COLD WAR SECRET BUNKER Beneath Greenbrier Hotel

Description

SECRET BUNKER
for SELECTED GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS BUILT CLANDESTINELY UNDERGROUND BENEATH LUXURIOUS GREENBRIER HOTEL IN WEST VIRGINIA. This massive bunker was meant to serve as shelter for the United States Congress who would have been transported there in the
aftermath of a nuclear holocaust during the Cold War.
In 1992 the government decommissioned and declassified the bunker which had remained hidden from the public for more than four decades. One b/w postcard shows a formerly classified construction photo of the bunker. Another b/w photograph shows President Eisenhower and Canadian Prime Minister St. Laurent emerging from the bunker after a top-secret meeting in 1956. One postcard shows the only written document connecting Congress to the bunker project at the Greenbrier. It is dated March 28, 1956 and signed by Lyndon Johnson and Sam Rayburn. Two other postcards are 1) a color photograph of the bunk beds in one of the 18 dormitories and 2) color photograph of the 25 ton blast door protecting the tunnel entrance. The sixth postcard is a color rendering of a corner view of the underground bunker. The luxury hotel itself was built in 1913 by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. After several changes of hands and a rescue from bankruptcy, the Greenbrier Hotel is operational today with 710 guest rooms.