Comments on: The Steam Tunnels of NCSU: Part 1

By: JVP2012

JVP2012 — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:40:19 +0000

I just got back from these tunnels for the first time as well. I think it is something that should be done with caution but if you do go it will be a very neat memory to have. How many students out of approximately 32000 experience campus from beneath?

By: Tyler

Tyler — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:13:30 +0000

Allen thanks! We just went and explored the tunnels and they were amazing to say the least! We went in near Syme and came up on the other side of the train tracks. Simply incredible. I never knew State had such a secret. Does anyone know of anything similar to explore?

By: Allen

Allen — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:43:29 +0000

I just took my 8 year old son and 5 year old daughter on a tour of the campus. The only thing they wanted to hear about was my adventures down in the steam tunnels in the early 80’s. I took them to the free expression tunnel and showed them a door ( now welded shut ) that led into the tunnels. There are also manhole covers in the middle of the brickyard that lead down. You could get in at Syme dorm. There was an entrance at the west end of the building that went down under the parking lot. You had to go through the main steam plant and sneak under a grated platform that had people working 24/7 keeping the plant operating. I don’t know how we survived because we were usually fairly altered when we went down.

By: Al Bredenberg

Al Bredenberg — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:16:24 +0000

Kurt Eichenberger (now a Raleigh architect) somehow discovered some entrances to the tunnels about 1970, and he and I had some adventures down there about that time. He probably remembers where those entrances were (hope he doesn’t mind my mentioning his name, and hope we don’t get busted!). As I recall, we entered somewhere around Syme or Welch and were able to go under the railroad tracks to somewhere down around Thompson Theater.

By: Brendan

Brendan — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:08:13 +0000

Reminds me of the final stages of Portal. I keep expecting the graffiti to include a crossed-out pictogram of a cake.

By: the_phox

the_phox — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:18:55 +0000

does anyone know the exact locations of the entrances?

By: david

david — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:02:57 +0000

I traveled the steam tunnels 3 or 4 times in the early 80’s. We went all over the place. The tunnels actually came up into a box in my dorm room in Syme (but you couldn’t enter there). We went all the way from Syme to DH Hill, to South campus by the smokestack, and everywhere inbetween… One of my best memories of NCSU.

By: Lupus Yonderboy

Lupus Yonderboy — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:29:47 +0000

Thanks for posting this :)

This was an important gathering place for a branch of the Masters Of Deception, made up of cyberpunks and hackers in the late 1980’s that hasn’t been documented.

By: jay

jay — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:18:20 +0000

wow. we used to sneak in by the library’s lower-entrance and walk down to the “cool room” at the end of the main north/south tunnel. the room is directly south of the free expression tunnel and lies just adjacent to the bookstore.

i wonder if my graffiti pieces are still up. we made a LOT of art down there before we discovered bars…

By: mullman

mullman — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 02:32:38 +0000

Fall of 1989 or possibly Spring of 1990.
A group of us would go very regularly and explore.

Dates from the 60s-70s could be found.