  In response to the comment posted by Nakashima et al. (arXiv:1903.1176),
regarding prior claims for the features that we referred to as the Galactic
Center Chimneys (2019, Nature, 567, 347), we point out the following:
  1) The Nakashima et al. 2019 paper appeared in the arXiv on March 8th
(1903.02571), after our paper was in the final stage of printing (accepted on
January 30th). It is however interesting to see that the morphology of the
brightest portions of the two results are in broad agreement (compare their
Fig. 1 to our Extended Data Figs. 1 and 2).
  2) Nakashima et al. 2013 ApJ 773, 20 claim the discovery of a blob of
recombining plasma ~1deg south of Sgr A*, implying peculiar abundances. Again,
their image (Fig. 1) agrees with the brightest portions of our images, although
it does not show any direct connection between the plasma blob and the central
parsec (e.g., such as the quasi-continuous chimney that we reported), nor
evidence for an outflow from the center. We apologize for overlooking an
appropriate citation to this contribution by Nakashima et al.
  3) We fitted the XMM-Newton and Chandra data at the same position of the
claimed recombining plasma and we did not find any clear-cut evidence for the
presence of either an over-ionised plasma or peculiar abundances. Future X-ray
calorimetric observations will presumably clarify this disagreement.
  4) The continuity of the Chimney features, their quasi-symmetrical placement
relative to Sgr A*, and their relatively sharp and well-defined edges are the
essential features of our data that have led us to propose that the Chimneys
are a unified columnar structure that represents a channel for the outflow of
energy from the central region, possibly contributing to the stocking of the
relativistic particle population manifested in the Fermi Bubbles.
