Cavite: Mile-Long Barracks Ruins

Located in the Topside sector in Corregidor Island in the province of Cavite, Mile-Long Barracks is known as the world's former longest military barracks. Now all that remains is its roofless skeletal ruins which serve as a haunting icon of the destructiveness of war. 
Topside Barracks/ Mile-Long Barracks
Marker for the Mile-Long Barracks
The barracks can't fight Mother Nature forever
Morning drills in front of the barracks
aerial view of Mile long barracks before the war
Built sometime in the early years of the 20th century, the Mile-Long Barracks is a 1,520-foot (1/3 of a mile), three-level building with a distinct Pre-war American architectural design.  Also known as the Topside barracks, because the building was built on the Topside part of the island, it housed American personnel during the Pre-war until the early days of the war. It was also said that the famous General Douglas MacArthur once had his headquarters in one part of the barracks.
The facade of the barracks
Going back to its architectural design, did you know that the Mile-Long Barracks is built in the center of the Topside part of the island and it is perfectly aligned along an East to West Axis?
Check out the skeletal remains of this building
Most people would ask why the structure is called Mile-Long Barracks if it's just 1/3 of a mile long. So I asked our tour guide to finally solve that dilemma, according to her, the soldiers who lived in the barracks would sometimes be asked to walk from end to end of the building starting from the third floor going to the ground floor. Each floor they would do the same task... 3 x 1,520 + several other extra steps = 5,280 where 1 mile = 5,280 feet. Finally, it all made sense.

Getting there:

Unless you hire a yacht (which is very expensive) or go to Bataan and rent a fishing boat to bring you to the island (which is tiring if you're from Manila), there is no other way to get to the island but through Sun Cruises.

Sun Cruises dominated, or let me say captured the tourism market for Corregidor. The good thing about it is that they have daily trips to the island.

Esplanade Seaside Terminal Esplanade Seaside Park (Seaside Blvd., MOA Complex), Pasay, Pasay City, Philippines.
Tel. (632) 354-7005, (632) 6289751 and (632) 6289752 Mobile (63)998 968-3256, (63)998 968-3056 


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Location: Corregidor, Cavite City, Philippines

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