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Comment by MaDeuce | Hacker News Reader

Anyone with an interest in the Holmdel facility will likely enjoy this photo album of the now-empty site.

http://www.newenglandruins.com/bell-labs

It was an impressive building at the time. Having worked there for years, it is rather unsettling to see it featured as an abandoned urban site.

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I live in Holmdel and I've spelunked Bell Labs many times since it's closed, but not the main building as seen in these pictures. The satellite buildings to the south are in disrepair but are very interesting. The semi-anechoic chamber was among the best preserved, located in a small shed on top of a hill. I gained access by gently kicking in a small window near the main door. Everything important had been stripped out but the essentials remained- the turntable was still intact along with the stairs down to the control room. A visitor log book found here contained several records, including emerging cell phones and even the sega genesis. I moved onto the office next which was where I found most of my treasure. Mugs, books, branded memorabilia, etc. was poured all over the floor- it gave me the impression the facility was abandoned rather quickly. On my wall is my favorite piece, a large blueprint of "buildings within 1000 ft of the EMI facility" which was located nearby.

The second most interesting building was the "Oceanic wave test facility". Its a fairly mundane building along the perimeter of the property, located between an emergency power plant and the strong waste holding tanks. On one of my first visits here the room was filled with equipment- open books on desks facing a mainframe computer filled the room. I couldn't get in because I was worried about tripping an alarm or alerting the patrolling security guard so I left. On my next visit all of the equipment was gone.

There are a few other buildings and interesting artifacts (including a replica horn radio made of solid metal), but since it was acquired security has tightened up a bit. I took a ton of pictures, maybe one day I'll post em.

Post em!

I used to work in Murray Hill, but traveled a bunch to Holmdel and Crawford Hill facilities. I'm not totally surprised by the oceanic wave sim; There used to be a sizeable submarine fiber group before it got sold to Tyco.

What was the replica horn? There is of course a somewhat famous horn, responsible for finding the 4K background radiation, but it has a plaque: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bell_Labs_Horn_Antenna_Cra...

In front of the building stretching about 50 feet was a tunnel, now flooded. Rumor has it that there is an even larger tunnel encircling the perimeter of the facility. I checked google maps at the time and could see evidence for this. I believe the entrance is located in a cooling tower near the baseball diamonds but that facility has more intense locks.

The replica horn I found in front of the "Global Compliance Test Facility" right across from the wave facility. It's not too large (probably the size of a person), but it's very very heavy.

Previous discussion of a different article about the site: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7069081

After going through those photos, I was overcome with an immense sadness. Such a perfect portrait of the decline of institutional science.

You mean, like how Google, Microsoft, General Mills, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, and others aren't doing basic research?

There is an argument to be made that industrial R&D these days is more about the D and less about the R than it once was but Bell Labs was always sui generis--and a creature of AT&T's telephone monopoly (which was hardly an unalloyed good). But the world is also a lot different than in Bell Labs' heyday. I'd be genuinely curious to hear about what areas or types of important research that would once have been done aren't being done today in the absence of a true Bell Labs equivalent.

So is this place closed and the author is just reminiscing about the building? I feel like an idiot that I can seem to tell where reality starts and the fiction ends.

I wonder how hard it is to get in? I live in New Jersey. Would be interesting.

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