REPORT BY JOHN WARNE

Part 1

Ellisville was constructed in 1966 as a "partially hardened" site, designed
to withstand nuclear explosions in the Jacksonville, FL, area.

At the time of construction, the site was rated to withstand an "overpressure
of 100 pounds per square inch," according to an AT&T employee that has worked
at the site since the late 60's.

"Although today, we are probably down to 50 pounds or so," he said.

Modern targeting technology has rendered the "partial hardening" obsolete, he
said. "'He' can drop a bomb right down our air vent shaft if 'he' wanted to
now."

3-foot thick concrete walls extend about 50 feet from the surface, with two
main equipment floors. Earth is piled up on the surface, so the bottom of the
facility is only about 40 feet below the surrounding area.

A small spring was discovered during excavation. AT&T negotiated with a
farmer
to allow AT&T to "dump" the spring water into a farm pond, and built a 2-mile
long 24" culvert to divert the water. The farmer's pond is still being fed
from the spring.

Today, the facility is a large switching point for AT&T long-distance
service,
both voice and data. Only one rack of "cold-war" vintage hangs from the
ceiling on springs. An entire floor was gutted and raised "computer room"
flooring installed - a technique not allowed in the 60's and 70's.

The microwave horns on the tower have been abandoned in place. All traffic
(well, all traffic that he would comment on) flows over fiber cables on 4
paths - Jacksonville to the east, Orlando to the south, Live Oak to the west,
and Waycross to the north).

There's an antenna on the top of the tower that looks like a single Combat
Ciders antenna. When asked about that, he said "I can neither confirm nor
deny any such system, equipment, or activity of that nature at this site."

I was allowed to photograph in many areas of the facility, although the one
remaining vintage rack and equipment was in an area that corporate AT&T
policy would not allow. :-(

I'll write more as time permits, including details about the decontamination
shower, the "fallout lock," nuclear blast detectors that never worked, and
visiting a humongous room lined with air filters along one wall. Pictures
will be posted on my web site once they return from Seattle FilmWorks.

Ellisville, Part. 2:

Ever used a toilet set on springs? Ellisville has two of them (including
"flex" plumbing to and from the appliance). One sits and contemplates just
what things would have been like if the ultimate had happened.

This is just an illustration of how seriously any "bounce" from a nuclear
detonation was taken. All of the original equipment racks and any control
equipment installed along the walls had shock springs.

The generator room is a good example. Two 75 kw generators sit at the ready.
The original units are still in service today. The control panels are not
attached to the wall, but have springs at the bottom and the top.

BTW, this whole place is *spotless." One expects active areas (containing an
AT&T 5ESS toll switch and rows of digital switching equipment - for T-1 and
higher concentrations of data - and hundreds of echo canceller units) to be
clean and orderly. And, those areas are, without a scrap of paper to be seen.
Even the employee desks bear no resemblence to *my* office desk - no paper
stacks piled high and overflowing (I know there's a desk there somewhere
under all the paper - at least there was one day).

The areas not currently used, and even the back stairwell, are all clean and
neat. No "backroom" full of junk, boxes, or stuff.

Entry to the facility is through a conventional door set in a non-descript
white building with a AT&T "deathstar" logo. One door in a small vestibule
opens into the "dumbwaiter" room. All equipment moving in or out passes
through a rollup steel door and into a large metal basket attached to an
overhead crane. The dumbwaiter/elevator moves from surface level to either of
the underground operational levels, stopping next to access doors into the
protected part of the facility.

A second door in the vestibule opens into a stairwell for human access (no
elevator). Down a couple flights, and you are standing at an opened,
18"-thick
blast door. Step thru the portal and you are in a small chamber, with another
blast door set in a wall. This one is closed. It has a long lever, running
from lower right to the left side at waist level.

"When originally designed, only one door could be opened at a time. This is
the 'Fallout Lock.'"

Two hands are used to move the lever and the door swings open when you pull.
A breeze can be felt, flowing outward. "We still maintain some positive
pressure within the facility. Once upon a time, the pressure maintaind was high enough
to make it difficult to close the door, once we disabled the interlock
feature. Oh, by the way, your pager won't work while inside the area. We are
sheathed in copper for dealing with the Electromagnetic Pulse."
 

Ellisville, Part 3.

In 1966, the only way known to deal with the EMP was to shield, shield, and
shield. Now-a-days, "hardening" techniques can be applied directly to the
electronic components, with less reliance on total environmental shielding.

But, the gentleman was right - the pager fell silent for the duration of my
being underground.

There is another exit from the fallout lock. It leads through a shower area
for decontamination of personell entering the facility. The shower heads
still
hang in position. I'm told that new employees at the facility used to be sent
through the shower as sort of an initiation the first time they reported for
duty (OK, so humor wasn't their long suit).

A short hallway leads past the restroom (unisex) and into the large first
level, being used by AT&T for modern switching equipment.

We go down another set of stairs, around a corner, and past three cooling
towers for the original air-conditioning. These are no longer used. Units on
the surface have the freon pumped up to them and returned.

There's a door beyond the heat exchangers. The wall next to the door has what
looks like long metal rods sticking out from the wall. Draped over each rod
is a yellowish-looking material, with considerable smudges on each panel.

Passing through the door, I'm in a large room, some 20X20X20 feet. One wall
has a series of louvers and grates, denying easy human access to 3 or 4 5 ft
diameter corrigated metal pipes. These are the fresh air intakes from the
surface. The intakes used to be able to be sealed to prevent contaminated air
from entering the facility, but this capability has been removed. The
opposite
wall is covered with greenish panels. I realize I'm standing in a large air
plenum.

"Large particulate matter gets caught in these green filers. Smaller stuff
gets trapped in the filters on the other side of the wall."

As we walk back to the 5ESS, I ask about the nuclear blast detectors up on
the
surface and what mechanism was used for detection - EMP, Overpressure, or the
flash.

He doesn't know, but said the system never really went into operation. "Just
about the time we finished installing, the system was declared operational
and immediatly declared obsolete. I think it was made operational only so the
contract could be closed. We never used them."

So much for my vision of a blast sealing the complex, then flashing the news
to the military that "Jacksonville doesn't seem to be there anymore."

I asked about occupancy factor. He said they had enough supplies for a 150 or
so for almost a month. "That would have been a large staff."

"Well, it was intended that the employees bring their families along.
Oherwise, we'd not have had anyone willing to work."

End of report

Additional notes about Ellisville from John Warne:

Site is 2 stories, reputed to be 22 ft each.  L-Carrier equipment totally gone.

The UHF GEP antennas are "abandoned in place." All associated equipment for
operation has been removed.

Ellisville did have an AUTOVON (model unknown), but the military has
installed their own "somewhere else."

The center is a 5ESS Toll switch center for voice and data. The only
governmental involvement seems to be a one-stick Combat Ciders antenna -
the AT&T person refused comment about it.

The current staffing is about 40 people, 8-hour shifts. This includes the
field (Outside Plant) persons, too. There were about a half dozen in the
complex while I was there (not counting the softdrink vendor, filling the
machine).

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