Over the past summer, our family vacationed to West Virginia. He had a business conference at The Greenbrier that he was attending through one of his clients. The Greenbrier is a very old and extremely nice hotel that is its own separate part of West Virginia in a town called White Sulphur Springs. There are no major cities near it, and the grounds lie on an amazing layout consisting of numerous trails, paths, golf courses, and many other things. It is actually the home of the FedEx Cup along with a few other PGA events. Needless to say this was by far the nicest hotel that I have ever stayed at, and the scenery around the hotel was unreal. We made a hike on a trail that concluded with an aerial view of the grounds which was well worth the seven mile trek. They offered many other activities at the hotel; one that we attended was falconry which was very cool to see.
Even with all of these things, the most fascinating part of that hotel cannot be seen by a passerby or walking around the grounds. The Greenbrier was the home for a secretive fallout bunker for congress. In the case of a nuclear attack, the government would secretly transport both the Senate and the House of Representatives to the bunker which is an easy three hour drive from D.C. The bunker was not made to withstand a direct attack, but rather the fallout of an attack on D.C. What surprised me the most about it was that the bunker was on the third floor of the hotel. It was actually right under our room the entire time but we did not notice until we went on the tour.
During the tour, we learned that it was made as part of the hotel’s additions in the 1950s. They built the bunker mixed into another wing of the hotel, which is why no one was able to figure it out during the construction phases. It was kept as a fully functional bunker from 1962 until 1992 when a reporter leaked the location and purpose of the bunker. During this time, it was kept entirely stocked and remained fully functional on its own with a group of workers that were on the hotel staff. The grounds included kitchen, living area, beds, and all other necessities including a contamination cleaning area. Most employees of the hotel did not even know it was there. Another remarkable aspect of this was that the entrance and part of the actual bunker was in plain sight and was even used to host events. There was just a twenty ton door hidden behind a fake wall that would have been used to seal it off in the case of an emergency.
I found the whole story of the bunker remarkable, merely by the fact that they were able to keep it a secret for forty years. Even with employees and hotel guests constantly around it along with trucks constantly supplying it, they were able to hide it from the outside world even though it was also large enough to hold about seven hundred people. After I learned of this bunker, I began to wonder what other kind of bunkers or secrets the government has in case of emergency. This bunker was only for congress, so they probably have two other bunkers for the other two branches also. It surprised me that this was able to be kept a secret for so long especially in today’s day and age. However, I do think it is a shame that the bunker was uncovered because now it is used as a storage facility for a security company and for tours to guests.
No comments:
Post a Comment