Explorer Blog - Maryland Storm Drain Exploration

Formaldehyde Dreams

In the course of my work I spent a few weeks at another museum. The work I had been sent to do was mind numbing. I maintained their decrepit insect collection, tens of thousands of pinned and bottled specimens, reeking of solvents and decades old decay.

Walking one evening I crossed a bridge with a stream flowing beneath it. On either side of the bridge were lush green thickets. I couldn't remember any stream in the neighborhood I had just passed through though and the water I could hear burbling under me had to come from somewhere.

Easing myself down into the thick brush under the bridge I found myself in a foreign environment. I had left behind the busy city above, and now was surrounded by thick vines and gnarled trees. The smog and noise had been replaced by a heavy mist and a sense of quiet. Amber light from streetlamps filtered down from above through the leaves casting strange shadows in the gloom.

I crept upstream, intent on finding the source of the water. Birds flitted around me and something quickly ducked beneath the surface of the water as I passed. The city seemed far away from this hidden jungle. Soon I came to a great ruined archway. Vines and creepers poured out from over its top and great chunks of broken concrete lay at my feet. Water poured from a tunnel that stretched into the darkness.

I had the sense of discovering something from another time, that had been lost and forgotten. Making my way across the debris I passed beneath the arch...