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Tom ward: A vast,
ornate structure

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abandoned high in the
pyrenees mountains.

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

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A wrecked research facility
in Russia's arctic tundra.

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Something that looks
completely bizarre,

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we actually have a window
into the interior of our planet.

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A mysterious military base
lost in the American desert.

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Looks like it was hit
by an atomic bomb.

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And a towering maze
of concrete beams.

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So, creating these large,
flowing, beautiful shapes

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is actually quite challenging.

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Once, they were some of
the most advanced structures

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and facilities on the planet,

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at the cutting edge of
design and construction.

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Today, they stand abandoned,

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contaminated and
sometimes deadly.

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But who built them and how?

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And why were they abandoned?

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On the border of
France and Spain,

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a tiny village of
just 500 people

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sits in a steep-sided valley.

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At this remote location,

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4,000ft up in the
pyrenees mountains,

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are the remains of a
gigantic derelict structure.

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Rob bell: It's a surprising
building to find in that location.

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It's grand, it's
almost palatial.

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And yet, there it is,

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plonked down in the middle
of the pyrenees mountains

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with not that much of
civilisation around it.

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It's neither a disused
factory nor power plant,

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but rather a glass
and marble palace.

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Its ornate three-storey facade

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has 365 windows

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and 156 doors...

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And it stretches 800ft

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along the narrow valley floor.

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The idea that
anybody would build

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something so grand

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in a place that is almost
impossible to get to,

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that is astonishing.

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Immense effort has gone
into creating beautiful buildings

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with a mix of classicism
and art nouveau...

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So why is it here,

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isolated in the mountains?

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And why was it abandoned?

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In the mid-19th century,

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Spain was still largely cut off

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from France and
Europe by the pyrenees.

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This mountain range stretches
260 miles along the border.

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The lack of trade routes

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severely restricted
the nation's economy.

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The Spanish government realised
that they desperately needed

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a transport route
through the mountains.

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The idea of a train line

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that would cross the pyrenees

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was extremely appealing,

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and when it was undertaken,

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it was a massive
engineering project.

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It was almost like a
Panama canal type of project,

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with super-long tunnels

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and Bridges.

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Years of very, very
challenging engineering.

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The central connection
point was this,

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the canfranc international
railway station.

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Building was underway in 1923.

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Its critical importance
lay in overcoming

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a specific engineering
miscalculation.

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When early Spanish railways

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developed in the late 1800s,

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engineers decided to employ

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a broad Gauge track of 5'5".

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Yet France,

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along with most of Europe,

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matched the international
Gauge of 4'8.5".

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It was a fateful decision.

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There was no way
of physically altering

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the track width or wheel Gauge.

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Spanish trains ran on
a different width of track

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than French trains,

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so they had to find
a station big enough

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to unload the French trains,

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load everything onto
the Spanish trains

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or vice versa.

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The only solution was
to create a transfer point

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from one track
Gauge to the other.

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So canfranc had
to be constructed

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on a huge scale.

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Completed in 1928,

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it was one of the longest and
highest-altitude rail stations

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in Europe.

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It was dubbed the
'Titanic of the mountains'.

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By building this huge,
impressive station in the pyrenees,

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it would open up new,

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strong trade routes into France

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and then into the
whole of Europe.

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Fernando Sanchez morales

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is the current
mayor of canfranc.

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On 18 July, 1928,

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king Alfonso of Spain formally
opened canfranc station

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and declared, "the
pyrenees no longer exist."

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With border protection,

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a hotel, restaurants

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and 2,000 staff,

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canfranc rivalled any of
the major stations of Europe.

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Spain, they think,
has finally arrived

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and is once again
a player in Europe.

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But dark clouds loomed
large on the horizon.

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A year later,

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the wall street crash
sparked the great depression

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and, by 1936,

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king Alfonso was in exile,

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with Spain in the grip
of a bloody civil war.

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Rebel nationalist leader
general Franco ordered

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the vital somport
tunnel be blocked

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to prevent arms reaching

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the republican government.

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Canfranc becomes the last stop

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on a railway to nowhere.

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The canfranc station
had the misfortune

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of sitting right on kind
of a geopolitical fault line.

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Tunnels were closed for a time

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then because the
Spanish government

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was afraid of people
smuggling in supplies.

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The station was commandeered

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by Franco's army

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as the Spanish general
employed the help of Adolf Hitler

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to quash republican
and communist forces.

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For Hitler, it provided an arena

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to test out his latest weapons,

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armoured units and planes

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of his newly created luftwaffe.

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In 1939,

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Franco secured victory

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and established himself
as fascist dictator.

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The station reopened,

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but its tumultuous
existence was set to continue.

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A flood of Jews and refugees,

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fleeing persecution
of Nazi Germany,

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passed south
through the station.

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00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:05,640
Ironically, at the same time,

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Franco sent shipments of
supplies through canfranc

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to help feed
Hitler's war machine.

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Gold and metals for
the production of arms

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poured through the mountains

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and across the border.

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When the Nazis invaded
France in the second world war,

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canfranc station provided

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a really important railway link

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for Jewish refugees
escaping France into Spain.

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But going the other way,

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it also provided a
route for the Germans

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to export gold ore

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from Spain into France

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and effectively into
the German reich.

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It was also a through-route

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for agents engaged
in acts of espionage.

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This train line was a vital link

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between southern France

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and, essentially,
the outside world.

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It allowed

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supplies and information,

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00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:05,920
travel, to the
French resistance.

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They were even used
for some spy missions,

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where some very brave young women
would carry packages of information

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out to Spain,

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where they would
ultimately be delivered on

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to the allies in britain.

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In a final twist of irony,

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as the war progressed,

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canfranc became
a key escape route,

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not for Jews,

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but Nazis.

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With defeat appearing
ever more inevitable

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through 1945,

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Nazi leaders flooded through,

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carrying tonnes of looted gold.

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Because almost the only way
to get from France into Spain

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and onto a ship to
somewhere else in the world,

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because that requires you
to get off the train at canfranc,

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to walk through
canfranc station...

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That one facility

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00:10:03,560 --> 00:10:07,440
becomes a route for evil people

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00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:10,800
to get away and seek safety

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in South America.

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After the war,

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00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:19,600
with just a trickle of
international passengers,

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the majestic halls of canfranc

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grew more and more
shabby and neglected.

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And 42 years after
it opened its doors,

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00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:31,920
it was forced to
shut down for good.

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As vital as it was,

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the rail line was
never profitable.

193
00:10:37,920 --> 00:10:40,480
And then in 1970, there
was a train accident

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00:10:40,520 --> 00:10:42,600
that destroyed
one of the Bridges.

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They never rebuilt it.

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I think it became
kind of an excuse

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00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:48,800
to let the rail line
just fall into decay.

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Because by that time,

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00:10:53,040 --> 00:10:55,080
air travel was becoming
more affordable,

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00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:56,160
highways were better,

201
00:10:56,200 --> 00:10:57,480
trucks were better,

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00:10:57,520 --> 00:10:59,080
they had more alternatives

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00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:01,200
to this very
difficult railroad line.

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00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:04,240
With the rail
line out of action,

205
00:11:04,280 --> 00:11:07,040
canfranc was
abandoned in the 1970s

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00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:08,240
and left to rust.

207
00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:17,800
Today, the station's opulence
and grandeur remain for all to see.

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00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:22,520
A lot of travellers
wanna make a pilgrimage

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00:11:22,560 --> 00:11:25,280
to see this
magnificent train station

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00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:27,680
and there's something
poignant about

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00:11:27,720 --> 00:11:31,440
people working so hard on
some ambitious technology

212
00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:34,280
and infrastructure
that never quite works

213
00:11:34,320 --> 00:11:36,480
and then it has to be abandoned

214
00:11:36,520 --> 00:11:39,560
and it just kind of
slowly rots away.

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00:12:00,160 --> 00:12:02,920
We may never truly
know which Nazis

216
00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:05,680
and what treasures passed
through these platforms.

217
00:12:06,960 --> 00:12:08,880
Those secrets may
forever stay hidden

218
00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:11,120
in the shadows of the
pyrenees mountains.

219
00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:14,360
But canfranc station

220
00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:17,600
may yet live to see another day.

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00:12:21,160 --> 00:12:24,000
Around 2,500 miles northeast,

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00:12:24,040 --> 00:12:25,680
on the kola peninsula

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00:12:25,720 --> 00:12:27,680
where Russia meets Norway,

224
00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:29,520
is a deserted industrial site.

225
00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:39,280
A cluster of
dilapidated buildings

226
00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:40,680
is surrounded by lakes

227
00:12:40,720 --> 00:12:43,480
and forgotten in this
barren arctic tundra.

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00:12:48,320 --> 00:12:50,280
The only living
creatures to be seen

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00:12:50,320 --> 00:12:52,680
are arctic rabbits
taking shelter

230
00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:53,800
amongst the debris.

231
00:12:57,040 --> 00:12:59,640
Well, the kola peninsula
is extremely remote.

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00:12:59,680 --> 00:13:02,800
It's very, very far north,
almost to the north pole.

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00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:06,880
Ruined concrete buildings

234
00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:09,000
are littered with
twisted wreckage

235
00:13:09,040 --> 00:13:10,400
and smashed equipment.

236
00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:14,920
And at the centre
of all this carnage,

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00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:17,400
one building appears to
have been ripped apart.

238
00:13:20,720 --> 00:13:23,640
There's all of these
buildings, partly derelict.

239
00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:24,720
What was going on here?

240
00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:27,160
Was it some sort of
concentration camp?

241
00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:29,480
Was it some sort
of military base?

242
00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:32,560
So, what took place

243
00:13:32,600 --> 00:13:34,440
in this bleak and
inhospitable corner

244
00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:36,080
of Russia's arctic north?

245
00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:40,360
And why was this site abandoned?

246
00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:46,520
In the 1960s,

247
00:13:46,560 --> 00:13:48,160
the Soviet union was embroiled

248
00:13:48,200 --> 00:13:50,200
in a military and
technological race

249
00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:51,840
with its ideological Nemesis,

250
00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:53,200
the United States.

251
00:13:56,080 --> 00:13:57,840
The cold war was played out

252
00:13:57,880 --> 00:14:01,040
in a nuclear arms
race and a space race,

253
00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:03,200
but they were also
engaged in a race

254
00:14:03,240 --> 00:14:05,080
to better understand
our own planet.

255
00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:09,440
A scientific investigation
of the geology

256
00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:12,320
hidden thousands of feet
beneath the earth's surface.

257
00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:14,440
At the moment,

258
00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:16,320
the way that we
look inside the earth

259
00:14:16,360 --> 00:14:18,080
is through what we
call seismic waves.

260
00:14:18,120 --> 00:14:21,200
You make a big explosion
on the earth's surface

261
00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:23,880
and we see the way the
shockwaves travel into the earth

262
00:14:23,920 --> 00:14:24,920
and back out again.

263
00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:28,080
And we come up with
structures, we find barriers in there.

264
00:14:28,120 --> 00:14:30,080
But what are they?

265
00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:31,160
In the '60s and '70s,

266
00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:34,720
there was this huge fascination
with the structure of the earth

267
00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:35,920
and trying to figure out

268
00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:37,976
if you could drill down
through the earth's crust,

269
00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:39,880
the top layer, into the mantle,

270
00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:42,160
which is the soft
kind of plastic layer

271
00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:43,320
that lies under the crust.

272
00:14:43,360 --> 00:14:45,840
It was almost like a
subterranean space race,

273
00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:48,080
who could get down
the deepest first?

274
00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:55,680
This complex is the site
of an extraordinary project

275
00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:58,960
to uncover the secrets of the
earth's geological structure.

276
00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:03,400
This is the kola
superdeep borehole.

277
00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:09,480
Just nine inches in diameter,

278
00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:11,520
this simple and
unremarkable metal lid

279
00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:14,440
opened a new scientific frontier

280
00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:18,360
and it was undertaken in
direct competition with the usa.

281
00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:23,520
In the '60s, the Americans
had started a project

282
00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:25,280
called mohole

283
00:15:25,320 --> 00:15:27,440
to try to dig down
through the crust.

284
00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:30,120
They didn't get very
far, but they learned a lot.

285
00:15:30,160 --> 00:15:32,600
On Guadalupe island, Mexico,

286
00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:34,560
American geologists penetrated

287
00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:37,160
just 601ft into the seabed...

288
00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:41,320
Though this was 11,600ft

289
00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:42,840
beneath the
surface of the water.

290
00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:46,920
The Russians, however,
were aiming to achieve

291
00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:48,880
more than four times that depth.

292
00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:53,600
Their main target
was to hit 15,000m

293
00:15:53,640 --> 00:15:55,640
or 49,000ft.

294
00:15:57,040 --> 00:15:59,320
And then the Russians
came back in 1970

295
00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:01,200
with this superdeep borehole.

296
00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:05,280
Drilling in this cold
location gave them

297
00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:07,200
one distinct advantage.

298
00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:14,960
The kola peninsula sits in
an area of very, very old crust,

299
00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:16,320
it's called a shield,

300
00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:17,680
really old crust,

301
00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:19,440
and what's important there

302
00:16:19,480 --> 00:16:22,800
is that the temperature
increase as you go with depth

303
00:16:22,840 --> 00:16:24,400
is very light,

304
00:16:24,440 --> 00:16:26,200
so you have much more chance

305
00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:28,840
of getting deeper
before it gets too hot.

306
00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:36,000
Could the Soviets dig
deeper into the earth's crust

307
00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:38,240
than humans had
ever managed before?

308
00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:48,000
Construction of
this desolate facility

309
00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:49,720
began in 1965...

310
00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:52,200
And in may 1970,

311
00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:53,680
drilling was underway.

312
00:16:55,560 --> 00:16:57,360
The prize for Soviet engineers

313
00:16:57,400 --> 00:16:59,480
was not just outdoing the usa.

314
00:17:00,640 --> 00:17:03,360
It was gaining
new geological data

315
00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:05,200
and access to the
earth's resources.

316
00:17:06,840 --> 00:17:09,640
Despite its extreme
and remote location,

317
00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:12,360
this base offered them
the best chance of success.

318
00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:21,800
This is a very
out-of-the-way place.

319
00:17:21,840 --> 00:17:22,880
They had to bring

320
00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:25,440
in all the materials
and expertise,

321
00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:27,120
but the Soviet
union did a lot of that.

322
00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:29,640
They were good at infrastructure

323
00:17:29,680 --> 00:17:31,600
and building big,

324
00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:34,520
sophisticated bases
in remote locations.

325
00:17:34,560 --> 00:17:36,520
Sergei nesterenko

326
00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:37,920
is a Russian engineer

327
00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:40,480
and experienced drilling
this challenging borehole.

328
00:17:56,960 --> 00:17:58,640
The first problem
they encountered

329
00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:00,280
was one of basic physics.

330
00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:03,920
The borehole was only
nine inches in diameter,

331
00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:08,720
but the immense torque created
by having to turn drill tubing

332
00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:10,640
that weighed over
a million pounds

333
00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:12,160
made the task impossible.

334
00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:18,160
Soviet engineers turned
to a radical new solution...

335
00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:21,080
An annular-shaped core drill.

336
00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:23,936
The technology with drilling

337
00:18:23,960 --> 00:18:25,496
is you actually
just have the drill bit

338
00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:26,880
at the end and moving.

339
00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:29,720
You force mud and other things
down to keep this thing moving

340
00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:32,840
and that's where it's
grinding away at the rock.

341
00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:34,880
And in between,
you can take out,

342
00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:37,600
essentially, the shaft of
rock, what we call the core,

343
00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:39,240
and look at the
structure of the earth.

344
00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:43,040
As they ground
deeper and deeper,

345
00:18:43,080 --> 00:18:44,560
the drilling process became

346
00:18:44,600 --> 00:18:46,320
ever more fraught
with difficulty.

347
00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:50,120
The deeper you drill,

348
00:18:50,160 --> 00:18:52,760
the harder it is to manage
the drilling process.

349
00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:54,680
Equipment can get
stuck in the hole,

350
00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:56,040
the temperatures
get really high,

351
00:18:56,080 --> 00:18:58,320
the rock doesn't
behave properly.

352
00:18:58,360 --> 00:19:00,680
So this was a huge
technological achievement

353
00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:01,760
for its day.

354
00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:19,920
For over a decade,

355
00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:22,920
they drilled into the
crust using a 200-tonne,

356
00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:25,040
200ft-high drilling machine

357
00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:27,200
housed in a huge yellow tower

358
00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:28,960
in the centre of
the borehole site.

359
00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:36,120
Drilling deep into the
earth's crust at an average

360
00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:38,520
of 196ft a month

361
00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:40,880
wore out 25 miles of piping

362
00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:42,680
simply from the
friction and heat.

363
00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:47,160
Despite these difficulties,

364
00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:50,040
kola became the
deepest hole in the world,

365
00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:52,800
reaching an astonishing 39,000ft

366
00:19:52,840 --> 00:19:53,880
below the surface.

367
00:19:56,880 --> 00:19:59,600
Dan dickrell: The borehole
beat the world record in 1979.

368
00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:02,320
It was almost 40,000ft
below the surface,

369
00:20:02,360 --> 00:20:05,000
which is an amazingly deep
distance when you think about it.

370
00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:06,720
The marianas trench,

371
00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:08,720
which is the deepest
place in the ocean,

372
00:20:08,760 --> 00:20:10,400
is not even near that deep.

373
00:20:12,120 --> 00:20:13,920
As news of the incredible depths

374
00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:16,360
being reached by the
kola site was released...

375
00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:20,080
Rumours about its
discoveries began to spread.

376
00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:25,200
The fact that the borehole
had been dug so deeply

377
00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:27,640
was used to create a hoax,

378
00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:29,240
which was called
the 'well to hell'.

379
00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:32,616
You listened really close and
put a microphone underneath,

380
00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:34,320
you could actually
hear people screaming.

381
00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:41,600
This was later debunked
as a complete hoax

382
00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:44,680
but the fact that the
hole goes so deeply

383
00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:46,200
ignited people's imagination.

384
00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:50,880
Drilling continued down

385
00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:53,640
to more than 39,500ft...

386
00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:58,480
At which point drilling
was suspended for a year.

387
00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:00,480
This led to catastrophe.

388
00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:02,040
When work resumed,

389
00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:03,480
the drill twisted off.

390
00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:06,560
16,000ft of drill pipe

391
00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:08,840
had to be
abandoned in its shaft.

392
00:21:10,840 --> 00:21:11,880
When you're drilling

393
00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:13,200
so deep into the earth's crust,

394
00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:15,920
you're actually miles away
from where you are on the surface

395
00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:17,256
and you're drilling
and drilling away.

396
00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:18,280
That's one thing.

397
00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:20,360
If you then take
the drill bit out

398
00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:21,896
and then you try
and re-enter the hole,

399
00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:24,520
that's when it can cause
many, many problems.

400
00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:26,280
It's like trying to
find that needle

401
00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:29,280
in a haystack down to
where you were drilling before

402
00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:31,160
and the drill bit
itself can get stuck

403
00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:32,800
and you can break
the drill string.

404
00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:33,840
And in this instance,

405
00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:36,160
thousands of feet of
drill string were broken.

406
00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:40,440
Engineers now had
to start a new hole

407
00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:41,720
from an offshoot

408
00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:43,920
at 23,300ft.

409
00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:50,360
It took another five years

410
00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:53,160
to borehole down
to the amazing depth

411
00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:56,040
of 40,230ft.

412
00:21:57,680 --> 00:21:59,240
But at this incredible depth,

413
00:21:59,280 --> 00:22:01,360
drilling became
practically impossible.

414
00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:09,600
The Soviets discover that, when
you get far enough underground,

415
00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:12,040
the rocks are no longer rocks.

416
00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:15,960
'Cause as you go down,

417
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:17,360
it starts getting hotter

418
00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:20,120
and, as it gets hotter, it's
harder for the equipment,

419
00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:22,280
for your drill
equipment to hold up,

420
00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:25,800
but also the rock itself
begins to get a little bit soft,

421
00:22:25,840 --> 00:22:28,360
it begins to flow a
little bit like silly putty.

422
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:34,320
With their equipment
failing rapidly

423
00:22:34,360 --> 00:22:36,920
as they encountered
staggeringly high temperatures,

424
00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:39,520
the engineers at
kola had no option

425
00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:40,640
but to halt drilling.

426
00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:47,360
Though they failed to
reach their target depth,

427
00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:50,120
they pushed scientific
knowledge of the earth's structure

428
00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:51,960
further than ever before

429
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:54,040
and made astonishing
discoveries.

430
00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:01,280
One thing that surprised them was
they discovered a lot of water deep,

431
00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:02,880
deep down in the borehole,

432
00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:05,240
way below where you
would find groundwater

433
00:23:05,280 --> 00:23:07,120
or any effects of ocean water.

434
00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:09,216
Dan dickrell:
Scientists also found

435
00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:11,456
there was a tremendous amount
of hydrogen trapped in the rocks,

436
00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:13,200
which was completely unexpected.

437
00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:14,920
They theorised it
came from water

438
00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:16,720
that had been
squeezed so strongly

439
00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:19,280
that it actually
released hydrogen gas.

440
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:21,320
They're not the only
discoveries they made.

441
00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:32,000
The micro-fossils
found that deep

442
00:23:32,040 --> 00:23:33,880
were actually
single-celled organisms

443
00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:35,440
that had existed long, long ago

444
00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:37,480
and scientists were
very surprised that

445
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:40,800
life could even exist or
could be found that deeply.

446
00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:43,720
The kola borehole managed

447
00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:45,880
to penetrate nearly
a third of the way

448
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:47,840
through the baltic
continental crust.

449
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:52,720
It is the deepest
artificial point on earth,

450
00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:54,520
a record it still holds today.

451
00:23:56,360 --> 00:23:57,720
Due to a lack of funding,

452
00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:01,120
however, Russia
closed the facility in 2005.

453
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:05,920
Today,

454
00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:07,640
a simple welded steel plate

455
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:10,360
is the only sign that
the world's deepest hole

456
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:11,880
lies directly beneath your feet.

457
00:24:15,120 --> 00:24:16,216
You wouldn't necessarily know,

458
00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:19,680
but you could be standing
on that little metal plinth,

459
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:21,120
that beneath you,

460
00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:23,240
there's more than
seven miles of knowledge

461
00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:25,160
of what's going on
inside the earth's surface.

462
00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:28,080
And that, to me,
is really fascinating.

463
00:24:28,120 --> 00:24:30,720
From something that
looks completely bizarre,

464
00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:32,400
we actually have a window

465
00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:34,400
into the interior of our planet.

466
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:41,920
Nearly 5,500 miles to the west,

467
00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:43,600
in southern California,

468
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:44,760
is the salton sea...

469
00:24:46,360 --> 00:24:48,520
A shallow, saline body of water

470
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:51,120
that covers 350 square miles

471
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:52,880
of the Colorado desert

472
00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:55,200
and lies directly on
the San Andreas fault.

473
00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:00,120
It's an extraordinary feature

474
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:01,920
of the California desert,

475
00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:04,720
a 30-mile-long lake

476
00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:06,960
in middle of the wilderness.

477
00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:09,920
On the northeast corner,

478
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:11,480
sun-bleached timbers

479
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:13,000
reveal the remains
of an old dock

480
00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:15,080
half-buried in the desert sand.

481
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:19,120
Rotting fish strewn
along the beach

482
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:21,400
fill the air with
the smell of death.

483
00:25:23,360 --> 00:25:27,480
You have desolation
and, basically, decay.

484
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:28,800
It's like a graveyard.

485
00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:34,360
A solitary building has
been blasted by the elements

486
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:36,480
and its crumbling remains

487
00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:38,000
overlook the Sandy shore.

488
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,160
But occasionally revealed
by the morning sands

489
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:46,560
are broken concrete roadways,

490
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:48,680
half-buried bunkers,

491
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:52,160
the foundations of
long vanished buildings

492
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:55,160
and two 4,000ft-long runways.

493
00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:03,360
There's dead fish
along the shoreline.

494
00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:06,880
It's one of the most famous

495
00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:09,240
post-apocalyptic landscapes

496
00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:10,680
in all of the United States.

497
00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:15,800
Why was this mysterious
installation built

498
00:26:15,840 --> 00:26:18,720
in such a remote and
hostile area of desert?

499
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:21,680
And why was it abandoned?

500
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:28,080
In December 1944,

501
00:26:28,120 --> 00:26:30,320
teams of scientists
began arriving

502
00:26:30,360 --> 00:26:32,520
at an air station just
south of salton city.

503
00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:36,960
They were part
of a vital mission,

504
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:40,080
to beat Nazi Germany in the
race to develop the atom bomb.

505
00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:45,960
While us forces were
embroiled in a bloody pacific war,

506
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:49,040
the joint army-Navy z-46 group

507
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,360
started conducting
classified tests.

508
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:55,320
Codenamed 'project y',

509
00:26:55,360 --> 00:26:56,760
this mission to design

510
00:26:56,800 --> 00:27:00,440
and build the first atomic weapons
was part of the Manhattan project.

511
00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:04,720
Salton sea was chosen
as a key location.

512
00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:11,880
The salton sea was ideal
for the Manhattan project

513
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:13,880
and its aerodynamic testing.

514
00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:15,600
It was for two reasons.

515
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:17,680
It was completely isolated

516
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:20,480
and, two, that
afforded it secrecy.

517
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:26,840
In the middle of more than
20,000 acres of barren desert,

518
00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:30,160
this site became a
top-secret testing range,

519
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:33,440
the results of which remain
largely classified to this day.

520
00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:37,840
Leon lesicka is a local resident

521
00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:40,160
and his brother worked
as a security guard

522
00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:41,400
at the testing site.

523
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:47,400
They did a lot of practice here,

524
00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:49,920
which was pretty secretive.

525
00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:51,240
In fact, very secretive.

526
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:55,920
You will not see
anything as demanding

527
00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:58,120
of coordination, cooperation

528
00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:00,920
and integration across industry,

529
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:02,800
academia and the military

530
00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:04,040
as the Manhattan project.

531
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:07,640
The tests undertaken
at this location

532
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:09,800
were coordinated from here,

533
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:12,760
the naval auxiliary
air station, salton sea.

534
00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:19,080
Codenamed 'Sandy beach'...

535
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:23,320
This was an ideal site
for testing the ballistic

536
00:28:23,360 --> 00:28:26,920
and aerodynamic behaviour
of different bomb designs.

537
00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:37,160
If you're going to drop the
most powerful bombs ever,

538
00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:39,000
you have to be
absolutely certain

539
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:40,480
you're dropping
them with precision.

540
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:45,520
America's atomic bombs

541
00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:48,880
were designed to be dropped
by b-29 superfortresses.

542
00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:52,360
From 31,000ft,

543
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:55,760
they exploded
2,000ft above ground.

544
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:58,800
Teams of observers
had just 43 seconds

545
00:28:58,840 --> 00:29:00,800
to assess the
performance of each bomb

546
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:02,480
before it crashed into the sea.

547
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:07,760
Telemetry was used to
assess data relating everything

548
00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:11,080
from pressure and
temperature to vibration

549
00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:12,160
and to acceleration.

550
00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:18,040
You have almost no
cloud cover in a desert,

551
00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:20,320
so if you drop a
bomb in daylight,

552
00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:23,480
you can see exactly
where that thing is.

553
00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:29,280
That's the target out there
that they used to try to hit,

554
00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:31,600
about 1.5 miles out there.

555
00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:37,760
Although it was 400ft
away from the base,

556
00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:41,560
the target was practically
invisible to the b-29 bombers above.

557
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:46,880
Pilots had to be able to
drop their bombs accurately,

558
00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:49,480
otherwise they would not
survive a real bomb run.

559
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:53,240
A high-pressure
blast wave travelling

560
00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:55,080
at 1,100ft per second

561
00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:56,760
would knock them out of the sky.

562
00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:01,840
By 1944/'45,

563
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:03,840
they're doing a vast amount

564
00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:06,160
of ballistics testing,

565
00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:10,720
because a very slight
modification in the shape

566
00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:14,240
or length of a
bomb on the tail fins

567
00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:16,040
can affect the performance.

568
00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:18,640
Andrew gough: Salton sea base

569
00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:20,320
became ground zero

570
00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:21,880
for the dropping

571
00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:25,600
of five-tonne concrete bombs.

572
00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:27,640
This is where the
testing took place,

573
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:30,040
supposedly, for Hiroshima.

574
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:36,840
By the summer of 1945,

575
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:40,560
still unable to test a
live warhead at this site,

576
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:42,440
the trials at salton sea

577
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:44,200
were critical to demonstrating

578
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:47,080
that the weapons would
hit their targets first time.

579
00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,240
You had aircraft that
had automatic cameras

580
00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:58,120
and, when they're
dropping live bombs,

581
00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:00,880
you can see where
every bomb falls

582
00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:04,040
and then survey and
Mark that spot exactly,

583
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:08,200
and you might even be able
to recover the bomb itself.

584
00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:10,000
Scientists and engineers

585
00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:11,760
are testing over and over again,

586
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:12,920
to make sure

587
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:15,480
that the electronic components

588
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:19,480
that are going to make
all of that technology turn

589
00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:21,720
into the most powerful blast

590
00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:23,880
the world had ever seen

591
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:26,360
and work exactly as advertised

592
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:28,080
and exactly the
way the engineers

593
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:31,080
and the scientists
want it to go.

594
00:31:34,280 --> 00:31:36,680
More than 120 test
bombs were dropped

595
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:38,640
at the salton sea base.

596
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:41,760
Some casing designs, however,

597
00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:43,720
prove less than accurate

598
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:47,520
and four of the giant
missiles still lie out in desert

599
00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:49,000
where they missed their target

600
00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:50,680
and burrowed deep into the sand.

601
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:57,000
They did drop something
right in the centre

602
00:31:57,040 --> 00:31:58,920
of the tennis court,

603
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:00,440
which didn't go over too big.

604
00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:03,520
I guess that's how you learn.

605
00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:07,920
During testing,

606
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:09,600
the fat man atomic bomb

607
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:12,120
experienced a violent
wobble when dropped.

608
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:15,480
Yet at salton sea,

609
00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:17,040
this problem was resolved.

610
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:20,240
The addition of a distinctive,

611
00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:22,760
box-like tail
containing eight fins,

612
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:25,160
named a California parachute,

613
00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:26,240
suppressed the wobble

614
00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:28,080
and improved accuracy.

615
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:38,120
Because of the aerodynamic
investigations conducted here

616
00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:39,920
and the live atomic bomb tests

617
00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:43,400
at the white sands missile
range in new Mexico,

618
00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:44,880
america was able to deploy

619
00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:48,200
both the fat man
and little boy bombs

620
00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:50,080
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

621
00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:51,800
in August 1945

622
00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:57,480
at once, they caused
unparalleled death

623
00:32:57,520 --> 00:32:58,880
and destruction

624
00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:01,000
and secured allied victory

625
00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:02,680
against the Japanese empire.

626
00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:09,520
Salton sea was vitally important
to the Manhattan project.

627
00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:12,680
Nobody can afford to
have the brain power

628
00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:14,160
that's been assembled

629
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:15,680
for the Manhattan project

630
00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:18,360
build a bomb that's
not gonna hit the target.

631
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:23,040
For several years after the war,

632
00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:26,480
testing for the nuclear
program continued at the base.

633
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:30,440
In the 1950s and '60s,

634
00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:32,040
the nearby salton city

635
00:33:32,080 --> 00:33:34,800
became a popular
recreational resort

636
00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:37,640
and military secrecy was
increasingly compromised.

637
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:41,280
In 1971,

638
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:43,720
the base was shut
down and abandoned.

639
00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:49,920
Today, the area has been

640
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:52,000
reclaimed by the sand

641
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:54,960
and the salty environment
has eaten away at the buildings.

642
00:33:56,320 --> 00:33:59,680
There is little left of
the salton sea base

643
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:01,920
to show how vital
its contribution was

644
00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:04,360
to allied victory
during world war ii.

645
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:09,800
There's no plaques,
there's no statues,

646
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:13,280
nothing to tell you that this
was once a very important site.

647
00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:18,840
All that remains

648
00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:22,720
is a stark reminder of the
perils of nuclear development

649
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:24,600
and the cost of all-out war.

650
00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:32,480
Across the Atlantic ocean

651
00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:34,040
in continental Europe,

652
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:37,680
30 miles south of the
Belgian capital, Brussels,

653
00:34:37,720 --> 00:34:40,400
a desolate industrial
area spreads

654
00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:42,080
along the banks
of the river sambre.

655
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:48,880
Looming like a monolith
over the wasteland

656
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:50,880
is a squat concrete tower.

657
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:55,160
It is around 200ft in
diameter at its base

658
00:34:55,200 --> 00:34:58,560
and rises 354ft into the air.

659
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:03,000
Its corrugated
sides slope upwards

660
00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:04,480
to reveal a gaping mouth.

661
00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:09,440
It's certainly impressive.
It's amazing to see.

662
00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:11,200
Roma agrawal:
It's quite beautiful.

663
00:35:11,240 --> 00:35:13,960
They've got these
really flowing shapes.

664
00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:17,240
Mysteriously,

665
00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:19,160
the wide base is
pierced all around

666
00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:20,600
by numerous gaps.

667
00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:25,120
The tower's interior looks like

668
00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:27,080
an unfinished beehive,

669
00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:29,280
covered with
rotting wooden slats

670
00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:30,920
and weed-clogged channels.

671
00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:36,520
What lies behind

672
00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:38,880
the bizarre features
of this massive tower?

673
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:41,760
And why was it abandoned?

674
00:35:46,240 --> 00:35:47,720
In 1921,

675
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:48,880
the city of charleroi

676
00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:51,200
was part of Belgium's
industrial heartland.

677
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:55,240
Yet, having suffered
four long years

678
00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:58,360
of German occupation
during world war I,

679
00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:02,080
its hundreds of factories
were struggling for power.

680
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:04,160
Despite Belgian neutrality,

681
00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:07,120
Germany's invasion
of 1914 was followed

682
00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:09,480
by a thorough dismantling
of Belgian industry.

683
00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:12,080
It was part

684
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:14,280
of what historians
sometimes call

685
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:15,600
the 'rape of Belgium'.

686
00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:19,920
To help drag the nation's
economy back to its feet,

687
00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:22,440
a state-of-the-art power
station was proposed.

688
00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:27,080
The enormous power plant im.

689
00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:33,440
In the process of
generating power,

690
00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:35,640
typically steam
engines are utilised.

691
00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:37,360
To make steam, you need water

692
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:39,640
and when you make steam,
that water gets quite hot.

693
00:36:39,680 --> 00:36:41,840
To create new steam, you
need to take the hot water,

694
00:36:41,880 --> 00:36:43,360
cool it down

695
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:44,480
and then recreate steam.

696
00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:49,280
The power plant was
one of the largest of its kind

697
00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:50,400
in Europe.

698
00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:59,360
At its heart was a
dramatic cooling tower,

699
00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:01,720
designed to cool
the water back down

700
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:03,520
and produce more
steam-based energy

701
00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:04,800
by burning coal.

702
00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:12,200
We all recognise a cooling
tower when we see one

703
00:37:12,240 --> 00:37:14,296
and that's because they've
got that characteristic shape.

704
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:15,760
It's called a hyperboloid,

705
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:19,280
this 3D form that's
quite wide at the base

706
00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:21,000
and then it kind of funnels in

707
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:23,400
before coming back
out again at the top.

708
00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:25,120
The reason they have this shape

709
00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:27,560
is because as the
air, the warm air,

710
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:29,600
is drawn up through that tower,

711
00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:32,760
it's accelerated through
that funnel where it narrows

712
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:36,000
and that draws more air in
from underneath, cooler air,

713
00:37:36,040 --> 00:37:38,400
which does the job
of a cooling tower.

714
00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:46,880
To produce steam-based energy,

715
00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:48,360
the tower was able to cool

716
00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:51,960
an incredible 480,000
gallons of water

717
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:53,600
every minute.

718
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:54,680
But this was only possible

719
00:37:54,720 --> 00:37:58,480
because of the unique use of
its cone-like hyperboloid shape.

720
00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:05,480
The hyperboloid
shape of a cooling tower

721
00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:08,120
is extremely effective
in terms of heat transfer

722
00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:11,560
between the hot
water and the rising air.

723
00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:12,600
In that way,

724
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:14,480
the design is
persistent through time,

725
00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:16,840
it's a very classical
and effective way

726
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:18,080
to do what you need to do.

727
00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:23,800
For all its simplicity,

728
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:26,360
the tower itself
was no easy build.

729
00:38:27,720 --> 00:38:29,000
The hyperboloid shape

730
00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:31,480
was not simply a
matter of styling,

731
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:34,840
but a brilliant solution to
creating mass without weight.

732
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:39,840
So, creating these large,
flowing, beautiful shapes

733
00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:41,920
is actually quite challenging,

734
00:38:41,960 --> 00:38:43,920
because if any of
you have ever tried

735
00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:47,600
creating that shape just
on a pottery wheel that size,

736
00:38:47,640 --> 00:38:48,720
it's really hard.

737
00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:54,200
You're trying to use formwork
and moulds to create this.

738
00:38:54,240 --> 00:38:55,840
You need to change

739
00:38:55,880 --> 00:38:57,880
the way the mould
fits the higher you go

740
00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:00,040
so that you get
your curvy shape.

741
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:01,320
You're at a height, as well,

742
00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:03,520
and you're trying to
pour concrete down here,

743
00:39:03,560 --> 00:39:05,640
and then think
about doing all of that

744
00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:07,280
without computers.

745
00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:09,520
So you're basically
sitting there with a pencil

746
00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:11,000
and a piece of paper,

747
00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:12,280
working out what you need to do

748
00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:14,160
and then doing it on
this really grand scale.

749
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:18,560
The plant started
operating in 1921.

750
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:22,680
Hot water from the
plant's machinery

751
00:39:22,720 --> 00:39:24,360
was blasted into the tower

752
00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:25,680
through its central vent.

753
00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:29,640
It was collected

754
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:31,880
in hundreds of shallow channels

755
00:39:31,920 --> 00:39:34,480
designed to increase
its surface area

756
00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:36,760
and lower its
temperature rapidly,

757
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:38,440
with extreme economy.

758
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:43,880
They're using this principle

759
00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:46,920
that hotter air is less dense

760
00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:50,720
and therefore lighter, and
cooler air is more dense

761
00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:51,880
and therefore heavier.

762
00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:54,120
And so what happens
in these towers

763
00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:56,000
is that the hot air rises up

764
00:39:56,040 --> 00:39:58,160
and the cool air
stays at the base.

765
00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:01,360
And the shape here helps

766
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:04,040
and gives it a bit of
an aerodynamic quality

767
00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:06,800
to allow this flow to
happen very smoothly.

768
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:11,720
Through the interwar period,

769
00:40:11,760 --> 00:40:13,840
the new plant
successfully helped

770
00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:16,720
power huge industrial
expansion in Belgium.

771
00:40:17,960 --> 00:40:20,040
From 1940, however,

772
00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:22,800
Belgium was again
under German occupation

773
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:25,440
and the plant's output
was diverted to serve

774
00:40:25,480 --> 00:40:26,760
their Nazi overlords.

775
00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:29,920
In the post-war years,

776
00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:32,160
it continued to serve Belgians

777
00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:33,880
and, by 1977,

778
00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:36,760
it was the main source of
energy in the charleroi area.

779
00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:41,200
Yet engineers at
the time had no idea

780
00:40:41,240 --> 00:40:42,920
that hanging over its future

781
00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:46,120
were two deadly by-products.

782
00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:48,520
Lurking in the
channels of the tower

783
00:40:48,560 --> 00:40:50,040
was a killer disease.

784
00:40:54,160 --> 00:40:55,520
Inside a cooling tower,

785
00:40:55,560 --> 00:40:57,360
it's warm and it's damp

786
00:40:57,400 --> 00:41:00,600
and at the exact temperature
in those conditions,

787
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:02,680
they can become
a breeding ground

788
00:41:02,720 --> 00:41:04,200
for legionnaire's disease,

789
00:41:04,240 --> 00:41:05,280
which can be fatal.

790
00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:08,680
However, the tower continued

791
00:41:08,720 --> 00:41:11,560
to operate
effectively for decades

792
00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:13,960
without any fatalities,

793
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,880
yet its days were
still numbered.

794
00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:19,440
The coal-powered
plant was also producing

795
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:22,160
alarmingly high levels
of carbon dioxide.

796
00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:28,160
A report found it
responsible for 10%

797
00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:30,880
of the total co2
emissions in Belgium.

798
00:41:32,720 --> 00:41:35,120
This was followed by
Greenpeace protests

799
00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:37,280
in 2006

800
00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:38,520
and, a year later,

801
00:41:38,560 --> 00:41:40,120
it was forced to close down.

802
00:41:41,720 --> 00:41:43,160
Considered too unsafe

803
00:41:43,200 --> 00:41:45,320
and contaminated
to be repurposed...

804
00:41:46,360 --> 00:41:47,960
The site lies abandoned.

805
00:41:51,720 --> 00:41:53,720
Today, the futuristic appearance

806
00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:55,200
still amazes the few people

807
00:41:55,240 --> 00:41:57,520
prepared to penetrate
its daunting maze

808
00:41:57,560 --> 00:41:59,400
of concrete beams.

809
00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:03,040
It is now being preserved

810
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:04,480
as an icon of design

811
00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:06,040
for future generations.

812
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:11,080
After decades of being seen

813
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:14,240
as a piece of
industrial engineering,

814
00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:16,480
its beauty has
actually shone through

815
00:42:16,520 --> 00:42:18,640
and that's the reason
they now want to keep it.

816
00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:23,160
Now nearly a century old,

817
00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:26,280
power plant im and
its iconic cooling tower

818
00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:29,280
show that when engineers
get a design right,

819
00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:30,840
it becomes timeless.

820
00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:36,040
For me,

821
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:40,880
I just love the mathematical
and structural perfection

822
00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:42,680
that these towers represent.

823
00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:55,080
Now abandoned,

824
00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:58,320
they were once on the cutting
edge of human engineering.

825
00:43:00,200 --> 00:43:02,360
Within these decaying structures

826
00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:03,960
are the echoes of history.

827
00:43:05,720 --> 00:43:06,880
They speak of war

828
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:08,400
and terror,

829
00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:12,640
but also of exploration
and human endeavour.

830
00:43:15,880 --> 00:43:18,880
Captioned by
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