Word: underground
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Aboveground, scattered across manicured lawns, are about a dozen buildings bristling with antennas and microwave relay systems. An on-site sewage- treatment plant, with a 90,000-gal.-a-day capacity, and two tanks holding 250,000 gal. of water could last some 200 people more than a month; underground ponds hold additional water supplies. Not far from the installation's entry gate are a control tower and a helicopter landing pad. The mountain's real secrets are not visible at ground level...
...experimental mine into the mountain 250 ft. to 300 ft. below the surface along an east-west axis. The tunnel, which extended a scant quarter-mile and measured 7 ft. wide by 6 1/2 ft. high, provided the opening for what would later be expanded into an underground complex of offices and living quarters...
...massive expansion of the mine into the most secure shelter and command post scientific and military minds of the time could imagine. One of the architects of the project was Paul Russell, who headed the Bureau of Mines facility and later studied the impact of nuclear explosions on underground structures. Among the few men still alive who assisted Russell and others on the project is Gilbert Fowler, now 80. For three decades, from 1938 to 1969, Fowler worked at Mount Weather, helping both to dig the original mine and to complete its transformation into the secret complex. Crews worked around...
...Several underground ponds were carved from solid rock -- some of them, according to Fowler's estimates, were 10 ft. deep and 200 ft. across. One was to be a reservoir for drinking water; others were used to cool the air pumped through the complex's massive mainframe computers to prevent them from overheating. Side tunnels were dug, and more than 20 cavernous offices were put in, some shored up with concrete. To withstand the severe exterior shock of a nuclear blast, the roof areas of the tunnels and rooms were reinforced with 21,000 iron bolts sunk...
Fowler and other current and former Mount Weather employees describe an eerie complex that could be turned into the U.S.'s underground capital in an instant. Standby sleeping quarters were set up to accommodate hundreds of government officials. Because the country's Emergency Broadcast System could be obliterated in a nuclear strike, a radio-and-television studio was included so that the President or other key officials could address the nation, providing people with emergency instructions and telling them that at least some units of government were intact and carrying on. Diesel engines were installed to generate electricity...