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The Most Secret Building in Manhattan
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This is 33 Thomas Street, right in the
heart of Manhattan.
A towering windowless monolith, pitch
black at night, a 20th century fortress
built to withstand a nuclear blast, a
skyscraper to be inhabited by machines.
Behind its walls lies a secret mass
surveillance center. It's believed to be
one of the NSA's most critical spy hubs
on US soil. It's a key location for some
of the AY's biggest operations. From
here, the agency has been spying on the
entire world. For decades, its true
purpose was hidden until two
whistleblowers pulled back the curtain.
We got up close to this mysterious
structure and couldn't resist trying to
sneak inside.
>> The security guard is still there. She
has not moved.
>> This is the insane story of the NSA spy scraper.
parts of this video are based on
investigative reporting by the
Intercept. We highly recommend checking
>> I am off the subway and I am now heading
to the building. Oh, actually I see it
right now and it is huge. We wanted to
know everything about this building, so
we sent a friend to check it out.
>> Hi, I'm Shereek and I am a filmmaker.
Today, I am about to go check out 33
Thomas Street, so I am heading there now
and I'm taking you guys with me.
>> Shereek is probably on some list now, so
show her some love in the comments.
>> Do you know what's in this building? I'm like,
like,
>> you don't? Okay.
>> I have always thought about this
building. There's no windows. There's
only like vents. I don't know what it
is. It's kind of strange. I have no
clue. Some people think it might be the
NSA like one of like the biggest
surveillance hubs.
>> Yeah, it probably is.
>> 33 Thomas Street is unlike any other
building in Manhattan.
The skyscraper is located here in the
Tribeca area. It was built in 1969 and
completed in 1974.
While it's not as tall as many of the
other towers around, it still stands
out. The building is about 170 m tall
with 29 floors above the ground, plus
three underground levels.
There's a strange beauty to its design.
Fascinating enough that it draws you in,
yet so intimidating it makes you
uncomfortable. When you stand before it,
one thing immediately stands out. It is
entirely windowless.
>> This building literally has no windows.
Like, it's it's very odd. Also, there's
just really not a lot of people on this
street like at all.
>> Peeking inside is almost impossible. On
levels 10 and 29, there are several
large openings, massive air vents that
33 Thomas Street is often described as
one of the most secure buildings in the
US. The facade is sealed with
flametreated Swedish granite, a material
known for its exceptional durability and resistance.
resistance.
In the event of a disaster, the building
can operate entirely off-rid for 2
weeks. Almost 1 million L of fuel are on
hand to power backup generators.
Food and water reserves are stocked to
sustain 1,500 people. It's also equipped
with its own wastewater systems and
decontamination showers.
If an atomic blast would hit New York
City without destroying the building,
the inside would be shielded from the
nuclear fallout. 33 Thomas Street truly
is a 20th century fortress.
John Carl Warick, the architect behind
it, was best known for designing bold,
unconventional buildings in the 60s and
70s. This is what his other buildings
look like. The style is called
brutalism, a design philosophy centered
on raw materials, stark geometric shapes
and function. Brutalism emerged after
World War II, driven by the need for
affordable, practical structures. Warick
was also influenced by contextualism, an
architectural theory focused on
harmonizing buildings with their
surroundings. 33 Thomas Street, however,
doesn't blend in. It haunts. By day, it
stands out. By night, it becomes a
shadow, almost vanishing into the darkness.
darkness.
So, I came back at night and I wanted to
see if this place was still as spooky as
it is during the day, and it absolutely
It's the late 1960s. As the world
becomes more connected, the demand for
efficient telecommunication is expanding
rapidly. Most communication still runs
through analog systems, but that
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At the time, most long-distance calls in
the US are carried out by AT&T, one of
the country's largest telecommunications
giants. The company has a special
division called the Long Lines Department.
Department.
>> In any case, it's Long Lines that hooks
all the local telephone companies into
the national network.
>> Its infrastructure stretches across the
entire country, connecting people from
New York to Los Angeles.
In order to meet the growing demand for
long-distance phone calls, new data
centers are needed to route calls from
one place to another. As AT&T's network
keeps growing, 33 Thomas Street is set
to become one of the company's most
important hubs in the US, capable of
processing millions of phone calls per
day. Over time, the building becomes
part of the Long Lines department,
earning its other nickname, the Long
Lines building. In some of Warick's
original design documents, the building
is simply referred to as Project X, a
visionary monument with modern
capabilities, with architecture that
perfectly serves the needs of machines.
And unlike humans, machines don't need
windows, just powerful ventilation
systems to handle the heat they generate
and keep temperatures stable. 33 Thomas
Street is packed with tech. These are
some of the only publicly available
photos taken inside the building. racks
filled with electronics, rooms packed
with telephone equipment, massive rows
of batteries, likely part of the backup
power system. At the heart of it all,
three enormous four ESS switches. Each
switch is made up of multiple individual
machines. At the time, they are the
largest high-capacity digital switches
ever built and the first system to route
phone calls digitally.
This is how they work. Imagine you live
in New York and you want to call your
niece in California. When you pick up
the phone and dial her number, your
local phone system routes the call to a
central hub. In this case, 33 Thomas
Street. Inside, your voice is digitized
and passed through a switch that sends
the calls to its destination. The 4ESS
switching machines are smart. They
automatically select the best path to
route your call across the network. A
major innovation back then. Now, the
backbone takes over. Microwave relay
towers transmit the signal from one to
the next, spaced roughly 30 m apart.
Your call hops from tower to tower until
it reaches another hub with the same
type of switch in California. At the end
of the line, your niece picks up and
just like that, you're connected.
Over time, the relay towers vanished.
Fiber optic cables took over, carrying
much more capacity. But the need for
central hubs remained. By the 1990s, an
average of 175 million calls per day
passed through 33 Thomas Street. With
millions in and around New York City
increasingly depending on uninterrupted
communication, this facility had to be
absolutely secure. The Long Lines
building became the nerve center of
communication in New York City. In fact,
it became indispensable.
September 17th, 1991, the middle of the
night, a power failure at 33 Thomas
Street shuts down half the phone
traffic. Calls in and out of New York go
dead. Air traffic control also goes down
at three major airports. Flights are
thrown into chaos, some delayed by as
much as 4 hours. The power failure was
caused by a combination of technical and
human error. Two four ESS switches shut
down completely. A third is partially
affected. Of course, 33 Thomas Street is
prepared for this, or at least should
be, but due to yet another technical
failure. The backup generators don't
kick in. As a result, over 5 million
calls are blocked and air traffic
communication to nearly 400 airports is
disrupted. On this day, 33 Thomas Street
proves just how critical it is to the
nation's telephone infrastructure.
9/11 changes the US forever. In
response, the government doubles down on
the war on terror. Within days, the
Patriot Act passes, granting
intelligence agencies broad powers to
expand mass surveillance. The NSA's
primary role is to gather foreign
intelligence. But to do that, they need partners.
partners.
It's 2003. This is Mark Klein, a
technician at AT&T. His job is to
maintain equipment at one of the
company's internet and telephone hubs in
San Francisco.
One day, he notices something strange on
the floor below, a door with no handles.
It just has a sign on it, 641A.
The room sits directly below the seventh
floor server room, where internet
traffic from millions of people flows
every day. Klein is curious. He wants to
know what's behind that door.
Eventually, he comes across the building
plans and slowly he starts putting the
pieces together. Room 641A is wired
directly to the internet room upstairs.
Klein discovers that it houses a device
known as a splitter. A splitter copies
internet traffic, the very data flowing
through the servers above. Emails, phone
calls, pictures, videos, the
communications of millions, all
duplicated and sent into room 641A. Mark
Klein realizes he's uncovered something
huge. But for now, he stays silent. He's
scared and unsure if anyone would even
believe him.
In 2005, news breaks. President George
W. Bush has quietly authorized the NSA
to spy on American citizens. This is the
moment Mark Klein decides to go public.
With the help of a digital rights group,
he files a class action lawsuit against
AT&T on behalf of everyone whose data
was secretly monitored. But in 2008, the
case gets dismissed. Congress passes the
FISA amendments act, a law that
retroactively legalizes the surveillance
program and grants AT&T legal immunity.
Still, Klein's actions leave a mark. He
exposed Room 641A and revealed that AT&T
was helping the US government spy on its
own customers. And his revelations are
just the beginning. The calm before a
In 2013, a 29-year-old NSA analyst tells
his supervisors he's taking a couple of
weeks off. He says it's for epilepsy
treatment. In reality, he boards a plane
to Hong Kong. Here, he will leak top
secret NSA files to the press and inform
the public about sweeping privacy violations.
violations.
>> Former CIA employee and computer is on
the top secret information about NSA
Edward Snowden.
>> Edward Snowden shares thousands of
classified documents with journalists.
highly sensitive material that offers a
rare look inside the NSA surveillance
machine. The Snowden files reveals
something staggering. The NSA hasn't
just been spying on US citizens, but
also on politicians, allies, foreign
governments, and even world leaders. A
global scandal erupts, exposing the vast
scope of the agency's mass surveillance
program. Journalists around the world
begin working together, combing through
the documents and gradually releasing
them to the public. Over the following
years, pieces of the puzzle come
together, one at a time. And in 2016,
reporters at the Intercept go public
with a shocking discovery. Intelligence
agencies use code names to conceal
sensitive operations. In the leaked NSA
files, some of these code names appear
again and again. One of them is Blney, a
surveillance program focused on
intercepting foreign communications
flowing into the US. Another program is
called Fair View, a partnership between
the NSA and a major unnamed US telecom
operation. And then there's this Titan
Point. The leaked files identify
Titanpoint as a secret NSA surveillance
site hidden in the heart of New York
City. Titan Point appears to house
highly specialized technology, including
so-called foreign gateway switches with
Rimrock Access. Rimrock is code for four
ESS switches. And then there's Lithium.
According to the files, Lithium is a
partner responsible for supervising
Titan Point. Earlier reporting had
already revealed what Lithium really
stands for. AT&T, the owner of 33 Thomas
Street. Journalists at the Intercept
start connecting the dots and they
conclude that Titan Point is a code name
for the Long Lines building. Their
investigation reveals that NSA has been
using 33 Thomas Street as a major mass
surveillance site. The building even
shows up in a leaked travel guide meant
for NSA agents. They're told to prepare
cover stories for both family members
and co-workers. Agents must also use a
cover vehicle provided by the agency
when visiting a site like 33 Thomas
Street. According to the handbook, the
NSA works closely with the FBI, which
handles security at Titan Point.
Conveniently, the FBI has offices right
next to the skyscraper.
>> So, here is 33 Thomas Street, and there
is the FBI building.
>> The guide also describes how to enter
the building. You literally just ring
the buzzer.
>> This is an intercom here, and it's
locked. And I was told I could not, and
I cannot take any videos from the front.
Shereekq actually caught someone leaving
the building.
>> Hi. Can I ask you like a quick question
just for one minute?
>> This is the first time I ever been in
this building. There's actually not
supposed to be people in here. I just
went aside and that was like the first
thing I noticed. I was like, where's
natural light? I don't, you know, people
may notice my voice, but I'll just say
this much. I think there's only a few
people in there and it was pretty much empty.
empty.
>> Probably just a random person or an NSA
agent with their cover story unlock. We
will never know. But what exactly is the
NSA doing here? [Music]
[Music]
According to the Intercept, there's a
hidden room inside 33 Thomas Street, one
that closely resembles room 641A. In the
Snowden leaks, it's referred to as a
sensitive compartmented information
facility, or SCIF for short. This room
enables the NSA to tap into virtually
all communications passing through the
building. First, there are the four ESS
switches inside the building, the
routers that process millions of phone
calls each day. Then, if you look at the
rooftop of the building, you'll see
massive satellite dishes. It's the only
location in New York City where AT&T
holds an official license for satellite
Earth stations. These dishes are likely
part of Skidro, a surveillance system
designed to intercept internet data
passing between satellites. They most
likely capture video calls and video
conferences. All intercepted data is
funneled through an AT&T interface, then
sent directly to NSA headquarters in
Maryland. The NSA can then access it
through a system called Xkey Score. I
can see who you talked to. I can see who
your friends on Facebook are. Uh, I can
see the text messages you sent. I can
read the emails you wrote.
>> The NSA has developed its own search
engine, the kind of Google for spies. X
Keyscore lets NSA agents dig deep into
anyone's life. Every bit of data
captured from 33 Thomas Street and other
hubs is at their fingertips, ready to be
searched and analyzed.
>> Let's say I want to read John Key's
email. I enter his email address and it
sends that search to every one of these
sensor networks around the world and
they search their local database of
metadata and content, the content of all
communications that pass through these
sites. AT&T cooperated with the NSA in
many instances. Internal documents even
praised the company for its extreme
willingness to help with NSA's missions.
In 2003, a secret court order allowed
AT&T to help the NSA wiretap all
internet communications from the United
Nations headquarters in New York. To
this day, AT&T never publicly
acknowledged its cooperation with the
NSA or what happens inside 33 Thomas Street.
Street.
>> I'm still very curious what it would be
like to go close, but the security guard
is still there. She has not moved at all.
all.
>> We reached out to AT&T for comment, but
received no response.
A 2018 report by The Intercept suggests
that there are at least eight other
sites across the US operated by AT&T
that the NSA may be using for
surveillance. Chicago, Los Angeles, San
Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, they
all look alike. Strange windowless
buildings. Architecture not meant for
people but for machines. machines hungry
for the data of millions. To us, 33
Thomas Street with its mysterious
humming presence remains the most
interesting one of them all and also the
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