:13,560 they could isolate those sections of tunnel 646 00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:17,640 which were full of water and then quickly pump the water out. 647 00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:24,360 In 1927, the mail rail was finally ready for service. 648 00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:27,440 It was the only one of its kind in the world. 649 00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:33,080 These trains do not have drivers. 650 00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:34,520 They don't have engineers. 651 00:39:34,560 --> 00:39:36,920 So, it's really the first 652 00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:41,120 driverless electric vehicle system in the world. 653 00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:45,320 The system meant they could speed mail 654 00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:47,960 right across London avoiding the congestion 655 00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:49,080 on the streets above. 656 00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:57,120 The new track connected Paddington in the west 657 00:39:57,160 --> 00:40:00,120 with whitechapel station in the east 658 00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:03,280 and linked up six other sorting offices along the way. 659 00:40:04,440 --> 00:40:06,480 A conveyor belt linked the tunnels 660 00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:10,320 to the mainline platforms at liverpool street and Paddington. 661 00:40:13,800 --> 00:40:17,240 Ray remembers trying to keep the system working smoothly 662 00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:20,760 while processing up to 4 million letters a day. 663 00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:22,840 You had to work under a lot of time pressure 664 00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:24,400 because once the trains stopped, 665 00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:26,920 they would start backing away all the way round the system. 666 00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:29,960 And the whole rail network would grind to a halt. 667 00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:37,960 This is battery loco number two, nicknamed 'the banana' 668 00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:40,400 because of its bright-yellow colour scheme, 669 00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:42,960 which we used these locos when the railway was shut down 670 00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:45,120 to retrieve broken down trains 671 00:40:45,160 --> 00:40:47,760 and do maintenance work on the track in the weekends. 672 00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:50,040 This was built in 1927. 673 00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:51,280 It's still serviceable. 674 00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:53,880 Sturdy beast built by English electric, 675 00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:56,160 weighs 7.5 tonnes. 676 00:40:56,200 --> 00:40:58,320 And I must have jumped in and out of that cab 677 00:40:58,360 --> 00:41:01,160 about 1,000 times during my career. 678 00:41:04,120 --> 00:41:08,160 Although the engineers somehow kept the mail rail running, 679 00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:10,760 the threat of flooding was ever-present. 680 00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:18,040 This is one of the four flood gates installed 681 00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:20,480 to seal off the main tunnel from the station 682 00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:22,640 in case there was a deadly flood 683 00:41:22,680 --> 00:41:25,520 and we needed to pump our water out. 684 00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:28,480 It was mechanical in operation 685 00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:31,760 so that it could be relied to operate in any circumstances. 686 00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:36,320 Very sturdy. 687 00:41:36,360 --> 00:41:37,520 (Knocks) 688 00:41:39,880 --> 00:41:43,240 The mail rail ran beneath the streets of central London 689 00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:44,840 until 2003. 690 00:41:46,040 --> 00:41:47,880 Why is it now deserted? 691 00:41:49,240 --> 00:41:51,400 By the beginning of the 21st century, 692 00:41:51,440 --> 00:41:55,440 the mail rail had simply become too expensive to run. 693 00:41:58,800 --> 00:42:02,560 It was delivering mail around London for some 80-odd years. 694 00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:05,840 And its demise, well, we had the Internet age. 695 00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:09,720 We were no longer sending so many letters. 696 00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:12,800 There was also a much better infrastructure above ground. 697 00:42:12,840 --> 00:42:16,520 So, it really lost its economic importance. 698 00:42:22,280 --> 00:42:23,920 On the last day of service, 699 00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:25,960 I was one of the engineers on duty that day 700 00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:28,600 and it was my job to shut down the power at mount pleasant. 701 00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:35,520 It was historic, we had a job to do, but we all knew what it meant. 702 00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:36,976 It was the coming to the end of an era 703 00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:39,200 after 76 years. Very sad. 704 00:42:49,560 --> 00:42:52,760 Today, part of the track still lives on 705 00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:55,080 as a tourist ride and museum. 706 00:42:56,920 --> 00:42:59,120 And I think that that's just fantastic 707 00:42:59,160 --> 00:43:02,520 to preserve that really important legacy. 708 00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:07,960 And the real beauty of the royal mail 709 00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:10,000 underground delivery system 710 00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:12,000 was that it was happening with many people 711 00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:14,000 being completely unaware that it was there. 712 00:43:15,640 --> 00:43:16,640 We didn't really know 713 00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:18,760 that letters were actually moving beneath our feet. 714 00:43:32,960 --> 00:43:35,240 Now, they lie abandoned, 715 00:43:35,280 --> 00:43:38,800 but once, they were at the cutting edge of engineering. 716 00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:44,080 There are echoes from history in these decaying structures. 717 00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:47,200 They remind us of terror and war, 718 00:43:47,240 --> 00:43:51,280 but also of great innovation and human endeavour. 719 00:43:57,080 --> 00:44:00,080 Captioned by ai-media ai-media. TV 58298

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