Government spending is always a hot topic, particularly when taxpayers' money is used on projects that are later scrapped or abandoned. Read on as we take a look at some expensive government buildings around the world that have been left to ruin. All dollar values in US dollars.
The largest abandoned subway system in America is located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Work began in the 1900s but was stopped in 1924, leaving two miles of tunnels and four stations empty underneath the city streets. In total, the project is thought to have cost $13 million, the equivalent of around $310 million (£237m) in today's money. Although various redevelopment plans have been put forward for the subway, nothing has been confirmed and the underground system is still empty almost 100 years later.
Built in 1902, this was the first public health hospital in the US. Its purpose was to treat any immigrants arriving in America with an illness, and reportedly nine out of 10 patients who stayed at the hospital were allowed to enter the country once healed. Tighter immigration restrictions in the 1920s led to its closure in 1930. While other government agencies used it for offices, including the Coast Guard, all of the facilities on Ellis Island were abandoned in 1954. Limited tours of the hospital have been running since 2014 and are available through the National Park Service.
The 1936 Berlin Olympics are infamous for being hosted by Germany during Hitler's rule. The Nazis spent an estimated $30 million on the games – that's $612 million (£466m) today when adjusted for inflation – yet the Olympic Village that once offered luxury accommodation and world-class training facilities today sits in ruins. From 1945 to 1994 the site was used as Soviet army barracks, but has been left crumbling ever since. Thankfully, one half of the complex is set to be brought back to life in the next few years with plans for housing developments.
City Hall Station was opened in 1904 and was designed to be the jewel of New York's subway system. Unlike the other stations, City Hall was adorned with glass tiles, chandeliers and brass furnishings. However, the station was closed in 1945 due to low usage and the fact that newer trains couldn't stop there because of the large gap between the door and platform. The station has remained unused ever since, though it is still possible to catch a glimpse by staying on the train as it loops back.
The Maunsell forts were constructed by the British Navy between 1942 and 1943. Located in the Thames Estuary, they were built to help defend London against Nazi attacks. Four naval and three army forts were built at a cost of £724,000, which works out at around £35 million ($43m) today when adjusted for inflation. Only two forts remain today, after they were they abandoned at the end of World War II. However, both forts did enjoy a stint hosting pirate radio stations during the 1960s, but the Marine Broadcasting Act of 1967 put a swift end to that.
The New York State Pavilion, located in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, was constructed especially for New York's 1964 World Fair. It consisted of three towers, two for cafeterias and the tallest housing an observation deck. After the fair ended the pavilion was abandoned, used only for TV and movie sets. In May 2019 New York City broke ground on restoration work to preserve the structure, at a total cost of $14.25 million (£11.9m), with work originally expected to be complete by 2021. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly delayed the renovation.
Eastern State prison in Philadelphia was opened in 1829 and fully completed several years later at a cost to taxpayers of $780,000 – the equivalent of $24 million (£18.3m) in today's money. The castle-like building offered relatively luxurious accommodation for prisoners. They even had their own private toilets when President Andrew Jackson was still using a chamber pot. Closed in 1971, the prison has been left in a state of disrepair since, although it now offers tours to the public.
When the city of Newark incorporated in 1836, one of its first acts was to build a prison. The Old Essex County Jail was built in 1837, with renovations over the next 70 years to upgrade the facility with electricity, steam heat and running water. Overcrowding in the prison during the 1960s led to a series of riots, and inmates even started fires in protest at poor living conditions and prisoner abuse. Newark built a new and expanded facility, closing Old Essex County Jail in 1971. The 1991 film Malcolm X shot some scenes on the site, but since then the building has been left abandoned. The city had hoped to demolish the crumbling facility in 2017, but withdrew its application, citing a lack of funds for the work.
Built as a memorial to the origins of the Bulgarian Communist Party, the Buzludzha Monument cost a total of 14 million levs in 1981 (over $35m/£29m today). Its designer insisted that it should be funded by members of the public, who willingly donated more than enough for its construction. However, following the fall of Communism the monument was left to decay in the early 1990s. More recently the Getty Foundation has awarded a $185,000 (£140,740) grant to create a preservation plan, and other funding is supporting a team of restorers working to protect the Communist-era mosaic on the inside walls of the building.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Abkhazia, a region in the northwest corner of Georgia, launched a battle for independence. In the year-long conflict as many as 10,000 people lost their lives and 200,000 ethinic Georgians, or roughly half the population, were displaced. The Council of Ministers of Abkhazia building in Sukhumi, the region's capital, was heavily damaged in the war and has since stood empty. Abkhazia was declared a Russian-occupied territory back in 2008, with Russia one of the few countries to recognise Abkhazia's independence. The Georgian Government claims sovereignty over the region.
Holmesburg Prison was opened in 1896 to help with the overcrowding at Philadelphia's Moyamensing Prison. The prison experienced frequent riots, breakouts and reports of corruption and murder of inmates by guards. However, its closure in 1995 didn't end its controversial story – a book published a few years later exposed decades of dangerous experiments on prisoners, including testing of radioactive and toxic substances. In summer 2021, following a petition for reparations to the victims, the University of Pennsylvania issued a written apology for the research.
In 1867 the state of New York secured donated land for the future Hudson River State Hospital in Poughkeepsie. However, the construction costs of around $800,000, or $14 million (£10.7m) in today's money, would come from the public coffers. The psychiatric hospital shut its doors for good in 2003 and sat abandoned for years. The property changed hands among private owners numerous times before finally being sold to a developer with a plan. The hospital and its grounds are currently being redeveloped into a $300 million (£228m) hub called Hudson Heritage, which will include 750 apartments, commercial space and a hotel.
In 2016 FOX25 reported that the city of Boston spent almost $5.5 million (£4.5m) on maintaining empty buildings on Long Island after its closure in 2014. The island was used to house the homeless and those recovering from drug addiction, until the only bridge to the mainland was deemed unsafe. The city then spent millions destroying the bridge, before revealing it couldn't afford to build a new one. Now the island is only accessible by ferry and taxpayers are paying $1.3 million (£1m) on upkeep for the empty buildings. The city's new mayor says the island remains an option to help mitigate Boston's homelessness crisis despite its renovation needs and transportation limitations.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) owns nearly 400 acres of land in the affluent Brentwood neighbourhood of Los Angeles. The property was donated in 1888 under one the condition: it be used to house "disabled soldiers." For many years it did, with housing and amenities including a trolley and a post office. However, many of the buildings on the grounds have since been abandoned and left to rot. Others have been rented out to various entites including private schools and oil wells. NPR reported in 2012 the VA has likely made at least $28 million to $40 million (£21m to £30.5m) in leases, many of which have no relevance to veterans' services. Currently 54 units are used for housing with another 180 under construction. Meanwhile more than 3,600 veterans are homeless in Los Angles, with many living in tents outside the Veterans Administration grounds (pictured).
This top secret bunker was constructed between 1958 and 1962 underneath a West Virginia hotel, for the purpose of protecting members of Congress in the event of nuclear warfare. Despite costing taxpayers $14 million to build – that's as much as $131.5 million (£100m) today when adjusted for inflation – and tens of thousands of dollars to maintain, the bunker has never actually been used. The Washington Post revealed the bunker's existence in a 1992 story, causing the government to decommission it. The building remains unused although it is possible to visit on a tour.
Once the largest psychiatric hospital in the world, the Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia now sits mostly abandoned. The hospital opened in 1842, but by the 1950s overcrowding had led to reports of understaffing and poor treatment of patients. Today the hospital is vastly underused. Despite being home to 200 buildings across 2,000 acres, the Department of Behavioral Health and Disabilities now only operates across three buildings on the site, with the others left in various states of ruin.
Costing $7.9 million back in 1960, the price tag of Camp Century in Greenland works out to around $75.7 million (£58m) in 2022. This nuclear research facility played a pivotal role in the US government's top-secret Project Iceworm: an army programme during the Cold War that was designed to store ballistic missiles under the Greenland ice cap. Consisting of 21 tunnels across 1.9 miles (3km), the camp was abandoned just six years after its completion when experts realised the ice cap wasn't as stable as they initially thought. To make matters worse, tonnes of toxic waste remain at the site and are moving ever closer to the water...
When it opened in 1965 at a cost of $35 million – that's $315 million (£240m) today when adjusted for inflation – the Houston Astrodome was nicknamed the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” The multi-purpose dome was home to both baseball's Houston Astros and the NFL's Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans). However, by the 1990s it was becoming increasingly underused and officially closed in 2009. Due to historical protections the stadium can't be demolished, and owner Harris County pays at least $400,000 (£304,000) a year for its upkeep. A proposal to convert the venue into a multi-use event space and parking garage was agreed at $105 million (£80m) in 2018, but it was put on hold a year later.
The construction of the Olympic stadium in Montreal, Canada was plagued with problems – so much so that it wasn't even finished in time for the games in 1976. Back in 2006, it was estimated that CA$1.47 billion had been spent on the structure, the equivalent of almost $1.6 billion (£1.2bn) in today's money. The stadium, which is in the process of getting a new roof, has had various short-term uses over the last decade, including serving as a vaccination centre during the COVID-19 pandemic. But although its light usage might not justify its enormous price tag, studies have shown that the cost of demolishing the stadium would actually be higher than leaving it empty most of the time.
Located in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, the Palace of the Parliament is reportedly the second largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon. Spreading across more than 3.9 million square feet (365,000 square metres), the palace was built between 1984 and 1997 on the orders of brutal dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and cost an estimated $3.9 billion (£2.8bn). Not only did the building guzzle billions in taxpayer cash, but it also required 5% of the city to be demolished. Despite boasting around 1,000 rooms, only 30% of the palace is in use today.
Construction on North Korea's Ryugyong Hotel began in 1987, with plans to open in 2012 to mark the centenary of Kim Il-sung's birth. However, the so-called “Hotel of Doom” still remains empty today and is the largest unoccupied building in the world. Standing at 1,080 feet (330m) tall, the 105-storey structure cost a reported $750 million (£620m) to build, but has never been used. The question remains whether this megaproject will ever be used, or will it remain abandoned?
Athens won the bid to host the summer Olympics in 2004, and at the time the government spent a massive €6.5 billion ($7.2bn/£5.5bn) on the games in total. Most of that financial burden was funded by Greek taxpayers, but there's little to show for it now. Stadiums were left to rust, and the park is vandalised and overgrown. Greece's 2009 financial crisis has only added to the problem, and the country now has more pressing issues to contend with, such as its high unemployment rate; currently sitting at around 13%.
For the 2014 soccer World Cup, Brazil spent a total of $3.6 billion (£2.7bn) on building 12 stadiums throughout the country. Less than 10 years later, most of these structures now stand empty, though some have been repurposed; for example, the Estádio Nacional in Brasília has reportedly been used as a bus depot. The majority might not be in use, and maintaining the buildings is an eyewatering expense. According to the Brazilian newspaper O Globo, the government spent around $100 million (£76m) of taxpayer cash on the stadiums in 2018.
China hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics with a staggering total cost of $40 billion (£32.4bn). However, more than a decade later the complex has been left to ruin. Many of the venues were built especially for the games, with local residents controversially being rehoused and existing buildings demolished in the process. The site remains largely abandoned, although China did reuse five of the venues when it hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 were shaped by controversy. The Russian government blew through its $12 billion (£9.2bn) budget and ended up spending an estimated $50 billion (£38.2bn). Even worse, it was revealed that around 2,000 people were displaced, an entire village had its water supply cut off, and thousands of migrant workers were exploited during the construction. Today, the Olympic venues stand empty and reportedly struggle to attract music and sports events.
Located in Nekoma, North Dakota, the Stanley R. Michelsen Safeguard Complex was built in 1975 and cost the equivalent of almost $6.6 billion (£5bn). Like Camp Century, this Complex was built to store ballistic missiles in the event of a nuclear war. Also like Camp Century, its usefulness was short-lived. In fact, the Complex was operational for just 24 hours before Congress decided the base was ineffective in October 1975 and shut it down. It stood abandoned for decades until the government sold it to a religious group in 2012, reportedly for peanuts.
Standing on the banks of the Mississippi River in Savanna, Illinois, the Savanna Army Depot spans an incredible 13,000 acres and was built in 1917 as an artillery testing ground. It originally cost $585,000, which works out to almost $13 million (£9.9m) in 2022. By the 1920s, the site was being used to test chemical weapons such as mustard gas. But despite being the country's biggest munitions storage base during World War II, the depot has been completely abandoned since 1995. Years of chemical weapons testing have left the site contaminated and it's thought it will cost $350 million (£268m) to make the base safe for rehabitation.
Back in 2005, the City of Chicago spent millions in taxpayer cash on building the Block 37 CTA Superstation – despite having no idea whether the finished building could be used for its proposed purpose. Elon Musk's tunnel construction business The Boring Company had suggested that a futuristic airport link could be built in the city, but by 2011 it was clear this wasn't feasible. The enormous station cost the equivalent of almost $480 million (£366m) and has remained empty for over a decade.
Now see some industrial buildings abandoned to nature