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These
two systems are the heart, the guts, the soul of the Labyrinth.
Mostly dug by two different power companies competing for the
same areas of downtown Saint Paul, these tunnels often defy logic
and reason as they snake around, over, under, and into each other.
While they are supposedly separate systems, you often cannot get
to certain segments of one system without going through the other.
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No
two sections look alike: there are more tunnel shapes/sizes and
building materials employed in these systems than we could afford
to photograph. They slope up and down, run at oddball angles,
and are generally just insane.
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Ladders,
stairs, trapdoors, manholes, and doors are just some of the ways
they interconnect with one another. It is a testament to Slim Jim's
mapping prowess that he was ever able to make sense of this tangled
network; the early maps I tried to make made no sense even to me,
and would have been worse than useless if I'd needed to use them
to find my way around.
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The
NSP Tunnels carry power lines (NSP is short for Northern States
Power ... which is now Excel Energy, but whatever), and the Gas
Tunnels carry gas lines. Some of the tunnels were once used to carry
city steam lines; the asbestos-insulated pipes still remain in the
segments not being reused by the power or gas companies today. Both
systems were littered with rat poison and, in some places, rotting
poisoned rats, who had made the mistake of leaving the sewer tunnels.
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These
systems are the most extensive of all the components of the Labyrinth,
as well as the most interesting to explore. The variety of rooms,
tunnels, interconnections, and noteworthy features would take up
way too much of my life to try to document here.
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Exploring
this system was constantly rewarding, as we were always excited
to see what was around the next corner, and the tunnels always seemed
to come through with something new and interesting. It took awhile
to map this place out not only because it was so convoluted, but
because no one wanted to take the time to stay in one place drawing
it out. Everyone was prone to rushing ahead so as to be among the
first to see what was next. You could always tell who was in the
lead at the moment by whose voice you heard saying "holy shit!"
first …
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