Scientists have a hidden military tunnel from the 19th century, discovered beneath the infamous prison of Alcatraz. There were ever some of the toughest criminals in the American history captured, such as Al Capone. The researchers made the discovery by using high-tech radars and laserscans. It would go to a brick hallway with ducts, which, in some places just beneath the surface.

The discovery was made by archaeologist Timothy de Smet and his colleagues at the Binghamton University in New York. They published a paper in the scientific journal Near Surface Geophysics. In it is to read how they are under the exterior garden of the prison remains found of a tunnel, which from east to west ran. It was a vaulted corridor, which are built with brick and air ducts. Above it was a aardenwerken protection is applied to the tunnel bombestendig had to make.

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“The discovery surprised me for several reasons,” says de Smet in a statement from the university. “The remains were but a few inches below the surface and they were miraculously perfectly preserved. The concrete floor of the exterior garden is paper thin and is, in some places, really on top of the architecture from the 1860’s.” the

The remains may have come from the time that Alcatraz have served as a military reinforcement, in the second half of the 19th century. However, it was not clear whether there are still remnants. “When the amplification in the early 20th century was converted to a prison, there was barely any protection for cultural heritage,” says de Smet. “Alcatraz was there anyway, not old and important enough for that. This was the area platgebulldozerd. And disappeared a piece of history.” (read on below)