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Stathol
Jun 28, 2008
Have you ever seen something strange on Google Maps/Mapquest/etc. and wondered "what the hell is that?" Well then, this thread is for you. Post weird poo poo you've seen and help other goons figure out their weird poo poo.

What this thread is not:

"Check it out -- this mountain totally looks like a dong!"
"Some guy is getting mugged on street view!"
"Help me figure out what this totally boring and normal building is"

I'm mostly interested in trying to solve real mysteries, but "challenge-style" posts should be okay too, as long they're actually interesting/challenging. I.e., you already know what the weird thing is; you just want to see if anyone else can figure it out.

Example:

(Disclaimer: I don't think this will be very hard to figure out, but for the sake of not stumping the thread with the initial example, I've already done my homework and figured out what this is. However, I didn't know what it was before I stumbled into it on google maps.)

About a year ago, I was browsing around the Florida everglades on Google Maps. Hurricanes have forced the military to abandon a lot of old sites, so you can find all sorts of weird, abandoned, cold-war-era stuff out there. While I was screwing around, I came across this:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=25.371832,-80.426145&spn=0.019349,0.027165&t=h&z=15



It's located about 6 miles south-southeast of Homestead and Florida City on Old Dixie Hwy/Old Card Sound Rd. From the street view at the highway, you can see that there's a tall entry gate with a sign, but you can't read what it says. There's a guard house and, beyond it, faded remnants of pavement markings that resemble a helipad:



The main building has a perimeter fence around it, and a big gas generator. The main feature are the concentric rings around the building. They look sort of like fences, but I don't think that's what they are:



It's pretty clearly some kind of military facility, but it appears to be abandoned from the general condition and lack of any vehicles. I found this document [PDF] ("Cold War in South Florida: Historic Resource Study") from the National Park Service that identifies several facilities in the Key Largo and east everglades area, but none of them fit. It also made this reference:

quote:

One location popular with CIA personnel stationed at facilities in the keys was "Alabama Jack's," a bar on Card Sound Road with a reputation for "raffish clientele."

The street is right, but Alabama Jack's is 7-8 miles down the road, on the coast. Still, I guess it might be CIA :tinfoil:

I'm reasonably sure it's not an old NIKE missile site, either.

Any goons know what this is/was?

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Goreld
May 8, 2002

"Identity Crisis" MurdererWild Guess Bizarro #1Bizarro"Me am first one I suspect!"
Secret Nazi training facility?

That marking doesn't seem like a helipad, it looks like the German cross.

Vulture Culture
Jul 14, 2003

I was never enjoying it. I only eat it for the nutrients.

Goreld posted:

Secret Nazi training facility?

That marking doesn't seem like a helipad, it looks like the German cross.


The Iron Cross was a Prussian military decoration that predates Nazism by, oh, 120 years or so. It's still used for the German Bundeswehr.

Edit: You probably know this already :)

ReidRansom
Oct 25, 2004


Probably an abandoned and disassembled wullenweber antenna installation.

vicpro
Jul 24, 2009

Goreld posted:

Secret Nazi training facility?

That marking doesn't seem like a helipad, it looks like the German cross.


It's obviously WCC, even though it's in FL.


whatever.

ReidRansom
Oct 25, 2004


Yup. Wullenweber. Destroyed in 1992 by hurricane Andrew.

http://www.navycthistory.com/WullenweberArticle.txt

quote:

Homestead, Florida ( -1992)
Destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in August, 1992.

AzureSkys
Apr 27, 2003

I found this thing while flying over the area a few years ago:



http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...=h&z=13&iwloc=A

kiimo
Jul 24, 2003

Won't you gentlemen have a Pepsi?

Jiro Kage
Aug 6, 2003

PICKLE SURPRISE!

quote:

Northwest, Chesapeake, Virginia (1964-2001)
CDAA accepted from the contractor on October 25, 1963. Activated in July, 1964.
Ceased operations on June 1, 2001. CDAA was dismantled.
CDAA Property is now an annex to Naval Support Activity, Norfolk, VA.

Hah, it was being dismantled when I was stationed right down the road. I always wondered what the hell NSGA Norfolk was doing with that thing, since there was only ever like one car there, and this huge open space around it.

Manchester
Dec 27, 2008

If you don't have anything good to say, say it on the Internet.
That's funny, you can see that site when you zoom out pretty far too OP (a very conspicuous dot south of Homestead). I wonder what other weird things you could find through googlemaps.

Stathol
Jun 28, 2008

ReidRansom posted:

Probably an abandoned and disassembled wullenweber antenna installation.
That was much faster than I expected. You are correct. Apparently this is "NSGA Homestead AN/FRD-10 Array, Site Alpha". The AN/FRD-10 was a Circularly Disposed Antenna Array (CDDA), a.k.a. a Wullenweber. Basically, it was used a directional locator for radio transmissions, partly for COMNAVSECGRU (naval SIGINT), particularly for locating transmissions from Soviet subs, and also to locate the source of naval distress beacons for search & rescue. It was abandoned in 1993 due to hurricane damage. The antenna array really does resemble a series of fences, and were colloquially referred to as "elephent cages".

According to this random site, the secret nazi cross was indeed a helipad.

This site lists the locations of several other AN/FRD-10 installations. The one in Imperial Beach, CA is in a more developed area, and gives a better sense of scale:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...027165&t=h&z=15

If you zoom all the way in, you can get a nice isometric view of it. I don't know about the array itself, but the facility there is still active, so everything is in good shape.

Manchester posted:

That's funny, you can see that site when you zoom out pretty far too OP (a very conspicuous dot south of Homestead).
Yeah, that was what drew my attention to it in the first place. I was actually looking at a rather interesting and semi-famous(?) urbex target that was well off to the west-southwest from there, and saw this huge dot. I might post that one, too, because the history is interesting, but the actual site itself is extremely boring from a satellite view. And unless one of the urbex goons happens to recognize it, it would nigh-impossible to figure out what it is.

Manchester posted:

I wonder what other weird things you could find through googlemaps.
Let's find out!

Stathol fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Dec 1, 2010

FogHelmut
Dec 18, 2003

As seen recently on the internet.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...003404&t=h&z=19

Blind Rasputin
Nov 25, 2002

Farewell, good Hunter. May you find your worth in the waking world.

There's also what I can only imagine is a four-testicled penis in that picture. I'm sure they'll have that destroyed in the next few days as well.

The Casualty
Sep 29, 2006
Security Clearance: Pop Secret


Whiny baby
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...154324&t=h&z=13

The world's largest system of weapons storage bunkers. All concentrated around the small town of Hawthorne, NV. And roughly north-northwest of that is an airfield used for target practice by the Navy.



http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...038581&t=h&z=15

obso
Jul 30, 2000
OBSOLUTELY

The Casualty posted:

The world's largest system of weapons storage bunkers. All concentrated around the small town of Hawthorne, NV. And roughly north-northwest of that is an airfield used for target practice by the Navy.





Is that really the largest?

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=34.85...74&z=16&iwloc=A

This is a couple miles from me. No idea where it ranks in size but the place is HUGE.

quote:

MCAAP is housed on 44,964 acres (181.96 km2) with 2,891 buildings, 2,426 igloos and storage capacity of 8,840,559 square feet (821,314.8 m2).

obso fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Dec 1, 2010

ZebraBlade
Mar 26, 2010

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark
About 20 miles south-west of area 51 there is this


http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...154324&t=h&z=13

Some of the craters are the size of city blocks, but I don't think these are nuclear test sites seeing how close to each other they are.

iSuck
Jul 22, 2005

by T. Mascis

ZebraBlade posted:

About 20 miles south-west of area 51 there is this


http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...154324&t=h&z=13

Some of the craters are the size of city blocks, but I don't think these are nuclear test sites seeing how close to each other they are.
Exactly what I came to post. And yes, that is a nuclear testing site.

The Casualty
Sep 29, 2006
Security Clearance: Pop Secret


Whiny baby

obso posted:

Is that really the largest?

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=34.85...74&z=16&iwloc=A

This is a couple miles from me. No idea where it ranks in size but the place is HUGE.
From Wikipedia:

quote:

Hawthorne Army Depot is a U.S. Army ammunition storage site located near the town of Hawthorne in western Nevada in the United States. It is directly south of Walker Lake. The depot covers 147,000 acres (59,000 ha) and has 600,000 square feet (56,000 m2) storage space in 2,427 bunkers. It is said[by whom?] to be the largest such facility in the world.

So if the source is to be believed, Hawthorne's is 100,000 acres larger in area, but has less overall storage space than MCAAP. I guess we are both half-right V:v:V

ZebraBlade
Mar 26, 2010

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark
Also


http://maps.google.com/maps?source=...2,0.077162&z=14

Lots of airplanes just sitting around. Why? I do not know.

NOT NOW GRANDPA
Dec 6, 2005

ZebraBlade posted:

Also


http://maps.google.com/maps?source=...2,0.077162&z=14

Lots of airplanes just sitting around. Why? I do not know.

Wanna go there so loving bad.

Real Name Grover
Feb 13, 2002

Like corn on the cob
Fan of Britches

ZebraBlade posted:

Some of the craters are the size of city blocks, but I don't think these are nuclear test sites seeing how close to each other they are.

Yep, underground nuclear test. If you pan to the north there's a larger, labeled crater, which links to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedan_%28nuclear_test%29

The Casualty
Sep 29, 2006
Security Clearance: Pop Secret


Whiny baby

ZebraBlade posted:

Also


http://maps.google.com/maps?source=...2,0.077162&z=14

Lots of airplanes just sitting around. Why? I do not know.

That's the Davis-Monthan boneyard. It's where old military aircraft go to die. They are in various stages of preservation or decay over there. Hundreds of old fighters, transports, and bombers, many stripped of their repairable components and pretty much left to bleach in the sun. There's also a huge junkyard with rocket parts, booster rings, nosecones and the like, and rows of Connex boxes full of who-knows-what. It's operated by the USAF's 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, or AMARG.

anonumos
Jul 14, 2005

Fuck it.

ZebraBlade posted:

Also


http://maps.google.com/maps?source=...2,0.077162&z=14

Lots of airplanes just sitting around. Why? I do not know.

The same thing happens when they mothball naval ships. They keep them in (nearly) operating condition just in case some unforeseen event requires more airplanes or ships than we have in active service.

And some of them are used for parts. It's the most meticulously maintained white trash front-yard in the world.

Iron Crowned
May 6, 2003

by Hand Knit

ZebraBlade posted:

Lots of airplanes just sitting around. Why? I do not know.

That would be the Boneyard. It's where airplanes go when they're too old to be useful or no longer efficiently repairable. I have heard of a few being ressurected from there recently though.

a baby anime
Aug 14, 2010

by Ozma

ZebraBlade posted:

Also


http://maps.google.com/maps?source=...2,0.077162&z=14

Lots of airplanes just sitting around. Why? I do not know.

Isn't that an aircraft graveyard?

that would explain why theres just airplanes sitting around.

ZebraBlade
Mar 26, 2010

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark
I guess when I thought airplane graveyard I was thinking old poo poo that was falling apart and strewn about, not nicely lined up and looking is pretty good condition.

They need to re-do junkyard wars with NASA engineers and have it set at that place

SunknLiner
Jan 19, 2005

ZebraBlade posted:

Also


http://maps.google.com/maps?source=...2,0.077162&z=14

Lots of airplanes just sitting around. Why? I do not know.
You don't know, yet your Google link is very clearly searching for "airplane graveyard"?? :psyduck:

Slo-Tek
Jun 8, 2001

WINDOWS 98 BEAT HIS FRIEND WITH A SHOVEL
This is a landing site for space Jews.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...3,0.024676&z=16

An old Navy training facility. It is hard to land a, inter-war taildragger airplane in a crosswind, so they built runways such that there would always be two that were the right-way to the wind. It is still used for helicopter training

Dr. Video Games 0050
Nov 28, 2007
All of this can be explained with low flying missles.

GWBBQ
Jan 2, 2005


Bing Maps has a better aerial view of the antenna site in the OP

Flu Roo
Apr 13, 2010

kiimo posted:

Won't you gentlemen have a Pepsi?

Why am I here? Why are you here? Why is anybody here? I think it was Jean-Paul Sartre who once said... how do you spell spell Sartre?

ReidRansom
Oct 25, 2004


Stathol posted:

That was much faster than I expected. You are correct. Apparently this is "NSGA Homestead AN/FRD-10 Array, Site Alpha". The AN/FRD-10 was a Circularly Disposed Antenna Array (CDDA), a.k.a. a Wullenweber. Basically, it was used a directional locator for radio transmissions, partly for COMNAVSECGRU (naval SIGINT), particularly for locating transmissions from Soviet subs, and also to locate the source of naval distress beacons for search & rescue. It was abandoned in 1993 due to hurricane damage. The antenna array really does resemble a series of fences, and were colloquially referred to as "elephent cages".


Yeah, they're all over the place. There are remains of several pretty big ones on Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah. Also one at Misawa AFB, one in Germany somewhere I recall. Bit puzzling if you don't know what you're looking at though.

Ellie Crabcakes
Feb 1, 2008

Stop emailing my boyfriend Gay Crungus

Slo-Tek posted:

This is a landing site for space Jews.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...3,0.024676&z=16

An old Navy training facility. It is hard to land a, inter-war taildragger airplane in a crosswind, so they built runways such that there would always be two that were the right-way to the wind. It is still used for helicopter training
That's clearly a series of landing strips for gay Martians (who may or may not be Jewish)--just look at the poor quality of the soil surrounding it.

nildrohain454
Nov 17, 2006

Conk-a-reeeee!!!


http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou....04077&t=h&z=15

The Mirny Diamond Mine, second largest excavated hole in the world. The airspace over the mine is closed, due to reports of helicopters getting sucked into it. :aaaaa:

Edit:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&q=40.52,-112.15&ie=UTF8&ll=40.534155,-112.129555&spn=0.068103,0.163078&z=13

This of course got me interested in what the largest excavated hole in the world was. That would be the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine outside of Salt Lake City.

nildrohain454 fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Dec 1, 2010

veni veni veni
Jun 5, 2005


http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=...z=16&iwloc=addr

One of the worlds largest ship graveyards.

Forums Medic
Oct 2, 2010

i be out there in orbit
DIRECTIONS
  • Go to Google Maps.
  • Click Get Directions
  • Type Japan as the starting point.
  • Type China as the end point.
  • Scroll to direction #43.

swolf
Aug 25, 2004
i need instructions on how to rock

Forums Medic posted:

DIRECTIONS
  • Go to Google Maps.
  • Click Get Directions
  • Type Japan as the starting point.
  • Type China as the end point.
  • Scroll to direction #43.

Even better, try getting directions from the USA to Japan. Check direction #27.

Blistex
Oct 30, 2003

Macho Business
Donkey Wrestler
Here is an 1:1 scale model of the Bismarck made out of dirt in the middle of the Desert in the US.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sour...011319&t=h&z=17

Forums Medic
Oct 2, 2010

i be out there in orbit

swolf posted:

Even better, try getting directions from the USA to Japan. Check direction #27.

The best part is actually #28: Continue straight.

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KaosFactor
Dec 10, 2000

Rommel Rommel
It's an oldie, and easily identifiable but the KFC logo at 37.646069, -115.750710.

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