Commonly known as West Virginia's Greenbrier Resort, the vacation spot for the privileged was once used as a Cold War fallout shelter. It was built in the mid-1950s in secret for the members of Congress during the era of Eisenhower, in case of a nuclear attack.
The construction of the bunker began when President Eisenhower ordered the Department of Defense to make emergency plans for Congress if a nuclear strike were to occur. He was worried about how to maintain order in the aftermath of a nuclear war, so he tasked the Army Corps of Engineers with finding a location for the bunker.They chose the Greenbrier luxury resort in West Virginia due to its accessibility to Washington but far enough away that a nuclear bomb couldn't damage them. Although the shelter wouldn't be able to withstand a direct nuclear attack, it could survive a blast 15-30 miles away.
Buried 720 feet underground, the bunker included decontamination chambers, a power plant with purification equipment, three diesel fuel tanks, and a medical clinic. It contained a 60 day supply of food for 1,000 people.
Before its use during the Cold War, the resort was used during World War II by the US government. After US entry into the second world war, the government used the resort as an internment facility for German, Japanese, and Italian diplomats. It was then used as a 2,000 bed hospital for more than 24,000 soldiers over a four year period.
Decommissioned after it was exposed by the Washington Post in 1992, the bunker became a tourist attraction. Tours of the bunker are still available today for those interested in its history.
Tour of Greenbrier Bunker: https://youtu.be/g3kAcJruEOs
https://wvtourism.com/today-show-greenbrier-resort-bunker/
https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/greenbrier-bunker
https://www.npr.org/2011/03/26/134379296/the-secret-bunker-congress-never-used
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/travel/12heads.html
https://www.greenbrier.com/About-Us/History.aspx
This was very informative regarding the bunker's use during World War II and the Cold War, as well as Eisenhower's reasoning behind finding a bunker. It was interesting to hear that tours of the bunker are popular. Unfortunately, concerns over the coronavirus pandemic have shut down the Greenbrier Resort until April 17th at the earliest.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really informative and well-written post! It's so interesting that a luxury vacation spot was once used as a nuclear fallout shelter during the Cold War, and also as an internment facility and a hospital during World War II. West Virginia's Greenbrier Resort has also had a very impressive guest list - including royalty, celebrities, business leaders, and 27 US presidents.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.greenbrier.com/about-us.aspx
This was a really interesting post! I would have never guessed from the picture that this hotel was used as a nuclear fallout shelter. It turns out that there were several other public/private buildings that had bunkers in case of a nuclear attack. One of these includes a school in Washington DC. The bunker has remained untouched for the last 55 years, so most of the supplies remain there today. https://www.insider.com/inside-a-cold-war-fallout-shelter-under-a-school-in-dc-2019-2#various-survival-goods-are-also-thrown-about-the-abandoned-shelter-12
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