We are standing on a platform at the top of the elevator shaft, looking back at the entrance pit. The concrete column (painted 'toxic') was apparently dropped into the pit to block passage, but really provided a means of climbing down. Beyond the column is a small, dark room containing the sealed-off staircase to the surface. The steps down into the elevator shaft are to the right of the photo. True for all of the underground photos, the place is NOT usually this brightly lit; there is NO electricity at the site, and everything is musty, damp, pitch black. Interestingly enough, there are NO signs of life anywhere in the whole complex; not even a rat or a spider. This may mean that it's just pretty well sealed, or it may mean something worse, that something is preventing things from living down there.