The Steam Tunnels

When Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace, an ardent supporter of segregation, spoke in Sanders Theatre in 1968, he received a less-than-friendly welcome from the Harvard crowd--which surrounded the theater after his speech.

Wallace's bodyguards, despite being armed, would not permit him to walk through the crowd because they were fearful that violence would erupt.

Wallace desperately needed an escape route, and Harvard Police Chief Robert Tonis came to his rescue by leading the governor and his bodyguards to the basement of Sanders Theatre--where they entered Harvard's steam tunnel system.

The group walked through the tunnels to an exit in the Yard, where Harvard police quickly escorted Wallace to an automobile and drove him off campus.

Or so the story goes, says Associate Dean of Freshman W. C. Burriss Young '55, who says he heard the story from Tonis himself.

Harvard's underground steam tunnels, a secret to most members of the Harvard community, provide a direct link between many Yard buildings, river houses, science labs, the Law School and the Business School (please see map).

A total of three miles of passageways lie about six feet beneath the ground, just under the sub-basements of Harvard buildings.

Tonis knew about the tunnel system because, as a former FBI agent, he had been assigned to tail a suspected German spy in 1939.

In that year during World War II, Tonis and his partner followed the spy from Boston's South Station to Cambridge. The spy entered one of Harvard's river houses and disappeared.

When Tonis assumed the role of Harvard police chief 1962, "the first thing he wanted to do was figure out how the spy had escaped his pursuers," Young says.

Tonis concluded that the spy must have evaded the FBI by using the steam tunnels, and because of that experience, Tonis extensively familiarized himself with the tunnel system--fortunately for Wallace in 1968.

While the tunnels have come in handy for Harvard's visitors--and intruders--on at least a handful of occasions, and have sparked the curiosity of mischievous students through the years, the underground paths serve several essential functions for the University.

The steam tunnels originate from the Cambridge Electric Company's steam generating plant on Western Ave., and contain the steam that heats most of Harvard's buildings.

The tunnels run from the power plant all the way up to the Law School and science labs. Another section of the tunnel crosses over the Charles River to the Business School and Soldiers Field via Weeks Footbridge.

They contain more than just steam pipes, as they carry the chilled water conduits, cable TV, computer, telephone and fire alarm lines." There are some areas with electrical power cables and natural gas pipes," says Tom Vautin, the director of the Facilities Maintenance Department.

In addition, the tunnels are wired with their own telephone communication system, used by maintenance to turn the system on and off when the climate changes, Hawkes says.

No Visitors Allowed

Although some stories about the tunnels might excite the avid adventurer, Young cautions that the tunnels are "no place for anybody to be."

Vautin warns that "there are high temperature steam pipes that could cause a risk to people being burned."

Hawkes warns that in addition to the danger of being burned, they are very concerned about people operating the valves, which could have severe repercussions.

Hawkes says they will not release precise information on the layout of the tunnel and the entrances because "there are necessary security precautions."

But the entrances themselves, of which there are "hundreds," says Hawkes, are not hard to find. Many of the doors, such as those in the basements of Lowell D and Wigglesworth E, have signs that read "Steam Tunnels - Authorized Personnel Only."

Students attempting to enter, however, will have great difficulty doing so.

"We work very hard to keep things secure," Hawkes says. All of the entrances to the tunnels are locked, and alarms on the doors alert personnel in the Science Center control room exactly which doors have been opened so they can go find the intruders.

Yet some sleuthy students remain fascinated with the tunnels and have tried to get in in the past, risking disciplinary action.

One Quincy House resident, Ilya Tsymbal '96, says he and a number of friends escapaded through the tunnels a number of times last year--until the police caught a trio of them on Head of the Charles weekend.

They had previously entered through an "unlocked" door in Wigglesworth-E entryway, and left the premises after exiting through the same door.

But on this occasion, after venturing to the Malkin Athletic Center and Adams House, the group made the mistake of leaving through the Winthrop kitchen and staying--until security answered the silent alarm triggered when any tunnel entrance is opened.

Worst of all, they tried to run away and escape from the police--which landed them a visit with the Administrative Board.

"It was a lot of fun while it lasted," Tsymbal says, "although we almost got kicked out of school."

Beware of the Heat

Three pipes run through the system, two of them 10 inches in diameter and one 12 inches wide--carrying steam hotter than 400 degrees Fahrenheit, Hawkes says.

Most areas of the tunnel itself are about 60 to 70 degrees and are heated or cooled by the ventilation system.

Some of the entrances and exits to the tunnel allow outside air to keep the tunnels quite cold. But in other areas, the heat escaping from the pipes can raise the temperature in the tunnels to over 100 degrees.

But this problem of excessive heat does not come into play for most of the tunnel system because heavy insulation minimizes the heat entering the tunnels, Hawkes says.

The function of the steam pipes is primarily to heat open space and for hot water.

The Cambridge Electric Company's power plant on Western Ave. uses either natural gas or fuel, depending on which one is cheaper to heat the water to steam, Hawkes says.

It is efficient for the University to heat the buildings by steam rather than natural gas because the University "does not need storage tanks, a boiler room or a gas main," Hawkes says.

The tunnels are not connected to every building at Harvard, but they serve virtually each one either through the walk-in tunnels or through an underground conduit, which are smaller branch pipe systems.

Hawkes says the University has three miles of pipes running through the tunnel system, and another three miles of direct buried pipes.

The tunnel system is more than half a century old. Most of the sections were built between 1927 and 1933, although the first section was built even years before, in 1914, according to documents in the University's archives.

Considering that much of the structure is relatively old, the tunnels are in fairly good condition, Hawkes says, especially in the upper section of the Yard.

He says that in the tunnels which run along Memorial Drive, the concrete was delaminating, or peeling off the walls, because of the water from the river.

Hawkes demonstrated delamination by pulling a loose piece of concrete off the tunnel wall, loosing a cloud of dust.

By walking through the tunnels, one can see the three main steam pipes lining the walls as well as a fourth pipe that carries condensate, or chilled water, back to the power plant to be reheated to steam.

The pipes are lined with meters which measure temperature and pressure, and valves to alter the pressure or shut down the pipes.

The tunnels are lit by hanging lights spaced out by ten feet. These lights cast a bright beam directly under them, but only a dim picture beyond until the next light.

Tsymbal, the daring explorer, describes the tunnels as "hot and steamy with lots of puddles on the floor. It has poor lighting in some areas like the tunnels in the movie 'Aliens.'"

This summer, workers jackhammered through a large section of the roof of the tunnel under Memorial Drive and fixed up the walls with steel reinforcing. They also poured new concrete for the roof, Hawkes says.

Many sections of the tunnel have chips in the concrete which are either left there, paved over or reinforced with steel.

Four maintenance employees now work full time reading meters, checking the tunnels and fixing the pipes when called for. They primarily look for leaks and check expansion joints.

The pipes are prone to leaks in the valves so workers check the valves and often repack them to prevent leaks.

Their other main function is to check the expansion joints. Because the temperature in the pipes can vary between 70 and 400 degrees when the steam is turned on and off, the steel is constantly expanding and contracting.

These expansion joints allow for the horizontal expansion when the steam is turned on around Sept. I and contraction when the steam is turned off after commencement, Hawkes says.

These joints are likely sites for leaks to develop, and must be inspected and maintained continuously. Hawkes says that leaks are most likely to occur where there is packing. The packing is located at sites where there is moving, "for example, at the expansion joint or the valve stems where the valve opens and closes at the valve joint," Hawkes says.

The steam tunnels are not the University's only tunnel system. Food tunnels link five river houses to the University's central kitchen, says Michael P. Berry, the director of Harvard Dining Services.

Berry says these tunnels run parallel to Memorial Drive, and are used to transport food from the central kitchen to each of the dining halls.

The food tunnel system has its own quirky historical tales as well.

Berry said that U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara came to Harvard during the Vietnam anti-war period. Students demonstrating against the war opposed McNamara's presence, forcing him to be "exited away from protesters through the food tunnels," Berry says.

But the funny stories are not the only connection between the two tunnel systems.

"There are some places where the food and steam tunnels run side by side," Hawkes says. "Obviously you can't carry the food through the steam tunnels."