SIGN UP for an Insider's Guide to all my books!

Thriller Thursday: Secret Passages and Tunnels on Halloween!

Most of you probably know I have a thing for tunnels and passages and all things creepy and underground. Into the Dark visited the Las Vegas Tunnels, and my current release, SKELETON’S KEY (Delta Crossroads #2) features a secret passage in a historic antebellum home.

So in honor of Halloween, I’m sharing my 5 Creepiest Tunnels and Passages. Sadly, I’ve not been to any of them. One day!

Kings Tramway Subway, London

kingsway-tramway-subway1
Image licensed under Creative Commons.

Built in 1906, this subway runs under the Holborn Distract of London. It was built to connect existing tramways on the north and south sides of the River Thames and is the only one of its kind. It closed in 1952 but brave urban explorers still venture into the tunnels.

Edinburgh Underground Vaults

Now here’s a place that’s on my macabe must see list. Discovered in the mid 1980s, the passage is abandoned and completely dark.

From Mercat Tours:

The Vaults remain untouched since they were abandoned in the early nineteenth century but beware…they are empty, but not unoccupied!

This eerie setting is home to dark, mysterious and often tragic apparitions whose ghostly presence leaves a lingering sense of immense sorrow and deprivation. Visitors have stumbled backwards in response to a malevolent lunge. Witnesses testify to the presence of the cobbler who labours industriously. A little boy, laughing playfully, has held visitors’ hands in his cold grasp as a brown dog with long, wiry hair runs between their legs.

Described by the BBC as ‘probably the most haunted place in Britain’ The Underground Vaults never fail to fascinate and intrigue all who visit them.

Portland’s Underground Cities

In Portland, Oregon, from 1850 to 1941, a series of trap doors in bars or the dead-ends of alleys were death traps for unsuspecting men. The men would fall through the unseen trap and into the Portland Underground Tunnels–the Shanghai Tunnels. Connected and extending for miles beneath the city, these tunnels served shangaiers, bootleggers, white slaves and opium den owners. The shanghaied men were forced on to ships under horrible conditions.

Even worse, the white slavers stole girls as young as 14 and prostituted them, but only after leaving them in a tiny, dark cell until their wills were broken.

The Paris Catacombs

I will see the Paris Catacombs before I die. Their history fascinates me, and I’ve no doubt ghost stories abound from the underground grave yard. The short history of the Catacombs is this: near the end of the 1700s in France, after the plague, bodies were piling up in Paris’s various graveyards. Les Innocents was particularly bad, and the multitude of bodies was making the city’s precarious heath worse.

Picture taken from Creative Commons
Picture taken from Creative Commons

City officials moved the bones of thousands of people into the abandoned quarries. By 1810, work began to transform the caverns into a visitable place. Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury began renovations to transform the caverns in to a visitable internment. He directed the relocation of skulls and femurs in the arrangements seen today and used the tombstones and cemetery decorations brought over from the old graveyards to complement the walls of bones.

Naturally legend and lore abound in the catacombs. Victor Hugo used his knowledge about the system in Les Miserables. The dead from the riots in the Place de Greve, the Hotel de Brienne, and Rue Meslee reside in the catacombs. Walls are decorated with graffiti dating back to the 18th century. During WW11, Parisian members of the French Resistance used the tunnel system to hide.

Like I said, a must see place.

The Body Chute at Waverly Hills Sanitarium
*text taken from a previous post of mine on Waverly Hills*

Waverly Hills Sanitorium is believed to be one of the most haunted places in the world. Louisville Ghost Hunters Societyhas conducted many investigations on the premises, and their results are terrifying. They’ve heard ghostly sounds, spotted lights that couldn’t be on, had objects hurled at them, been struck by unseen hands, and have spotted apparitions.

In a building where unimaginable suffering occurred for decades, it’s no wonder the paranormal activity is intense.

Historians believe between 40,000 and 60,000 people died in Waverly Hills Sanitarium—some from the disease and many others from experimental procedures.

So many perished at Waverly that a tunnel was dug from the lower level of the hospital out out to a field away from the main section of the hospital. Kept out of sight from the living patients, the “body chute” was a sad and busy place. Some accounts claim more than forty bodies per day were sent down the chute during the highpoint of the TB siege. A motorized wench system guided the bodies down the tunnel while hearses lined up at the end and staff wheeled the dead away.

There’s no electricity in the body chute. Imagine pitch darkness with only flashlights to guide you, much like the Las Vegas Tunnels featured in Into The Dark. The chute is reported to be on of the most haunted areas of the Sanitarium. Voices have been captured on tape (EVPS), as well as unexplainable mists, cold spots, and apparitions.

So what do you think? Are these places creepy enough for you? Have you explored an underground tunnels or secret passages?

Don’t forget to stop by the Official Launch Party for Skeleton’s Key tomorrow on Facebook! I’ll be sharing behind the scenes secrets and giving away some very cool swag.

If you haven’t had a chance to pick up your copy of SKELETON’S KEY (Delta Crossroads #2), it’s available in paperback and all digital formats.

Skeleton’s Key on Kindle (US)

Skeleton’s Key on Amazon UK

Skeleton’s Key on Nook

Skeleton’s Key on iBooks (iTunes)

3 comments on… “Thriller Thursday: Secret Passages and Tunnels on Halloween!”

  1. Good grief, Stacy! I love ghost stories and totally believe in the paranormal, but that all sounds way too scary for this little girl!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with an *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • NEWSLETTER

    Signup for news on new releases, sales and GIVEAWAYS!!!