[music playing] DON WILDMAN
(VOICEOVER): Chicago is famous for its
towering buildings and scenic waterfront,
but it's also known around the world as gangland. After it was burned to the
ground in the great Chicago Fire, it was quickly rebuilt
as a busy port city ruled by mobsters, thugs, and thieves. Today, that secret
past is buried just beneath the surface. Watch your head. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): From
underground mob dens where America's most notorious
criminals ruled the underworld-- These were secret
rooms, rooms that you could have wild parties. So there was a stash
down here of some booze. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): --to
a hidden subway system built by crooked politicians
at city hall. DON WILDMAN: And the railroad
tracks would come in here. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): And the
watery grave of Chicago's lost fleet. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Even
a highly classified nuclear lab where the world's first
controlled nuclear chain reaction shook the earth. Chicago's past is filled with
crime, corruption, and scandal, all hidden just
beneath the streets. We're peeling back
the layers of time on "Cities of the
Underworld, Mob Underground." [theme music] [music playing] With almost three
million people, Chicago is America's
third largest city. Today, it's known as a big
city with a small-town feel, but it still hides plenty
of secrets underground. I'm Don Wildman. I'm in Chicago, Illinois. It's called the Second
City for a reason. Over the past 150 years, Chicago
has had to rebuild itself again and again as massive
fires almost wiped off the map and floods nearly drowned
the city in its own sewage. But rebuilding a city from
the ground up is not easy, and in its rush to
rebuild, Chicago went from a burned-out wasteland
to a booming empire of crime. In time, the city was run
by a corrupt secret society called the Gray Wolves
and by violent mobsters like Al Capone. They ran their criminal empire
through a complex system of secret underground
tunnels and escape routes. Today, Chicago is the gleaming
capital of America's heartland, but dig beneath the
streets, and you'll soon find the foundations were
laid by America's most notorious men. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
By the early 20th century, Chicago was a big city
version of the Wild West. By 1919, a pimp named Big
Jim Colosimo was slowly taking over the city's
criminal activity, but he needed some muscle to
support his growing empire. So he hired his nephew from
New York, Johnny the Fox Torrio and Johnny's number one
captain, a young hoodlum named Al Capone. Capone and Johnny
the Fox quickly rose in the ranks
of the Chicago mob, but a rift between
Jim and his proteges developed when Big Jim refused
to enter the bootlegging trade. And then he turned up dead. Many believe it was
Capone and Johnny who had Big Jim Colosimo whacked. Soon, Chicago's streets
were flowing with booze. Capone was now king of
Chicago's underworld. Al Capone owned joints
throughout the city-- speakeasies, casinos, brothels. And in the early
1920s, he took over one of Chicago's most popular
nightclubs, The Green Mill, and tapped his most loyal
lieutenant, Machine Gun Jack McGurn, to run it. He knew it wouldn't
be long before Eliot Ness the Untouchables would
start to raid his new hangout. He needed a foolproof
escape plan, so he had a network of
tunnels connecting to hideouts throughout the city. These tunnels helped him avoid
arrest, move his illegal booze, and build his criminal empire. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
The biggest threat to Capone's criminal empire was
the Untouchables, an elite task force that was formed to
bring Al Capone to his knees. Eliot Ness an all-out war
against Chicago's greatest criminal empire, tracking
Capone's every move and raiding his businesses. But even while he
was being hunted, Capone continued to expand
his illegal supply routes. Eventually, he found
himself targeted by both the Untouchables
and rival gangsters, like George Bugs Moran. So he needed the
perfect protection for himself and his business,
and he found it underground. Dave Jemilo, owner of the
Green Mill, one of Capone's hot spots, agreed
to take me down into Capone's
private underworld. DON WILDMAN: So who owned
this place back then? Well, during Prohibition,
one of the owners was a Machine Gun Jack
McGurn, who's not Irish. He was Italian. That was just a fake name. So they couldn't sell
booze legally, obviously. Well, that's why he was here
because he was he worked he was one of Al Capone's
henchmen, and so that was how they got the liquor in. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
Machine Gun Jack McGurn was one of Capone's top
lieutenants, feared by cops and mobsters alike. It's said that after his
father was killed by the mob, McGurn soaked his hands
in his father's blood and swore to avenge his death. Because his top lieutenant
was running the show and because he was Chicago's
most dangerous VIP, Capone had the best
seat in the house. Don, see this booth here? This is where Al
Capone used to sit. This is Al's Booth. Yeah, because if you sit
here, you can see both doors, and a mobster never wants
his back to the door. McGurn, you had St.
Valentine's Day Massacre, he's the guy that
did it for Al Capone. Really? And he owned this
joint when he did it. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
The popular Green Mill provided an excellent cover
for Capone's bootlegging. Come on down this way. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): But
Eliot Ness and the Untouchables were tapping his phones
and raiding his breweries. Watch your head. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): So
Capone supposedly transformed the club's basement
into secret vice lounges and an elaborate maze
of escape tunnels. [music playing] OK, come on down this way. This is high-tech security. I think Machine Gun
Jack McGurn put it in because he knew
a lot of thieves. He get into a lot
of trouble back then? Yeah. OK, watch your head. All right. This is the old women's
dressing room here. Oh, yeah. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
Over 80 years ago, these bathrooms and stalls
would have been surrounded by performers preparing
for the show above, but there's more here
than meets the eye. If Eliot Ness and his
agents got this far, they'd never suspect that this
was only the first section of a more elaborate passageway. Hidden behind this
thick steel door was where Capone and McGurn's
exclusive underworld began. Cool door, huh? [makes squeak] OK, come on this way. Whew, this place just
goes on and on, doesn't it? DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
This extensive passage was the Green Mill's
best kept secret. At first, it
appeared to be just a backstage for the
jazz club up above. But beyond the hidden door,
they were private party rooms with easy escape routes
to the streets above. With an extensive
subterranean roof, booze, women, and the Green
Mill's upscale clients could move freely around the
tunnels without being caught. If Ness and his
agents managed to find this hidden underground,
the Untouchables would find nothing
but empty passageways. Just as popular as the
jazz and dancing up above were the private rooms Capone
concealed for his VIPs. Now, you see all these doors
on each side of the hallway, from what I'm told,
these were secret rooms, rooms that you could have wild
parties because at the time if it ever got busted, there's
ways of getting out of here that you end up walking on
the street with your dame on your arm like
nothing ever happened. So there's exits
that go straight up the street from underneath? DAVE JEMILO: Yeah. DON WILDMAN: Can
we see one of them? No, I don't want
to get robbed, so I'm not going to
show them to you. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
For security reasons, Dave wouldn't allow us
to film the entrances. But in the old days, criminals
were welcomed in these tunnels, using them for parties
or to escape a raid. But that's not all. The main passageway extended
to become a liquor supply route for Chicago's
finest theaters and clubs around the city. Come on over here. This place is huge. Oh, look at that. Yeah, there you go. There's a secret passageway
if ever there was one. Let's just take a look at this. [knock] Hollow. [knock] Yeah, there's
something behind there. How cool. Yeah, look, this has been-- a board just been planted
in here and the concrete poured like so. So this tunnel went straight
across the street how far? DAVE JEMILO: Supposedly to
the Aragon Ballroom, which would be a half a block down. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): From
the basement of the Green Mill, patrons, criminals, and
booze could be transported to the Aragon Ballroom and other
clubs around the neighborhood, all underground. These supply routes were
Capone's greatest success. In 1927, his total
worth was $100,000,000. That's over $1 billion
today, most of it cash. Ness never realized
so much money was flowing beneath his feet. In just 10 years, Al
Capone built an empire through these underground
tunnels and speakeasies. But in 1931, Ness won his
long battle against the mob. A federal court convicted
Capone of tax evasion. Capone pled guilty
and was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison,
never returning to Chicago until he was buried
there in 1947. DON WILDMAN: I mean,
this is a grim space. It reminds you of how
Chicago was filled killers, and graft, and
illegal activities, and booking and everything. It's amazing what might have
built the city to start with. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Capone
was Gangland's most ruthless mobster, but he wasn't the
only crook making a killing in Chicago's seedy underworld. Beneath the city's most
notorious district, a maze of tunnels kept the booze
flowing and the cops at bay. By the 1920s, Chicago had
earned the nickname Gangland because it was run
by violent gangsters like Al Capone and
George Bugs Moran. They had capitalized on the
tragedy of the great Chicago Fire and built a city
of crime on the ashes. The Chicago mob had
extended its criminal empire throughout the city, from high
class clubs in the north end to dingy basement brothels
on the south side. But within crime
ridden Chicago, there was one district that became
command central for criminals of all kinds, petty thieves,
prostitutes, and pimps, and even Capone, the king of
Chicago's seedy underworld. This is the Near
South Side of Chicago. Today, it's a
prosperous neighborhood filled with museums,
bookstores, and cafes. But if I was walking down
this street 80 years ago, I'd be surrounded by
prostitutes, pimps, drunks, and the nation's most
dangerous criminals. And if you looked
a little harder, you'd see politicians
and businessmen. You see, in old Chicago, there
was one place where the city's elite could rub elbows
with mobsters and crooks-- the underground. Today, it's called
the Near South Side. But in the early 20th century,
it was called the Levee District, and it was the most
notorious spot in Chicago. City Alderman who ran
the levee were as crooked as the thugs on the street. Not only did city officials
allow gambling parlors, brothels, and speakeasies
in their district, they took a cut of the profit. At one point, there were over
100 dens of vice operating in the Levee, and one of
its most infamous businesses was the Cullerton Hotel. - Hey, Richard.
- Hi, Don. Nice to see you. You too. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Local
mob expert Richard Lindberg was going to take me inside. Today, the old lobby of the
hotel is an auto parts store, but over 100 years ago,
this was a mob operation. Unlike other
illegal enterprises, this one had it all-- women, booze, and gambling. These are just the doorway,
the gateway to the tunnels underneath the Cullerton
Hotel which connected to the other brothels and-- Look at that. --illegal places of the
Levee District way back when. Oh, man, look at that. That's great. This is a hidden passageway. Be very careful. The stairs are very narrow
and the wood is very old. [music playing] Oh, yeah, it's got that
basement smell, doesn't it? Boy, look at this old stonework. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): During
the early days of the Chicago mob, this underworld was
packed with gamblers hiding beneath the guise of
a legitimate hotel. And I would imagine
quite a glamorous space. I mean, they would have wanted
you to feel like you were having a good time. It was more of a
penny ante kind of thing with what they used to call
the dinner pail gamblers. That is the men who carried
a dinner pail to work and stopped off here after a
long day of toil where they would wager away their
last meager paycheck. Upstairs on their
girlfriend, downstairs on their favorite game. Yeah. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
The Cullerton had been run by
the mob for years. Then, in the 1920s, Chicago's
newest and most powerful mobster, Al Capone, reportedly
took over the Cullerton and the Levee. Capone's hotel was mostly a
blue collar joint, catering to working men in the district. Other places like the upscale
brothel known simply as Casino catered to high rollers,
businessmen, even politicians. But neither high
rollers nor working men were safe from the police. Capone ruled the Levee
District by paying off most of the police, but
not all cops were crooked, and there were still
constant raids. Beginning around
1900, the proprietors of the vice dens in Chicago
built a system of tunnels that extend about six blocks west
of here and two, three blocks south and north. The tunnels are running
all through the neighborhood? It's a warren of tunnels
that were used as getaways during police raids. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
Long before Capone took over the Cullerton, the owners
dug out an elaborate tunnel system, providing escape
routes in case of a crackdown. It was a constant
game of cat and mouse, and these tunnels were
the playing field. The levee district was filled
with legitimate businesses that fronted for gambling
dens and brothels, and they were secretly
connected underground to provide an
organized crime front. The police could
raid one business, but because the whole
neighborhood was connected underground, the
police were actually battling the entire district. OK, Don, here we go. This is the first of the
tunnels of the Cullerton Hotel. It has long ago been
plugged up, as you can see. There's layers of stone that
have been embedded in here. Wait, so you're
saying all down here. All down here, this is
stone that has been plugged into this entryway. I see. Oh, yeah, I can see there's this
whole shape of a tunnel right here. Yes. This was Johnny Torrio system
for hustling people out of the building. So there's a raid. What's happening upstairs? RICHARD LINDBERG: Well, you'd
hear the calliope whistle blaring. The police blast through
the front door of the hotel. The patrons who are in the
lobby or elsewhere scurry. Nobody wants to be arrested. They may be jumping
out of windows. Or more likely, they're coming
down here into this lower subterranean level, and they're
being hustled through here to the street or to another
building where they can flee. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
When the raids came, there was no time to lose. In fact, there's still
evidence inside the Cullerton's secret tunnels that the patrons
of this underground racket escaped in a hurry. So there was a stash
down here of some booze. This is amazing. So this is where
they're running out, and I'm betting that they're
getting rid of their booze. Yes, it's falling
out of their pockets. They're taking a last swig as
they go through the tunnel. They're looking
over their shoulders to see if the cops are
catching up with them. And they flee out, and they
leave their liquor behind. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
The Cullerton Hotel operated for 22 years in the
heart of the Levee District, but Al Capone was
arrested in 1931. Without his
protection and power, the Cullerton, and most of the
rackets operating in the Levee, went under. Legitimate businesses
moved in and boarded up the network of tunnels that
ran beneath the streets. RICHARD LINDBERG: This
is it for this district. The city of Chicago has taken a
rather dim view of its gangster past. They don't want to promote it. They don't want to celebrate it. You're really looking at the
last remnant of that era. I see. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
Mobsters ruled the Levee from underground
tunnels like these, but they weren't the only
ones who were corrupt. Hidden below the city's most
famous department store, Chicago's top politicians had
their own secret underworld. In the 1920s, gangsters like
Big Jim Colosimo and Al Capone helped to make the
Levee Chicago's most infamous district, but the
Levee had already been a capital of crime for decades. It began after the
great Chicago Fire with corrupt
politicians who were eager to make a quick
dollar off a city that was desperate to rebuild. They took bribes
from illegal rackets and lured shady businessmen
from around the country to set up shop in
Chicago's Near South Side. It was the beginning
of organized crime in the city, the precursor
of the Chicago mob. And it all began underground. This is Chicago's
famous L-Train. Every day, 1 and
1/2 million people ride these tracks that
run high above the city, but there's another
railway in Chicago almost no one knows about. It spans 60-plus miles and
runs 40-feet underground. It's one of the oldest
underground railways in the world, but unlike other
subway systems of its day, this was not the pride
and joy of the city. This was one of
its dark secrets. There were other secret tunnels
in Chicago's underworld, but they were nothing
compared to the covert subway beneath downtown. What's more, it wasn't built
by mobsters in the 1920s, it was built by a corrupt group
of politicians in the 1890s. At the time, Chicago's first
ward, also known as the Levee District, was run
by corrupt aldermen like Michael Hinky Dink Kenna
and Bathhouse John Coughlin, men who were friends and
associates of Big Jim Colosimo, Chicago's most notorious pimp. They were called the Gray
Wolves because they preyed on the desperation of a city
that had been nearly destroyed by fire, taking payoffs to turn
their backs on criminal rackets and to green light huge
public works projects. One of their biggest scams
was a top secret tunnel system running right under the city. I met up with Richard
Lindberg again. He's an expert on
these rail tunnels, and he brought me to one
of the only access points remaining today. Ah, Marshall
Field, here we are. Hey, Don, welcome
to Marshall Field. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
In the early 1900s, this was the famous
Marshall Field store. Today, it's Macy's
on State Street. People then, and now,
have never realized that a top secret railway
runs right beneath it. [music playing] This is the only access, huh? This is funny. This is the back of
Macy's department store, the only access to these
tunnels apparently. OK, Don, let's descend down
to the tunnels underneath State Street. [music playing] DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): 40
feet underground, these tunnels are over 100 years old
and run for 60 miles throughout downtown Chicago. Right over here is the
point of entry into the tunnel system-- This door? --connecting Marshall Field
to the rest of the track and system. We're going open this door,
and you'll see right here, this is where the
tunnel was located, which would connect
to the other downtown streets and the other
department stores. Yeah, look at this. And the railroad
tracks would come right into here, right, Richard? It would come right
through this little doorway. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
In the 1870s, downtown Chicago was chaos. Wagons, horses, and
streetcars were everywhere. Moving supplies around the
city was nearly impossible. Building a freight system
that could move supplies, coal for heating, and
merchandise all underground would be the perfect solution. But with the Gray Wolves in
power, getting things done meant cutting a few corners. It was a big moneymaker
for the Gray Wolves. Not only did they get bribes to
green light the rights to build the tunnels, they likely took
a cut of the operations fee the tunneling companies
charged businesses above. In a time when city
councilman made $200 a year, the Gray Wolves made
upwards of $20,000. I love when a tunnel
in an underground is part of something
that's still working. We got a department
store over our heads. We're 40 feet under Chicago
down here in a tunnel that few people
know is even here and has been here for
hundreds years, so cool. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
The tunnelling equipment was brought in through
the basement of a tavern. To hide the massive
construction project, the excavated soil was taken
out of the tavern in barrels and carried away in carriages. The workers began digging
narrow cavities out of the dense Chicago soil. The tunnels were built
to fit small train cars, then they were temporarily
reinforced with wood supports, leaving a small gap between
the wood and the soil. Concrete was poured in
the gap, and once it set, the wood was removed, and
one final layer of concrete was added to smooth the surface. The dense Chicago clay
that surrounds the tunnels acts as a natural support,
and the classic arch design helps distribute the weight
pressing down from above. The completed tunnels
were so strong, they still withstand the pressure
of today's city up above. Once it was up and
running, motor cars transported merchandise, coal,
and ash from store to store. RICHARD LINDBERG: The system
began construction in 1899. It was kind of a
carefully guarded secret that they were actually going
to be building tunnels in here. But the whole system
kind of evolved. And as a way Chicago
politics usually go, things are done secretly
behind closed doors. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
Even though the tunnel is out of use, it can still be accessed
through the basement of one of Chicago's biggest
downtown businesses. DON WILDMAN: So there
was literally a train going through here. Yes. Yes, there was a little
narrow gauge track that would be right
here on the floor where we're standing,
right on top of it. There would be one
motorman driving it. DON WILDMAN: So this was a
delivery system they had built. It was Chicago's first
integrated, organized delivery system. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
But these tunnels were only the
beginning of Chicago's underground corruption. According to Richard,
the Gray Wolves weren't the only ones
cashing in on the tunnels. The strong connections between
Chicago's corrupt alderman and the mob may have played
a part in this secret subway. RICHARD LINDBERG: Connection
of it went further south, and that really is an
interesting side story to this. There were no major department
stores that far south. I think a payoff, or something,
was made to get the Chicago tunnel company to construct an
extension southward to connect with the vice dens
of the old Levee. And it's probably very
likely that the Prohibition bootlegger's, be it Al
Capone, or Dean O'Banion, or any of the other
ones who were serving their liquor into
the downtown hotels must have used this system. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
With the tunnels connecting the Levee District to downtown,
the illegal liquor that moved freely around the Levee
could make its way to Chicago's upscale
clientele, making the mob more rich and powerful. No one knows for sure whether
these tunnels were used by bootleggers, but the seeds of
organized crime and corruption had been sown in Chicago. In 1959, the tunnels
went out of service, and the city sealed up
this secret project. Chicago's underground is filled
with secret tunnels like these, but there's another part
to the city's dark past. Buried deep at the
bottom of Lake Michigan are the ghostly remains
of Chicago's lost fleet. In the mid 1800s,
the port of Chicago was the Grand Central
terminal of waterways. With its canals connecting
to the Great Lakes, there was a direct route from
the North Atlantic all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. The success of the port
turned a frontier town into a center of power. And like all major ports,
the incredible value of goods moving in
and out of the city made it a haven for illegal
cargo and contraband, bribes, and scams. But crime wasn't the only threat
on Chicago's busy waterfront. Strong wind currents and
sudden, violent storms made Lake Michigan
a deadly waterway. In fact, there have been rumors
that some sea captains used the dangerous waters
for a lucrative racket. They sank ships and their cargo
to collect insurance money, and sometimes they used the
deadly waters as a cover for murder. Evidence of those
crimes may still be there, lying at the
bottom of Lake Michigan. I went out with shipwreck
archaeologist Valerie Van Heyst to see a 125-year-old wreck
called the Wells Burt. It's disastrous sinking
is still a mystery. [music playing] Look at that boat over there. That's about a
100-foot schooner. The Wells Burt that we're
going to see today is 200 feet. So you can imagine twice
the size of that ship there, that's what's laying
down on the bottom. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
The Wells Burt was a cargo ship and one of
the most well-built sailing vessels of its time, 201-feet
long able to hold over 750 tons. But in May of 1883,
a monster storm raged across Lake
Michigan, just a few miles from the coast of Chicago. The Wells Burt sank, and all
10 crew members and the captain drowned. Many people refuse to believe
that such a sturdy ship failed, even in the well-known
dangers of Lake Michigan. But was its sinking
an accident or murder? DON WILDMAN: So we're
setting anchor here. We're pretty much right over
the wreck here, 30 feet over. Five miles out to
sea, the wind's really kind of
picking up right here. Conditions have changed totally. This lake just switches
just like that. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
Lake Michigan is still infamous for its
unpredictable weather, so it's no surprise
that the lake bottom is one huge graveyard for ships. But weather alone doesn't
explain the mystery of the Wells Burt, and
there was only one way to get to the bottom of it. We're doing a full face masks,
and we got microphones in there so that we can
talk to each other. That's cool. I've never done this before. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
The wreckage settled right near a reef and is lodged 8
feet into the soft clay bottom, which has kept it from breaking
apart in the strong currents. If we can get inside,
we'll actually be going beneath the
lake bottom itself. This is a Jacques
Cousteau moment. You ready?
- Ready. OK. One, two, three. [music playing] DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
The Wells Burt's tragic run was supposed to be a routine
trip, starting from Buffalo through the Erie
Canal to Chicago. One weekend in
May 1883, the city was hit by horrible storms
that spawned tornadoes, 30-foot waves, and spray
that reached 100-feet high at the city's lakefront. The ship was two hours from
land when it went down. Within sight of shore,
the cargo and crew were sinking without
any hope of rescue. The ship's captain had
been accused of foul play in a previous shipwreck. If the ship was sunk
on purpose in a scam to collect the
insurance money, it would make the death
of the crew murder. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): But
how did the Wells Burt actually sink? The captain was a
seasoned veteran, and the ship was a model
of solid craftsmanship. But there's evidence that
something went terribly wrong on that
stormy night in May. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
Valerie suspects that the Wells Burt may
have lost its rudder, and the captain suddenly
found himself unable to steer in the fierce waves. The Wells Burt should have been
able to handle the high waves, unless the ship had a
critical design flaw. If it was made without
sufficient scuppers, the excess water
wouldn't flow out, and the ship would go down. DON WILDMAN
(VOICEOVER): The ship was, in fact, built
with scuppers. But according to
Valerie, there were not enough to disperse the water
crashing onto the deck. If the ship lost its
rudder and couldn't steer to avoid the waves, the water
would crash high and hard onto the deck. And without enough of these
scuppers to let the water escape, the water would
slowly fill up the ship and drop her to the
bottom of the lake. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
Valerie believes the sinking of the Wells
Burt was an accident caused by a simple but
critical design flaw. The rumors of crime
and murder have faded, but the truth still lies
beneath the bottom of the lake. Today, the Wells
Burt remains intact, another well preserved
secret in the depths of Chicago's dark underworld. Whether underground
or underwater, Chicago's always been a
town that can keep a secret. In fact, the most deadly
and highly classified experiment in history
took place right here just beneath the surface. From hidden tunnels to
forgotten shipwrecks and an underworld of
speakeasies and brothels, Chicago has always been a
town that can keep a secret. And when World War
II broke out, Chicago was part of the world's most
top secret and deadly project in the history of war-- the A-Bomb. By December 1942, the race to
build the first nuclear weapon was well underway, and
the stakes were huge. Hitler's Nazi army had begun
its conquest of Europe, and a year earlier, the
Japanese had struck the US Naval base of Pearl Harbor. It was thought that whoever
built the super weapon first would win the war. Meanwhile, a few feet beneath
an abandoned football field at the University of Chicago,
a group of scientists were getting ready
for a test that would begin the age
of nuclear warfare and change the world forever. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): In
1942, the Manhattan Project was in full force, more than
130,000 employees spread across the country in
secret laboratories working day and night to
develop an atomic bomb. But few realized it was here
in Chicago that the Manhattan Project achieved one of
its biggest breakthroughs. An Italian immigrant
named Enrico Fermi led a band of wartime scientists,
and their testing ground was an old squash court beneath
the university's football field. The labs and stadium are
gone, but this statue marks the spot where
Fermi achieved the world's first controlled nuclear chain
reaction, a key stepping stone in building the A-Bomb. Professor Hildebrand agreed
to show me Fermi's former lab. He's been at the
University since 1951 and actually worked side
by side with Enrico Fermi. So you go back
to Fermi himself? Yes. It's one of the great
things in my life that I was here
while he was alive. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
While the war raged overseas, Fermi was here
underground conducting the nuclear experiments
that would end the war. Fermi took the first step in
creating the ultimate weapon. The idea was to bombard
uranium with neutron particles. When the neutrons
hit the uranium, the atoms split apart,
releasing more neutrons. That split more uranium
atoms, and on and on until a chain reaction would
release unprecedented amounts of energy. On December 2, 1942, the
theory became reality. The uranium pile went critical,
and the chain reaction had been achieved. Once this was expanded
to a larger scale, it would create a
bomb deadly enough to flatten an entire city. It was a very
sober celebration. One of the people
standing there had brought a bottle of Chianti. They poured a little bit
in everybody's paper cup, but they just very solemnly,
very quietly drank. Did they know
the profound change they would make in the world? That's why they were so sober. You have to realize what
a terrible war we were in, so this was not a war of choice. DON WILDMAN: Right. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Just
three years later in 1945, the first atomic bomb
was dropped on Hiroshima. The nuclear race had been
won, but at a terrible cost. Today, Fermilab, named after
the famous nuclear physicist, still conducts atomic
experiments underground. But these scientists
are exploring new uses of atomic energy for
knowledge about the origins of the universe, not to
wage nuclear armageddon. One of the men exploring
this unknown territory is Mike Andrews, a
coordinator of the NuMI Beam Line at Fermilab. This project studies mysterious
particles called neutrinos. Mike and a team of
physicists are investigating the hidden properties
and power of neutrinos by sending the particles 400
miles through the underground. Because the study of
neutrinos is relatively new, researchers are
still a long way off from any practical
application of their findings. But by learning
how neutrinos work, they could get a
better understanding of how the universe was formed
and how the sun produces its energy. MIKE ANDREWS: I'm going to
let you wear a hard hat, one of the things we have. We just want to make sure,
from a safety standpoint, that everything goes OK. Let me call the elevator. If you hit the lower button,
that'll start our ride. [music playing] Oh, that is amazing! So that's 360 feet up there? That's 360 feet. This exists primarily to
get-- every component that's down here came down this shaft. So as you look at
everything that's down here, everything came down here
by bringing it down by crane down these shafts. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
Scientists needed to build this
facility underground because neutrinos can be
contaminated by cosmic rays. Neutrinos are basic
subatomic particles created by radioactive
decay and nuclear reactions, like those that take
place in the sun. They literally fill the
universe with 10 million of them every cubic foot. They travel at the speed of
light, are nearly weightless, and can move through
matter uninterrupted. In fact, neutrinos can pass
all the way through the earth. 50 trillion solar neutrinos
pass through the human body every second. But how do scientists
study particles that are virtually undetectable
and can't be contained? Here in the lab, neutrinos are
created in a mile-long tunnel 360-feet beneath the surface. A beam of 30 trillion
protons hits a target, creating the neutrinos. Researchers use two
massive detectors. The one at Fermilab is 980
tons with 282 steel plates that detect just a few
neutrinos as they pass through. From there, the beam of
neutrinos passes 450 miles through the earth to
another detector 2,600 feet underground, a 6,000-ton,
100-foot-long detector in an old mine in Minnesota. MIKE ANDREWS: So, basically,
after the beam hits our near detector and we take
the snapshot of the beam, it travels on to
Soudan, Minnesota. And this stream of neutrinos
get sent over 400 miles away? Yes. How? It just goes
through the earth. It continues on. Its 3% grade. Halfway through
Wisconsin, the beam is approximately
10-kilometers deep. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
Neutrinos move at the speed of light, so in order to measure
any change in the particles over a period of
time, the detectors need to be separated
by great distances. So it took 0.25 seconds
for those neutrinos to go from here to
Minnesota 400 miles away? It's a few tenths of a second. I don't get it. It's a few tenths of a second. That's insane. And you can't see it. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER):
By studying the difference in the behavior
and characteristics of the neutrinos from the time
they leave Fermilab to when they arrive in
the Minnesota lab, researchers can
gain deeper insight into an unknown science. Everything is impressive
here, but this is maybe the deepest hole I've ever
looked down into in my life. And somehow, this is more
representative than anything else here about the length, the
distance these guys are going to for pure science. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Today,
Mike and the team of scientists at Fermilab are following in
the footsteps of Enrico Fermi by tapping into the unknown
and mysterious powers of tiny particles. But this massive
underground lab is a far cry from the underworld
of old Chicago. It evolved from a
haven of crime and vice where gangsters and
corrupt politicians ruled the streets to a modern
cosmopolitan city, the pride of America's heartland. But venture below
its busy streets, and you'll find Chicago's dark
past is still there, buried just beneath the surface.
