The tunnels of Tweed

A WARNING: The tunnels are easily accessed and in themselves represent no real danger, however one of the tunnels has collapsed (it’s 100% impassable) so you never know how really safe it is. You MUST bring flashlights. Also beware of the garbage and debris. There is broken glass around so in case it’s not obvious: don’t bring children here. Also to access one tunnel you must climb thru a hole in the wall into a chamber. There was a log there to exit back out should you choose to not proceed thru the tunnel. It is not easy to climb in, not easy to climb out. Do so only if you are prepared to go thru with it.

Tweed is also known as the Bluefields Rifle Range. Built in 1910 in in Orangeburg, NY it was meant to replace an old rifle range on Long Island. The base was closed after 3 years because of several problems, including a long commute for the troops, the fact that they had to aim into the sun, and the fact that bullets kept landing in the town below. The government donated the 352 acres to the Palisades Interstate park Commission but the land continued to be used periodically for such things as ROTC training, and for training of soldiers from nearby Fort Shanks. The land stopped being used for such purposes at the end of WWII and ever since then, time has reclaimed the land, which now exists as a public park. Nearly all the original buildings have been torn down or collapsed, so there is very little left of Camp Bluefields except for the tunnels. The tunnels were used as a way to get around the base, avoiding the live fire that was constantly taking place. Now all that remains are these tunnels, and they are quite creepy. There are a half dozen tunnels that run in a staircase pattern, varying between 1,000 and 3,000 feet long. There are no lights except for a little crack of light coming thru what appear to be gun holes spaced every 10-20 feet.

The area is covered with graffiti and garbage, presumably from kids drinking and fooling around, and there are numerous legends associated with these tunnels. There are stories about dead bodies being dumped by the mob, satanic rituals and sacrifices, as well as phantom dogs and even ghosts. I am sure much of this is nothing more then campfire tales told by kids who are high and or stoned, however, there may be a basis for some of these stories…

THE HOLE and THE GRAVE

The Hole is an opening in the rocks maybe 8 feet off from a walkway between tunnels. If you lower yourself into the hole, which is about 3 feet wide, you enter a chamber underground. Once down there you can travel perhaps 200 feet before the chamber ends. In this chamber is what some folks call “the grave” because it looks like an open grave. At one point the grave was filled with water, so apparently someone tried to remove the water, and said, “hey there’s some sort of sewer tunnel, let’ break into the tunnel and we can dump the water in there.” brain fucking surgeons. They actually succeeded in cracking the pipe open…

Anyway, this probably is where the story about dead bodies comes from. Almost as strange is a shrine of candles we found at the back of the chamber. Perhaps a half dozen candles were back there, along with some gas canisters like for a lantern or portable stove. Were these candles used in rituals or for praying to Satan? or were they used as light for a homeless guy? You decide.

A word of warning about the hole. There are concrete supports in the ceiling thru the chamber. They jut down about 2 feet and the distance between ground and ceiling decreased the farther you head back, so you are forced to duck under them. You can crawl past them but that’s a pain in the ass, so I decided to walk, do a 3 count then duck, do a 3 count, etc etc, Well at one point I miscounted and stood up too soon and whacked myself so bad I had a scar on the top of my head for over 6 weeks, and a bump for nearly a month!

The initial tunnel we encountered when we got there was collapsed about 100 yards down, so we turned around, followed a graffiti covered wall and then came upon … nothing. We discovered that if we climbed thru a hole in the wall into a chamber, then climbed thru another hole into an adjacent chamber, and then another hole into a third chamber, we came upon the remains of a stairwell that normally would’ve connected to the tunnel. it was filled, and I mean FILLED with garbage, and we were all a tad nervous, not knowing who or what we might encounter.

It was down this tunnel that my light began to falter (apparently the battery is only good for 45 minutes… I have since learned to use another light as the primary, and this one for temporary bright illumination…) This tunnel goes down, then goes uphill, and when we saw the end, we saw two things that stopped us in our tracks. We saw a figure standing at the end with its arms crossed…. and we saw what appeared to be an animal groveling amongst the garbage…. the animal turned out to be a stump, and the figure….

turned out to be nothing more then graffiti…

From here we passed a few old structures with nothing in them except gay porn and no interesting features or aspects. We then hit the hole as mentioned earlier, and from there we headed out. There were a few more tunnels but to be honest they all seemed the same and we wanted to get on to the rest of the exploration. On our hike up the trail we saw the result of a car accident in which the driver went off road. Just a reminder that there are dangers on the roads as well on the trails….