37 Items Tagged

Secret Passages

Mavi Köşk (The Blue House)

The eccentric midcentury home of a suspected mafia gun-runner.

Asheville, North Carolina

Biltmore Estate's Secret Passages

The enormous 250-room Vanderbilt mansion conceals hidden doors and secret passageways.

Bourbon Tunnel

Dug as a secret royal escape route, the tunnel became a wartime bomb shelter and dumping ground for vintage cars.

Washington, D.C.

Secret Entrance to the White House

The winding route passes through an enclosed alleyway, two tunnels, and leads to the White House basement.

Houghton le Spring, England

Penshaw Monument

The nearly 200-year-old folly has a secret spiral staircase hidden in one of its pillars.

Chicago, Illinois

Lower Lower Wacker Drive

Illegal drag racing two stories beneath Chicago’s streets.

Washington, D.C.

Congressional Garbage Tunnel

The tunnel under the Capitol Building where Congress takes out its trash.

Rochester, New York

Central Library's Secret Room

A room hidden behind a swinging shelf in the children's section.

Washington, D.C.

Washington Monument Access Hatch

Daredevil repair workers can worm their way out the access hatch, loop ropes over the apex and rappel down the monument.

Washington, D.C.

FBI Spy House

A painfully obvious spy house sits right across the street from the Russian Embassy.

Washington, D.C.

FDR's Bomb Shelter

The first presidential bomb shelter was located in an old vault under the Treasury, connected to the White House via tunnel.

Los Angeles, California

St. Vincent Court

A faux European lane smack dab in downtown L.A.

Keystone, South Dakota

Hall of Records in Mount Rushmore

Hidden behind Lincoln's head is a 70-foot-long chamber containing enamel plates documenting American history, sealed in a teakwood box in a titanium vault.

secret passages

Found: Secret Sliding Doors Hidden in a Church’s Walls

A renovation revealed the pulley system meant to move them.

Sarah Laskow November 29, 2016

Florence, Italy

Michelangelo's Hidden Drawings

The doodles of a genius line the walls of a secret room under the Medici Chapel.

Brooklyn, New York

Sunshine Laundromat

One of New York's best collections of pinball is hidden in a secret bar in the back of this laundromat.

Cookley, England

Drakelow Tunnels

Near Birmingham, England three and a half miles of top-secret tunnels housed a World War II “shadow factory” and a Cold War nuclear bunker.

secret passages

Found: Secret Rooms in a Very Old Theater

The Perth Theatre is giving up its secrets.

Sarah Laskow May 17, 2016