Original subtitles

Narrator: the remains of a Sinister walled complex

Lost to the freezing waters...

Why was this area flooded?

What did it used to be?

Narrator: ...A forgotten passageway

Leading into the Depths of a mountain

Baffles anyone Who may happen by...

This gaping hole In the rock face

That looks like some kind of Entrance into the underworld.

Narrator: ...And strange Military structures

Hidden in A snow-covered forest...

Hidden in A snow-covered forest...

Caldwell-evans: There's something not quite Right about this structure.

At first sight, you think You know what it is.

And then when you get closer, It doesn't quite add up.

*

Narrator: once, they were some Of the most advanced structures

And facilities on the planet,

At the cutting edge Of design and construction.

Today, they stand abandoned, Contaminated,

And sometimes deadly.

But who built them? And how?

And why were they abandoned?

And why were they abandoned?

-- captions by vitac -- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

*

*

In estonia, an eastern European country

Formerly occupied By communist russia,

Is a complex with A troubled past.

*

*

It's a sprawling, Guarded compound

Partly immersed in the Freezing lake next to it.

Gough: This is such a curious site.

There's this lovely lake.

Only one problem -- There's big concrete structures

In the middle of the lake.

Jerram: what you see is This weird landscape

Nature's essentially Kind of taken over.

Nature's essentially Kind of taken over.

The way they sit there,

There's almost something Apocalyptic about them.

Narrator: in the depths of the Lake is a bizarre sight --

Forgotten machinery, Lengths of barbed wire,

And walls topped With floodlights.

The building's Scrawled in graffiti,

Juts imposingly out of the lake,

And a hill that looks Strangely out of place

In what is otherwise Very flat terrain.

In what is otherwise Very flat terrain.

Narrator: sharp veins carved Out of the steep slope

Lead up to a tree-covered Ridge high above.

Could they give a clue as To why these structures

Have been left To just crumble away?

It was not a place Anybody wanted to be.

*

Narrator: The answers are linked

To the decades that followed The 1940 occupation of estonia

To the decades that followed The 1940 occupation of estonia

By communist russia.

The soviets were implementing Huge infrastructure projects

Across their empire, But this created

A desperate need For construction materials,

And this partly submerged Site was vital to the answer.

This is murru prison.

But how was this site linked

To the soviet's search For construction materials?

When the soviet union Begins to occupy

When the soviet union Begins to occupy

The baltic regions and estonia, In particular,

It gets really Ugly very quickly.

Anyone who voices Opposition to the soviets,

More often than not, They're put into a prison.

This was one of the Most oppressive prisons

In all of europe.

It was not a place Anybody wanted to be.

The prisoners lived and Worked in inhumane conditions

The prisoners lived and Worked in inhumane conditions

And were treated harshly.

*

Gough: it was a place where you Were put as punishment,

And the punishment Was very severe.

Narrator: But in soviet russia,

Prisons weren't just used To lock up inmates.

They were brutal places Of hard labor.

So, what did they need An army of workers for

So, what did they need An army of workers for

Here at murru prison?

Gough: this part of estonia Is really famous

For its limestone quarries That produce this material

That was really easy to process.

Jerram: pure ones have this Kind of marble-like quality.

They're very light in color.

They don't have many impurities.

And it means when you want to Use them for things like cement

And when you want to use them In the paper industry and so on,

They're the ideal Type of limestone.

They're the ideal Type of limestone.

Narrator: It may not look like much now,

But in 1938, a quarry Was built here at murru prison.

Its aim was simple -- to dig For vast amounts of limestone.

And the size of This strange hill

Is a clear sign that this Was a huge operation.

In terms of mining, A slag heap is essentially

The rocks that you don't want,

And so as you process The rocks and mine them,

And so as you process The rocks and mine them,

If you've got an area Which you're collecting

And say 50% of The rocks are good

And the stuff that you want, And the rest is really rubbish,

If the mine has a Long life to it,

These slag piles can be Almost like small mountains.

*

Narrator: but without giving The inmates heavy machinery,

How did they get The limestone out?

Jerram: they'd actually just Blast the areas with dynamite

And collect the Limestone accordingly.

And collect the Limestone accordingly.

The reason why the Soviets built a prison

Next to this quarry is that

Really you just a need Sort of brute force

To get the rocks Into smaller pieces

So you can transport them away.

So, if you can have A large labor force,

They don't have to be Particularly that skilled,

That can attack the Rock mass in terms of

Breaking it down Into smaller pieces

So you can take it away, Then that's ideal for you.

Narrator: Keeping them from escaping,

The site was protected By security fences

The site was protected By security fences

Lined with barbed wire.

But as demand increased, they Soon faced a new complication.

Could this overuse of labor

Have somehow lead to The site's flooding?

Jerram: as you go further, and As you potentially go deeper,

Then you might Encounter some problems.

For example, you might start To get into ground water,

And this is clearly an issue That happened at rummu.

Narrator: As they dug down,

Water would've poured in Creating dangerous conditions

Water would've poured in Creating dangerous conditions

And bringing the work To a grinding halt.

To clear it out, pumps were Installed in a central building.

Jerram: working the mines Here would've been

A very physical challenge,

And, clearly, If you're in an environment

Where it can go Below zero in winter,

They're constantly Pumping ground water out,

You're not being fed very much,

This would've been very harsh Conditions for anyone to work.

This would've been very harsh Conditions for anyone to work.

The sheer amount of ground water

That's flooded Back into the mine

Shows you just how Far they were going

To extract the resource.

Narrator: the site was Originally constructed

To house just 400 inmates.

But when they struggled To fulfill their quotas,

The police had a simple solution

To increase the Number of workers.

The way the soviets coped With the acute labor shortages

Was by forced Labor imprisonment,

Was by forced Labor imprisonment,

Forced labor of things That nobody wanted to do

Even if you paid them well, 'cause they're difficult,

They're back-breaking, And they're long, long hours.

No one's gonna sign up for that, So what do you do?

You make 'em do it.

You put 'em in prison and say, "This is your job."

*

Whenever they Needed more workers,

There'd be more arrests For hooliganism.

Many of the prisoners were Sentenced for social crimes,

Effectively, Public-order offenses.

Effectively, Public-order offenses.

*

Narrator: According to a c.I.A. Report,

The local area was home To three labor camps.

Together, they had a combined Work force of 5,200 prisoners.

Many prisoners died Because of cruel treatment,

Poor food, and appalling Working conditions.

Gough: There were rooms dedicated

Gough: There were rooms dedicated

To psychic and physical torture,

And if you resisted too much,

They took you into another room

Where they asked You to kneel down

And put your head Against the wall,

And they shot you in The back of the head.

[ gunshot ]

*

Narrator: so, how did this Reign of terror

Finally come to an end,

And what caused This site to be lost

Beneath the surface Of the water?

*

Narrator: in the waters Beside murru prison,

A former soviet Forced-labor camp,

Are the remains of A limestone quarry,

The site where The inmates once worked

Under brutal conditions.

But how did this place end up In its watery grave?

When the cold war ended And russia vacated estonia,

There was no political appetite Of any kind

There was no political appetite Of any kind

To maintain what They had created.

And why would there be?

It was a place of oppression.

It was a place of death.

And so, they just let it go.

Narrator: As communism withdrew,

Conditions at the Prison began to improve.

Forced labor was stopped, The quarry site was closed,

And the pumps were switched off.

If you're excavating below The level of ground water,

If you're excavating below The level of ground water,

And you're pumping the Ground water out to suppress

That ground water From flooding the mine,

Obviously, the minute You turn the taps off,

It's gonna start flooding again.

*

Narrator: the rising waters

Swallowed up machinery And buildings

Before they could be saved,

But the surviving Section of murru prison

Remained in use For another 20 years,

Finally being abandoned For good in 2012.

Finally being abandoned For good in 2012.

*

Three miles southeast Of waynesboro, virginia,

In the blue ridge mountains Is an ominous site.

*

In the depths of the Forest is a hidden archway

Cut straight into the Middle of a hillside.

You're faced with this Gaping hole in the rock face

You're faced with this Gaping hole in the rock face

That looks like some kind of Entrance into the underworld.

Once you get inside, All you can make out

Is this dark passageway

Disappearing off Into the distance.

Narrator: Almost a mile away,

Buried far inside the woods,

Is a second entrance To this underground lair.

Bell: there's something Pretty spooky about it.

You wouldn't want to go Wandering off

On your own too far.

Narrator: but deep inside, A wall blocks the route.

Narrator: but deep inside, A wall blocks the route.

Did the two sides ever connect?

And what exactly was this Underground site built for?

The clues are wrapped up in the History of the united states

As it underwent a Dramatic transformation

Around 200 years ago.

The east coast Towns were booming,

But the blue ridge mountains,

Part of the mighty appalachians,

Formed a natural barrier to The heart of the continent,

Formed a natural barrier to The heart of the continent,

All but cutting off trade Links to those central lands.

Jerram: as a mountain range, They're not particularly big,

But they're made up of Very, very hard rocks.

There's old metamorphic rocks,

There's granites in there,

And so, any topography like that Becomes a big, big problem.

Bell: To travel across the mountains, You had two choices --

Either along a canal At a painful four miles an hour

Or in a bone-rattling Stagecoach.

Or in a bone-rattling Stagecoach.

Narrator: To speed up the crossing,

Plans for a new tunnel System were quickly drawn up,

And in 1850, work started On this unique design.

That's quite an unusual Shape to have for a tunnel.

We're used to having quite Rounded, gradual curves.

It's narrow and high -- 16 feet by 21 feet.

Narrator: could its unusual Shape have been its undoing?

Narrator: could its unusual Shape have been its undoing?

*

Allen hale is a local expert

On the history Of this structure.

Initially, the impetus Was to build canals,

But, ultimately, it was seen

That the best means Of transportation

As it came towards the Middle of the 19th century

Were railroads.

Narrator: it was planned to be

A near mile-long Underground track.

A near mile-long Underground track.

Masterminded by french Engineer claudius crozet,

This would become known As the crozet tunnel.

Jerram: this is a real feat Of engineering

And they did it by hand, By sweat, blood, and tears

With only, essentially,

Gunpowder to help them On the way.

Narrator: but there are No rail tracks here today,

And walls inside Block off the tunnel.

So, what happened?

So, what happened?

When you want to build a tunnel

From one side of a Mountain to another,

You look at the rock types.

Ideally, you want A soft enough rock

That you can carve into,

But it has to be hard Enough to maintain a tunnel.

And in the blue ridge mountains There's a particular problem

Because the rocks Are quite hard.

You've got granites on one side,

And you've got Greenstones on another,

This kind of metamorphic Volcanic rock

That's very, very hard.

Narrator: How would they cut through Almost a mile of solid rock?

Narrator: How would they cut through Almost a mile of solid rock?

Bell: construction techniques For tunnels at the time

Were a far cry from what We've got available today,

So much so that progress went

About one foot a day Into the mountainside.

*

Hale: This tunnel was drilled by hand.

You can see remnants Of these drill holes.

Here's one up on the wall there.

One man swinging a sledgehammer And another holding a bit,

One man swinging a sledgehammer And another holding a bit,

Which turned and Turned and turned.

They would be about Three feet at the most

And then shot with black powder.

*

Narrator: so, would they ever Make it through to other side?

Or would the use of black powder Spell disaster for the project?

*

Narrator: during the 1850s in Virginia's blue ridge mountains,

Work on a tall rail tunnel Cutting straight through

Almost a mile of solid rock

Was moving at an Incredibly slow pace.

In a bid to speed Up the process,

They used an unstable Explosive called black powder.

Black powder is Dangerous because, at best,

It's unpredictable.

It's unpredictable.

Many deaths, many casualties

Would've occurred Because of that.

Narrator: but this was not The only danger they faced.

As you tunnel Through a rock mass,

The nature of that Rock mass changes,

And where you get faults Or cracks within the rocks

Or you might get two Different rock types

Against each other,

You can actually have water Coming into those gaps.

The worry is that these areas

Where the water's coming Through are actually weak.

Agrawal: so, what they had to do Was to shore that up,

Agrawal: so, what they had to do Was to shore that up,

So they put in a Thick wall of bricks

To essentially line that Portion of the tunnel

To ensure that it Remained safe and stable.

Jerram: the dangers of rock fall Are paramount.

This is indeed what caused Many of the injuries

And fatalities during The excavation of the tunnel.

Narrator: at least 14 men would Die whilst working here

And many more would be injured.

And many more would be injured.

So, as we delve into The tunnel here,

You will see that all of This is through solid rock

And basically nothing has Changed here from the 1850s

When this was bored Through the mountain.

Narrator: as one of The six contending lines

Racing to cut through To the central states,

This virginia route had to be Completed quickly.

To double the speed,

They went at it from Both sides at once.

They went at it from Both sides at once.

But did the slender Design of the tunnel

Offer another solution?

Agrawal: the idea was, in these Very difficult conditions

With the hard material,

To try and maximize The amount of area of material

That the men were working On at any one point.

People really doubted crozet

And whether his design Was actually gonna work,

Whether he could Really pull this off.

Narrator: the tall shape meant Two separate crews

Narrator: the tall shape meant Two separate crews

Could work inside the tunnel.

First, the header crew made A start on the roof section.

Next, the floorer crew Cleared away the debris below

To create the lower Level of the route.

It would help to slash The construction time.

But as they were digging From both sides at once,

Would the two tunnels line Up and meet in the middle?

So, nearly seven years Had gone by.

The workers had Been working in very

The workers had Been working in very

Back-breaking conditions,

There were unstable explosives,

They had one of the Coldest winters on record,

They were hit by cholera,

But one day, they Actually got to the point

Where they created About a two inch hole,

And you could see through

From one side of the tunnel To the other.

Jerram: They were only a few inches out.

They were almost dead on message

In terms of where They were predicting

The one tunnel Meeting the other.

Amazing engineering Feat for that time.

Amazing engineering Feat for that time.

Narrator: when it opened,

It was the longest mountain Railroad tunnel in the world,

Stretching 4,264 feet.

Slashing the time it took

To send goods across The mountains,

The valuable market in the west Was now open for business.

Despite its great success,

As freight trains and Carriages grew larger,

Crozet's ingenious design Became outdated and too small.

Crozet's ingenious design Became outdated and too small.

Eventually, over 80 years later,

This alternative route Was opened.

So, if the tunnel was completed,

Then why do the two Sides not connect today?

Hale: the 1950s, a gas company Was planning to store gas

In the center of the tunnel

And what you see here is a Reinforced concrete bulkhead,

Which seals off the interior 2,000 feet of the tunnel.

Which seals off the interior 2,000 feet of the tunnel.

Narrator: Ultimately, that project failed,

But the walls blocking This tunnel remain.

Today, the crumbling Tunnel entrances

Are a reminder of The sacrifices made

And the bold ambition Of the engineers

Who hoped to build a better Future for the united states.

*

28 miles from finland's Capital, helsinki,

28 miles from finland's Capital, helsinki,

Is a pair of abandoned towers.

*

Located in a Snow-covered forest,

These identical structures Stand hidden amongst the trees.

At first sight, you'd assume

This was just a standard European medieval church,

But there's something Not quite right.

But there's something Not quite right.

Only when you get Close can you see

That this is not made of stone.

It's made of poured concrete.

It's got to be 20th century.

*

Narrator: locked up and sealed Off for decades,

What past events were The locals trying to forget?

The towers' construction Hint at a sinister purpose,

Like their design to withstand An apocalyptic event.

Like their design to withstand An apocalyptic event.

*

The tower itself is Very massively built.

I mean, it's really solid.

When you get to the Top of the tower,

Instead of coming to a point, You get a very obvious platform.

*

Narrator: seen from the top is The village of rajamaki,

Dominated by a large Industrial-looking building.

*

Wisdom: the tower looks Like a castle tower,

Wisdom: the tower looks Like a castle tower,

And it's for the same purpose --

It gives you a very high, Elevated view

Of the ground around you, But critically here,

It gives you a very high, Elevated view

Of the air around you.

Narrator: So, why were these towers built?

And why are they here, deep In the finnish countryside?

*

Clues can be found In a forgotten chapter

Of the second world war.

Of the second world war.

In 1939, the russians Looked to push back

Their border with finland.

It was known as the winter war.

The finns were hopelessly Outnumbered and outgunned.

The soviets had Thousands of tanks.

The finns barely had any at all.

They were in desperate need Of an effective defense.

Caldwell-evans: as far As stalin's concerned,

There is no way a country The size of finland

There is no way a country The size of finland

With a tiny population Is gonna say no

To the might Of the soviet union.

Unfortunately, The finns had other ideas.

*

One way of improvising An anti-tank defense

Was the creation of The molotov cocktail --

Simply a bottle filled with Kerosine, tar, gasoline mixture,

And it could be ignited By a sulfuric acid fuse.

And it could be ignited By a sulfuric acid fuse.

*

Narrator: simpler versions of Molotov cocktails

Made from a bottle of petrol With a flaming rag in the top

Have been used in Conflicts across the world

Ever since the 1930s.

But it was the finns Who first realized

Their full potential as a Weapon in guerrilla warfare.

Desperate times required Desperate measures,

And the molotov cocktail Ranks there pretty high

And the molotov cocktail Ranks there pretty high

As a desperate weapon.

It's a very, very dangerous way To attack the enemy.

Caldwell-evans: however likely Armored a tank might be,

If all you've got is A uniform, a rifle,

And a bottle full of petrol,

It takes a lot of guts To try and sneak up on it,

To try and get close enough To plant your petrol bomb

On its vulnerable area,

Which is the rear Deck above the engine.

*

Narrator: but how are the towers Linked to the molotov cocktails?

Narrator: but how are the towers Linked to the molotov cocktails?

And why do they appear To have been built

To withstand the full Force of a soviet attack?

*

Narrator: hidden In the finnish countryside

Are two concrete towers

Built near the village Of rajamaki,

A key target In the winter war of 1939.

[gunfire]

With few proper Anti-tank weapons,

The finnish army were reliant

On the highly effective Molotov cocktail.

But with the russians Still advancing,

They desperately Needed more of them.

They desperately Needed more of them.

To manufacture enough Molotov cocktails,

The finnish army go to the State alcohol plant at rajamaki.

They take bottles of alcohol,

And there they are manufactured Into molotov cocktails.

It's fire bombs On an industrial scale.

Narrator: the soviets were Suffering around three times

As many casualties as the finns.

But with their superior numbers, They stepped up their attack...

But with their superior numbers, They stepped up their attack...

And the molotov cocktail factory Soon became a key target.

There's a problem, though.

Because this is A state alcohol plant,

It's got the name of the Alcohol plant on the cap.

When the soviets Find these caps,

You might just as well have Held up a big flag saying

"The enemy is here."

It's now very easy to find Where these are being made,

And thus, it's very easy For the soviet bombers

To arrive and target The factory.

To arrive and target The factory.

Narrator: Plans were quickly drawn up

To bolster the Village's defenses.

If you're looking at finland,

One of the main Problems the landscape offers

To any anti-aircraft gunner

Is that there are an awful Lot of trees in the way.

The only way to Extend your horizon,

To get yourself a clear field Of fire for incoming bombers

Is to lift your anti-aircraft Gun off the ground.

And that's why the only Solution was to build a tower.

*

*

Narrator: standing less Than half a mile away

From the bottling plant Are the rajamaki towers,

Each built to hold An anti-aircraft or flak gun,

Which could unleash A barrage of fire power

Upon the approaching Enemy aircraft.

*

A flak gun is simply An artillery piece

Which is made with high Elevation on the barrel

To bring aircraft down.

To bring aircraft down.

It'll shoot a shell High into the air,

That shell will burst near The aircraft, hopefully,

And the bursting fragments Will bring the aircraft down.

*

Narrator: the towers could Provide the ideal defense,

But with the soviet Attack imminent,

Would they be ready in time?

Caldwell-evans: The finns were rightly fearful.

The russians really Didn't have the capability

To drop bombs with precision,

To drop bombs with precision,

So finnish towns would Just be carpet-bombed.

*

Narrator: For the war in the skies,

The finns would have to scramble A strong defense once again.

*

In rajamaki, two Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft guns

Were brought in To defend the bottling plant

From the ground.

40mm bofors gun Was probably the best,

40mm bofors gun Was probably the best,

One of the best anti-aircraft Weapons ever invented.

A very advanced Gun for its time,

But not fully Automatic by any means.

It had to be loaded by The crew themselves.

In the finnish winter when Everything is blanketed by snow,

It must've been freezing.

Any wind blasting Across the landscape

Is going' to hit That crew full on.

The gun layers themselves Who were actually

Looking for targets, Sighting targets,

The crew who were loading Ammunition into it,

The crew who were loading Ammunition into it,

Simply can't be standing there Completely wrapped up in furs.

They've got to be mobile.

It must've been quite Grim for that crew

Waiting hour after hour to Be able to take on a bomber

And keep it away from That vital bottling plant.

*

Narrator: The platforms could offer

The perfect position For the gunners,

But would the guns Alone be enough

To defend against A fleet of soviet bombers?

To defend against A fleet of soviet bombers?

*

Narrator: Amongst the treetops in the Snow-covered finnish countryside

Stand the rajamaki towers,

Both built during The second world war.

The hollow central Shafts of the towers

Would allow large Anti-aircraft guns

To be raised to the top,

Where they could then be set Ready for action.

They could be The vital last line of defense

Against the soviet air force.

Against the soviet air force.

Seppo petarinen works For the local municipality,

And knows the history Of these structures.

We are now on top Of one of the towers,

And here is the shaft Where the anti-aircraft gun

Has been lift up and placed here On top of this shaft.

The gun can spin around 360 degrees,

Because the bombers can Approach from any direction.

Because the bombers can Approach from any direction.

Narrator: But just over three months

After it had begun, The winter war ended.

The area of rajamaki Had been victim

Of nine separate Russian bombing raids,

But the finns had held firm, And the factory had survived.

The soviet air force, Throughout the winter war,

The three months Of the winter war,

Lost hundreds of aircraft.

In all, estimates Are about 300 to 400

Being shot down by the finns,

Either by aircraft Or ground defenses.

Either by aircraft Or ground defenses.

Narrator: the following year,

With the guns now mounted On the completed towers,

The war was suddenly back on.

The two towers Would've been linked

By telephone lines, and They would have been linked

To command, To control center.

All through finland, You would have people

With binoculars, With rangefinders,

On top of buildings,

Because finland didn't Have a radar system.

They relied on this Fairly good observer system,

They relied on this Fairly good observer system,

That would spot Russian aircraft,

Give their altitude, Give the position.

The flak guns would be alerted To russian aircraft --

What route, what distance, What speed.

Wisdom: Put yourself in the position

Of someone on top of one Of those flak towers.

You're above the tree line, So there's very little

Camouflage and cover for you.

You're in a position where The soviet bombers

Can see you are shooting At them from.

They're gonna target you.

You are a sitting target.

You are a sitting target.

It's gonna take Guts to be up there.

Caldwell-evans: although finnish Defenses are very limited,

And for example, Here at rajamaki,

A gun or two on towers Is not going to ward off

Dozens of bombers if They really want to get through.

The deterrent factor Was such that,

Really, any kind of resistance Would've had a major effect

On an attacking force.

Even one gun could Make all the difference

Between protecting a site

And it being pulverized By incoming bombers.

And it being pulverized By incoming bombers.

Narrator: with the towers And guns in place,

The soviets never Targeted rajamaki again.

The only bombers to fly over

Kept themselves high above And out of range.

The towers had done their job.

When the second world war ended,

Having teamed up with the nazis,

Finland was on the losing side.

The bottling plant Had reverted back

To producing alcohol full-time, Rather than molotov cocktails,

And the towers were Locked up for good.

And the towers were Locked up for good.

Wisdom: when you look At the towers today,

They're a symbol Of finnish resistance

Against the soviet union.

Everybody played their part, And the towers

Really stand as testimony To the efforts made

By the finnish people, People who worked in factories,

People who fought the soviets At the front,

They really are a testament

To the resilience Of the people of finland.

*

Narrator: on the south coast Of spain is the city

Narrator: on the south coast Of spain is the city

Of almería, and near its heart, Lies a huge industrial relic.

*

Stretching nearly 2,000 feet Is a rusting rail line.

It's a long, Snake-like structure

That extends out into the water From the city.

Meigs: this elevated rail line

Meigs: this elevated rail line

Kind of winds Through the port town,

And then just terminates In this massive,

Monolithic contraption,

That just kind of juts out Into the bay.

Narrator: here, a giant steel Pier supports the rail line

As it splits into Four separate tracks.

Meigs: almost like the eiffel Tower lying on its side.

So, clearly it's old, But what's its purpose?

So, clearly it's old, But what's its purpose?

Where does it go?

*

Narrator: Its story is closely tied

To the mass Industrialization of europe

In the 19th and 20th centuries.

Steel was the material of choice In the new machine age.

Its key ingredient is iron ore,

One of the most Sought-after resources

In the world at that time.

But dark clouds were looming.

Tensions between Nations were rising,

Tensions between Nations were rising,

And the first world war was Just over a decade away.

The old mines of southern spain

Just didn't have The infrastructure

To meet the new demand.

The mines are located Somewhere inland,

In a slightly Mountainous terrain.

There's several hundred feet Of topographic variation,

And that poses a problem, Because it's somewhat inland.

It might be easy to Locate the iron ore,

To essentially mine it Out of the ground,

But you have to Move it from there

To somewhere where You can ship it,

To somewhere where You can ship it,

So you have to get It to the coast.

Narrator: The first part was simple --

Build a railway line Between the mines

In southern spain and almería, The nearest port city.

But the real problems Still lay ahead.

It's hard for most People to imagine today

How low-tech ports used to be In their operations.

Everything that went on a ship Had to be handled by hand.

Transportation of the iron ore,

Transportation of the iron ore,

From the end of the rail To the ships was

An extremely laborious process,

Because, by hand, The iron ore was unloaded,

Stored, until a ship would come,

And then when the Ship would come,

By hand, the iron ore was Then loaded onto the ship.

Meigs: loading a ship full Of iron ore might take a week.

It was an incredibly Inefficient process.

What's so brilliant About this project is

They completely reimagined How you could load a ship.

*

*

Narrator: with the rise Of political conflicts

Across europe, the old port Just couldn't keep up

With the increased needs Of a rapidly changing world.

So, would this new hulking Mass of steel

Speed up the process, Or seal its doom?

*

Narrator: in the south of spain, Standing on the water's edge,

Is an imposing steel pier.

Hidden inside its shell is A mechanized system designed

To bring this port Into the 20th century.

But would this innovative Approach be a success,

And would it be Completed in time

To supply a europe coming Close to a first world war?

To supply a europe coming Close to a first world war?

*

Its construction began in 1902,

And it would become known as el cable inglés,

The english pier.

*

It was solving a very Fundamental problem,

Which was the amount Of time and labor

It took to transport material.

They used engineering to try

And create a much more efficient And better way to do that.

*

*

Well, the original design in the cable inglés,

Was to be made out of wood,

But in that particular region, With storms,

And other environmental Conditions,

It was decided that metal Would be more appropriate

And more suitable.

Jerram: southern spain seems Somewhat idyllic to most of us,

But in the autumn And winter months,

It can actually have some Quite violent storms.

So, clearly, areas Where you go from calm

To storm to calm to storm,

Those kind of surges mean That a structure, for example,

Made out of wood, might Not be good enough

Made out of wood, might Not be good enough

To sustain For a long period of time.

Narrator: the obvious choice Of material was steel.

The invention of a Modern steel-making process

Was kind of like the invention Of the silicon chip,

It was one technological change

That then enabled All these other changes.

They used the capabilities Of this beautiful material

To help them mine more iron And make more steel.

Narrator: but with the future Of the spanish mining industry

Narrator: but with the future Of the spanish mining industry

Relying on the success Of this project,

Why was it called The english pier?

England had the advanced steel Mills that needed this ore.

They also had all the money. They had all the capital.

So, they could afford to make These massive investments

In countries like spain And then a massive investment

In the infrastructure To get that ore

To the port and onto the ships.

Narrator: designed By leading british engineers,

Narrator: designed By leading british engineers,

The idea was to leave All the heavy lifting

To the rail cars And the jetty alone.

Supposedly, the days of Shoveling ore by hand were over,

But was there a new danger?

Instead of having to Load the ships by hand,

They would roll The rail car right out

To the end of this High, elevated pier,

And they would dump The contents directly

Into a big chute That led straight

Into the hull of the ship.

Narrator: Along the length of each side Of the jetty are 20 hoppers.

Narrator: Along the length of each side Of the jetty are 20 hoppers.

Using gravity alone To move the ore,

It would fall straight Into those containers.

Then, by selecting Which chutes to use,

It could be poured directly Into the ship's hold.

But would the modern system Save the local industry?

I think it's such A neat solution

To have this system Where the chutes take

This material from A train to a ship.

This material from A train to a ship.

Meigs: in many ways, It reflected the modern,

More mechanized way That major ports work today.

If you go to a container port,

Like the port of los angeles,

You'll see these giant Containers getting loaded

On and off boats, no one needs To touch the cargo at all.

Dickrell: it was a problem That needed to be solved,

And the solution to that was A great increase in efficiency.

It was a process That used to take 10 days,

Now it only took 10 hours.

Now it only took 10 hours.

It was a quarter Of the original cost,

Which was actually A great savings.

Narrator: this technology helped Spanish production

Of iron ore grow From just half a million tons

In 1875 to almost 10 million on The eve of the first world war

In 1913.

So, with all that growth, Why does the english pier

Lie abandoned on the edge Of the city today?

*

Meigs: it has its period when It's perfectly optimized

Meigs: it has its period when It's perfectly optimized

For the needs of the ships,

And then technologies move on, Markets move on,

Other mines have opened In other parts of the world.

Narrator: in september, 1970, It runs for the last time.

*

Originally saved from demolition For its historical value,

As costs spiraled, major plans

To convert the english pier Failed to materialize,

To convert the english pier Failed to materialize,

So for now, The old structure

Continues to stand Abandoned on the shore.