Odds n Ends (p3)
In the process of trying to finish up this very long series on the Atlas Powder Plant, we bring you to the remains of the plant’s original NG house. The Atlas Plant had managed a perfect safety record for its first half century of operation - a stupendous feat considering the sloppy record of its Woodside predecessor. The plants first - and only - serious accident occurred here at what use to be the plant’s outer NG house. No one was hurt, but the building and a good half acre of land around it was obliterated in the explosion. While the earth berms held, the power of the explosion was sent eastward creating a large crater about two feet in depth.
During the clean-up the old NG foundation was buried inside its earth-bermed tomb, with only a few pieces of the building still sticking up out of the dirt. The photo above shows a part of the buildings foundation - just barely sticking up out of the ground. Also nearby is pieces of the wood retaining walls.
The crater from the explosion is now merely an open field, marked on its rim by a two food sandy ledge. Within it are the remains of the NG houses support structures, which included this concrete building above. I’m not sure what it was for, but there is a similar structure near the still intact NG hose further to the west.
A look inside the building reveals old window openings that have been filled in with concrete block. Its possible that after the NG house’s destruction, the plant still used this building for storage or some other task.
Also nearby is this large concrete pedestal, which along with two other pedestals supported glycerine tanks for use at the NG house. The other two pedestals at this site had been knocked down at some point - possible from the explosion.
Here’s the same type of pedestals back at the still standing NG house. All three are still intact here.
A few other details of note. First of all are these yellow water valves. These guys are everywhere, and you always find them in the oddest places. (In the middle of a swamp, next to a large tree…) Also scattered about is the occasional fire hydrant - also yellow. The Atlas plant had a state of the art fire suppression system consisting of sprinklers in all the buildings. The sprinklers were fed from a concrete lined reservoir within the plant. After the sprinklers were activated they would continue to work until the reservoir was empty. These valves would shut off the water to keep that from happening.
And a real mystery. On the way to the NG house I spied some man-made structures deep in the woods. After heading off to investigate I found a collection of about a dozen pillars sitting in a defined pattern. All of them had bolts on their tops, which made me think they were once connected to something. Most interesting to me was how they were built - with what looks like sandstone. Whatever it was it was original to the plant, built probably at the plant’s initial construction phase.