The Ten Most Impressive Abandoned Military Bases In The World

10.) Fort Ord, USA

Fort Ord, California has some really cool stuff like this abandoned Olympic size swimming pool. Also rows and rows of abandoned barracks and larger buildings. All with an ocean view.

The coolest thing about this place, and what makes it so impressive, is that it is an example of beautiful decay....placed in the middle of the natural beauty of the California central coast, off of HWY 1. It is such a weird place and yet somehow it works so nicely where it is. I hope they never tear it down.

9.) Duga-3, Ukraine

Nicknamed the Russian Woodpecker, this massive antenna was part of the Soviet's extremely powerful over-the-horizon radar (OTH) system. It also happened to generate a sound that could be heard on the shortwave radio bands worldwide between July 1976 and December 1989. The repetitive tapping noise at 10 Hz gave it the Woodpecker name, but NATO referred to it as the "Steel Yard".

Since it's located next to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, it's also radioactive since 1986.

Here's a view from the top of the Duga-3.

8.) Hethel Air Base, England

While Hethel was just one of the RAF's many air bases, it also happens to be the place where Lotuses are born. The world's best handling cars are tuned on Hethel's historic tarmac.

When it comes to repurposed air bases, Silverstone, Sebring or the Dunsfold Aerodrome are not bad either.

7.) Saint Nazaire Submarine Base, France

 Saint Nazaire was completely carpeted by allied bombers, only the base survived. My grandmother had to emigrate several kilometers inside the land, ad could only get back long after the war was over.

6.) Johnston Atoll, USA

The Johnston Atoll might belong to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service today, but before that, it was the Army's playground for 70 years.

It was covered in radioactive debris for a while thanks to test launch failures in 1962, and this is where they stored all the Agent Orange and mustard gas after the Vietnam War.

It's a nicer place today.

5.) Flak Towers, Austria and Germany

The Nazis built eight of these massive above-ground, anti-aircraft gun blockhouse towers in Hamburg, Berlin and Vienna.

Good luck trying to demolish these babies. Repurposing them is rather difficult.

4.) Greenbrier Bunker, USA

It was originally called project Green Island and was designed as a full scale bunker complex located under the luxury hotel the Greenbrier.

The bunker was a secret and remained full serviced and operational from 1959-1992 when a Washington Post reporter exposed it. The bunker was large enough to hold all of Congress, both houses and staff for over a year or more.

3.) The Maginot Line, France

The French remembered the First World War, so before the Second started, they build a line of fortified bunkers along the Belgian and German border.

If your boots hit some concrete or steel in the middle of a French field, you found one of them.

2.) Zeljava Underground Airbase, Croatia

Started in 1948 and finished twenty years later, this underground base was one of the largest and most expensive military construction projects in Europe.

Problem is, thanks to the Yugoslav Wars in the early nineties, the area is still full of mines and bombs , so you can't really go there to be amazed.

1.) Maunsell Sea Forts, North Sea

Build during the Second World War at the Thames and Mersey estuaries during the Second World War to help defend the United Kingdom from the Nazi submarines, this remains the best abandoned military base in the universe.


source::Jalopink.com