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Think that we have any small amount of this infrastructure in Seattle?

From: Scan MD <scanmd@gmail.com>
To: scan-dc@mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Scan-DC] Tysons Dig Disturbs Classified Communications Equip.

http://tinyurl.com/kptkyl
This part happens all the time: A construction crew putting up an office
building in the heart of Tysons Corner a few years ago hit a fiber optic
cable no one knew was there.

This part doesn't: Within moments, three black sport-utility vehicles drove
up, a half-dozen men in suits jumped out and one said, "You just hit our
line."

Whose line, you may ask? The guys in suits didn't say, recalled Aaron
Georgelas, whose company, the Georgelas Group, was developing the Greensboro
Corporate Center on Spring Hill Road. But Georgelas assumed that he was
dealing with the federal government and that the cable in question was
"black" wire -- a secure communications line used for some of the nation's
most secretive intelligence-gathering operations.

"The construction manager was shocked," Georgelas recalled. "He had never
seen a line get cut and people show up within seconds. Usually you've got to
figure out whose line it is. To garner that kind of response that quickly
was amazing."
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As long as I'm way off subject. When the actor Heath Ledger died in NYC, the maid called Ashley Olson and then 911. Ashely then called her NYC security firm and they had a man there in the room before EMS got there. What do I need to photograph through a black SUV since for that amount of jack their comm's must be encripted?

Nope. About the only thing of interest out here was the old Autovon CO in North Bend and perhaps some old L2 coaxial circuits.

There is a ton of stuff out there on the east coast. This line was likely a terminal fiber to Mt. Weather or one of the hardened military microwave sites. There are also a few "other" facilities in the area where it could be going. I'm sure a lot of this infrastructure is stuff which replaced the old COG microwave hops throughout the area ("Cannonball" site, etc).

I doubt it was interoffice lit fiber since its typically SONET ring protected and easily marked before digging. AT&T obviously knew about this fiber since they are the ones fixing it, yet they didn't do a locate on it, which means the digger never called them or AT&T dropped the ball. If it was truly government "black" fiber then it would have been a protected circuit due to the high risk of being dug up, not to mention they would have their own splicing crews.

Speaking of government telco trickery, I'm tempted to tell the story of how telco CO's routed the 840 prefix in about a dozen east coast area codes during the 1980's...