By in Geography & Places —

Titanpointe: Inside the Windowless New York Skyscraper Allegedly Tapping the World's Communications

In Manhattan, the windowless 33 Thomas Street skyscraper is more than an AT&T telecom hub. Snowden-leaked documents identify it as 'Titanpointe,' a top-secret NSA surveillance site tapping global communications, monitoring calls, faxes, and internet data.

Titanpointe: Inside the Windowless New York Skyscraper Allegedly Tapping the World's Communications

In the dense architectural forest of Lower Manhattan, one structure stands apart not for its height or beauty, but for its unnerving lack of vision. 33 Thomas Street is a 550-foot concrete monolith, a Brutalist titan without a single window. Officially, it’s an AT&T telecommunications hub, a critical piece of infrastructure. Unofficially, according to a trove of documents leaked by Edward Snowden, it is something far more clandestine: a top-secret National Security Agency surveillance site codenamed TITANPOINTE.

The Fortress on Thomas Street

Designed by John Carl Warnecke & Associates and completed in 1974, the building known as the Long Lines Building was a product of the Cold War. It was engineered to be a self-sufficient fortress, capable of withstanding a nuclear blast and supporting 1,500 people for up to two weeks without outside aid. Its stark, windowless design wasn't an aesthetic choice but a practical one, meant to protect the sensitive and vital telecommunications equipment housed within from attack or espionage. While its role as a major hub for routing phone calls has never been a secret, its alleged secondary purpose remained hidden for decades.

Codenames and Connecting Dots

The investigation by The Intercept, based on the Snowden documents, peeled back the layers of secrecy. The documents don't just mention TITANPOINTE; they place it at the center of several massive NSA surveillance programs. One key program, FAIRVIEW, describes a partnership with a major U.S. telecom company—widely identified as AT&T—to access data from international cables, routers, and switches. 33 Thomas Street appears to be a primary physical location for this partnership.

The Secure Room

Evidence for the NSA’s presence is more than just circumstantial. A former AT&T engineer who worked in the building confirmed the existence of a highly secure area known internally as the "AT&T secure room." This space, he recalled, was controlled by the NSA. Access was strictly limited, and the purpose of the room was a subject you knew not to question. He recounted being told:

It was a situation where you weren’t supposed to ask what that room was for.

Further corroborating details emerged from NSA travel guides, which instructed agency employees on visits to New York to report to a specific location—the FBI's field office, located directly across the street from the imposing AT&T building.

A Global Nexus of Surveillance

The true significance of TITANPOINTE lies in its global reach. The facility isn't just listening to domestic traffic; it's a gateway switch that taps into the communications of the world. According to the Snowden files, the equipment at TITANPOINTE was used to monitor phone calls, faxes, and internet data from at least 38 countries, including close U.S. allies like Germany, Japan, Italy, and France. The surveillance dragnet even extended to powerful international institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations, which has its headquarters just a few miles away. On the roof, shielded from public view, satellite dishes operating under codenames like SKIDROWE and LITHIUM further expanded the site's data collection capabilities. For decades, one of the most significant surveillance operations in the world wasn't hidden in a remote desert bunker, but in a concrete skyscraper, hiding in plain sight.

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