For many years, the only entrance to this section, aside from conspicuous manholes, was in the (locked) basement mechanical room of Dietrick Dining Hall. A door in one wall opens into a cramped sub-tunnel. Because Dietrick uses steam for cooking and cleaning, this stretch of tunnel is full of pipes and incredibly hot.

Recently, however, Tech constructed Latham Hall, which has a (locked) door into the steam tunnel, in a (locked) basement-level mechanical room.

Entering through Dietrick... after about a hundred feet, there is a 2-foot drop into the main tunnel. To the immediate left is a dead end where the buried steam pipe heads off towards Washington Street, and the tunnel heading off to the right goes downhill for a short ways before making a left turn.

From here on, the tunnel is around eight feet tall (!), and much cooler. Unfortunately, this stretch of steam tunnel isn't very long, and ends by the Fralin Biotechnology Center where the bridge comes across from the Ag Quad (underneath the cluster of manholes in the sidewalk above). Halfway through the stretch of tunnel, the sub-tunnel from Latham connects from the right.

Although this section of steam tunnel is pretty short and relatively featureless, it was neat to explore simply because few other students have ever been down there (compared with the well-traveled Agnew-New Chem and Cassell-Power Plant tunnels).

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