These astonishing images offer a glimpse
inside the bunkers built by the United States government that were
designed to withstand a nuclear war.
Though
officials keep the details of the country's post-doomsday planning
classified, evidence of their decades-long effort - some abandoned, some
active - are hidden in plain sight around Washington DC, and beyond.
In
Washington terminology, it's known as 'continuity of government,' or
COG - and it's meant to ensure that America continues to operate as a
constitutional democracy with its 'leadership visible to the nation' and
its military able to defend the US 'against all enemies, foreign and
domestic.'
It was first developed
during the Truman Administration, in the early days of nuclear weapons
development. COG measures expanded greatly during the Cold War.
The US government built secret doomsday bunkers for federal employees in Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
They
constructed nuclear-hardened communications towers throughout the
Washington region, so the White House could reach other top-level
survivors.
And they also developed
weaponry with 'second-strike capability' that would launch post-doomsday
to prevent further attacks, a strategy known as mutually assured
destruction, or MAD.
The room that would have served
as the House of Representatives in the event of a nuclear war inside a
once-secret Cold War nuclear bunker built for members of Congress
beneath the Greenbrier, a four-star resort near White Sulphur Springs,
West Virginia. The 112,544-square-foot (34,303-square-meter) bomb
shelter, completed in 1961, included enough beds and supplies to
accommodate all 535 lawmakers, as well as one staffer each. There were
also decontamination chambers, an intensive care unit and a
communications briefing room, all surrounded by three to five feet (one
to one and a half meters) of concrete
A dormitory for lawmakers inside
a once-secret Cold War nuclear bunker built for members of Congress
beneath the Greenbrier, a four-star resort near White Sulphur Springs,
West Virginia
The north entrance portal - part
of a two-mile long tunnel blasted through solid granite - serves as the
primary entrance for the North American Aerospace Defense Command's
(NORAD) facility inside the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA, 10 May 2018. The secret government
complex is built 2,000 feet beneath the summit of the mountain, in a
bunker that can withstand a 30-megaton nuclear bomb, an electromagnetic
pulse, and chemical, biological, and radiological attacks
Lyle Goodman closes the door on a
former US Army munitions bunkers, which a developer is repurposing into
a doomsday community for civilians called Vivos xPoint, near Edgemont,
South Dakota. Vivos estimates that its 575 bunkers can hold 5,000
people, making it 'the largest survival community on earth'
The B entrance portal into Raven
Rock Mountain Complex, a massive, 650-acre nuclear bunker and national
security site built inside a hollowed-out mountain near Blue Ridge
Summit, Pennsylvania. Constructed during the Cold War, the facility was
conceived as a backup for the Pentagon and built to house military
leadership, as well as the president, in the event of a nuclear
disaster. Entry is through one of four portals, each protected by a
34-ton blast door
Former US Army munitions
bunkers, which developer Robert Vicino is repurposing into a doomsday
community for civilians called Vivos xPoint, near Edgemont, South Dakota
A nuclear-hardened
communications tower and bunker known by the codename 'Corkscrew,' atop
Lamb's Knoll near Park Hall, Maryland. Corkscrew was one of a network of
towers secretly built during the Cold War to facilitate communications
between the White House and other continuity of government facilities,
such as Raven Rock and Mount Weather, in the event of a nuclear
disaster. The tower has since been deactivated and the site is now used
by the FAA
The intensive care unit inside a
once-secret Cold War nuclear bunker built for members of Congress
beneath the Greenbrier, a four-star resort near White Sulphur Springs,
West Virginia. The 112,544-square-foot (34,303-square-meter) bomb
shelter, completed in 1961, included enough beds and supplies to
accommodate all 535 lawmakers, as well as one staffer each. There were
also decontamination chambers and a communications briefing room, all
surrounded by three to five feet (one to one and a half meters) of
concrete
An incinerator that could handle
'pathological waste,' a kind way of saying the remains of dead
lawmakers, inside a once-secret Cold War nuclear bunker built for
members of Congress beneath the Greenbrier, a four-star resort near
White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
A passing truck's headlights and
taillights color a long exposure image of the Mount Weather Emergency
Operations Center, near Bluemont, Virginia. The top-secret, 564-acre
facility includes underground bunkers, which would serve as a relocation
site for members of the executive branch, including those from Homeland
Security, in the event of a nuclear war. Though no journalists have
visited the site, they became aware of its existence in 1974, when a TWA
airliner crashed into the mountain, killing all 92 people aboard
The north entrance portal - part
of a two-mile long tunnel blasted through solid granite - serves as the
primary entrance for the North American Aerospace Defense Command's
(NORAD) facility inside the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in
Colorado Springs, Colorado
A little green alien inside a
glass jar adorns the North American Aerospace Defense Command's (NORAD)
alternate command center inside the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station
in Colorado Springs, Colorado
One of two 23-ton blast doors
that serve as the primary entrance for the North American Aerospace
Defense Command's (NORAD) facility inside the Cheyenne Mountain Air
Force Station in Colorado Springs, Colorado
More than 300 people work inside
Cheyenne Mountain, which they access via a two-mile long tunnel, and
two 23-ton blast doors. NORAD is tasked with aerospace control of North
America, including the detection of an incoming missile attack
The entrance to the North
American Aerospace Defense Command's (NORAD) facility inside the
Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in Colorado Springs, Colorado
A military aid (R) carries the
so-called nuclear football in his left hand as he follows US President
Donald J. Trump across the South Lawn of the White House toward Marine
One in Washington, DC. The satchel, which has a small antenna protruding
from the back, contains a black binder with nuclear strike options, a
list of classified bunkers for the president to take shelter, and a
plastic card with nuclear launch codes
North American Aerospace Defense
Command's (NORAD) alternate command center inside the Cheyenne Mountain
Air Force Station in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA, 10 May 2018
An armored and unceremonious
exit (R) from the White House in the back of the Treasury Annex, now
known as Freedman's Bank, in Washington. The bank connects to the White
House via two tunnels - one under Pennsylvania Avenue to the Treasury
Building (L), the second under East Executive Avenue from the Treasury
Building to the East Wing of the White House. According to the White
House Historical Association, the escape tunnel to the Treasury, which
was built shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, went out of favor
with the construction of the bunker-hardened Presidential Emergency
Operations Center beneath the East Wing of the White House
A black tarp blocks drivers'
views of the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center along Blue Ridge
Mountain Road near Trapp, Virginia
The press
briefing room inside a once-secret Cold War nuclear bunker built for
members of Congress beneath the Greenbrier, a four-star resort near
White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
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