New York is a city that’s full of mysteries, but one of the biggest ones (literally) lies within 33 Thomas Street.
The building is 550 feet tall with twenty-nine storeys and absolutely no windows. Despite this meaning you can spot the building from a mile off, no one has any clue as to what goes on inside.
Even Tom Hanks is baffled by the building, having tweeted back in 2017: “This is the scariest building I’ve ever seen! WTF goes on inside??”
Its strong brutalist architecture stands as a stark contrast to the glistening windows of Lower Manhattan where it lies among much more ordinary buildings.
A few things are known about the building, including that construction began back in 1969, and that it was completed by 1974.
Its official use is listed as being a telephone interchange, which makes sense considering once upon a time the building was used by AT&T Communications, and specifically their Long Lines Department, who were a company that provided telephone services.
However, they moved out of the building way back before the millennium, leaving us ordinary folk to wonder what on earth has been going on inside this windowless monstrosity since? It’s not like Manhattan is some of the hottest real estate on the planet or anything…
It’s no surprise then that such a mysterious building has garnered the attention of all sorts of conspiracy theories. Although some parts of the building are still used for telephone switching, not all parts of the spooky skyscraper are accounted for.
Some people believe that the intimidating building is home to a nuclear shelter, which would make sense considering the lack of windows would probably help keep you safe in the case of a nuclear explosion.
One of the other biggest theories is that it is home to a National Security Agency listening hub.
A 2016 investigation by The Intercept found documents that indicated it was in fact a listening hub for mass surveillance, but whether or not this is actually what goes on inside is yet to be confirmed.
However, given that mass surveillance is on the sketchier side of activities, it is unlikely that we will ever truly know what goes on inside the mysterious skyscraper.
