When the central campus of Washington State University was laid out in Pullman, Washington, USA, the architects had a brilliant idea. As the winters are severe, they designed a network of steam pipes which run in tunnels underneath all of the sidewalks on campus. The tunnels are large and used to house all manner of "civil defense" provisions, for use in the event of nuclear attack. Why anyone would want to drop an A-bomb on the wheat fields of Pullman is unclear. To this day, when the temperature drops to sub-zero ranges and the snow drifts are so high as to require some buiding entrances to be "dug out" before classes can begin, the sidewalks remain bare and wet, because of the steam heat.