The above introduction is not taken from an actual account, but events like it occur all over the United States and the world every day. The target could be an apartment building, an old hospital, a mental institution, steam tunnels beneath a university, construction sites, decaying military barracks, sewer systems or a variety of other man-made structures, some public, some off-limits, some inhabited and some abandoned. The participants are not elite military units, government agents, or even burglars. They are ordinary citizens united by their love of exploration. They are urban explorers.

Urban exploring is basically sneaking into and around man-made structures. It can be as simple as taking a few minutes to wander through an unsupervised construction site or as technical as a group infiltrating the innards of a highly guarded suspension bridge after hours of planning and blueprint research.
A lot of explorers have been satisfying their curiosities about off-limits structures ever since they were children. In many cases, the habit carried over into their adult life and only then did they find others with similar interests.
“When you’re a kid you always look for a place to get away from your parents, grownups, cops, and teachers. Back then we didn’t call it urban exploration; we just called it hanging out,” said Mike ‘Dijital’ (his nickname) of Massachusetts. “It wasn’t until 2000 when I got online that I realized there was a pretty organized hobby for this sort of thing.”
Dijital’s drive for exploring may have sprouted from a need for escapism, but that is not the only reason people choose to participate in the activity.
“Urban exploration for me is about finding hidden treasures in places most people don’t care to go,” said Jennifer Shumate of Florida. “When I visit a site, I’m not there to graffiti the walls or to smash chairs. I am interested in the history of the building, its architectural styles; who lived there and why did they leave?”
Shumate said photography is one of her main purposes for exploring. She is interested in capturing images of objects that have been left behind as well as different types of urban decay.
Many explorers appreciate the thrill of discovering an area that few have seen.
“There is a definite mindset in urban exploration of finding an area that is in some way secret,” said Janine D’Agati of Maryland. “The explorer feels as if they are becoming part of something esoteric and therefore the act of exploring has a distinct level of intimacy about it.”

At the same time there are some areas in plain sight that the general population will never experience from the same viewpoint that an urban explorer does.
“I’m a huge fan of perspectives,” said Chris Brennan of San Francisco who runs the Institute for Urban Exploration’s web site. “For instance, a person could ride the same subway train to work for many years and feel like they know that specific route like the back of their hand, but if they were to have the experience of being in the tunnel rather than in the train, their whole perspective on that environment would be different.
“There are infinite adaptations of that idea in everyday life and that’s the stuff that interests me,” he said.

These adventures are drastically different from a typical prepackaged outing like going to the movies (unless of course it involves sneaking into the theater).
“I find it sad that most people go through life oblivious to the countless free wonders around them,” said Canadian explorer ‘Ninjalicious’ on his web site. “Too many of us think the only things worth looking at in our cities and towns are those safe and sanitized attractions that require an admission fee.”
Colin Popadiuk, who lives in Los Angeles, is also attracted to subversive forms of entertainment, like exploring tunnels.
“It’s an opportunity to do things you’re not supposed to do, go places you’re not supposed to go and see things you’re not supposed to see- it provides something of an adrenaline rush,” he said.

While there is an assortment of reasons people choose to explore, most participants share a common characteristic- curiosity.
“I am an urban explorer because I’m naturally curious about my surroundings, and really everyone is, most just don’t act on the urge,” Brennan said.
It is this curiosity that occasionally gets people in trouble. After all, many missions do involve trespassing.
Ninjalicious, who lays claim to coining the term “urban exploration” in 1996, admits to being caught several times.
“The most serious was when some friends and I had the bad fortune to pop out of a manhole just as a cop was strolling by,” he said. “[The officer] charged us with trespassing and we were all forced to pay a non-negotiable fine.”
Ninj has dedicated entire issues of “Infiltration,” probably the most well known zine and web site dedicated to urban exploration, to stories of being caught
Still Ninj does not consider what he does as fundamentally wrong.
“People tend to use the word ‘criminal’ only when they are talking about real crimes. You wouldn’t call someone a criminal for occasionally jaywalking, loitering, speeding, or staying out after curfew, and laws against trespassing are on par with those laws. Actually, speeding is probably more serious of a crime than trespassing since it endangers others,” said Ninj on his web site. “Laws against trespassing are like laws against being out after curfew: people get into trouble not for actually doing anything harmful, but simply because the powers that be are worried that they might.”
Depending on the type of exploring being done there are varying degrees of risk involved, so common sense should always be on the list of things to bring.
“There are quite a lot of things which are off limits for good reasons and you should know the details of what you’re dealing with,” Brennan said. “Some sense of ethics is important as well – it ensures that things will be good for future explorers… as it’s been said in these circle ‘take only pictures and leave only footprints,’ and in some cases even leaving footprints may not be a great idea.”