Atlas Obscura takes us on a tour of the US Congress's secret fallout shelter, built in the fifties so that Congresscritters and their aides (but not their families) could survive a nuclear holocaust. Its location — beneath Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV — was outed by the WashPo in 1992, it has since been superseded by an even s33ktr1ter shelter with even groovier wallpaper to take into the next world.
To help ensure its secrecy the bunker was operated by a dummy company known as Forsythe Associates and workers on the bunker all dressed as hotel audiovisual employees. Any calls going in and out of the bunker were routed through the hotel switchboard so it looked as if they originated from and were going to the Resort.
The shelter was fully equipped and among its standard bunk-beds, TVs and furniture, which populate the "Graceland of Atomic Tourism," there are a few very curious items. Among these are a special room meant for holding and calming members of Congress who can't handle the stress, and an incinerator meant for "pathological waste," or the Congressmen's irradiated bodies. A huge 100-foot radio tower installed 4.5 miles away was connected to the bunker so that the congressmen could broadcast emergency messages.
Congressional Fallout Shelter at the Greenbrier Resort
(Thanks, Marilyn!)
