During the Cold War, West Virginia’s luxury resort kept a huge secret. Read on to find out what it was.
You'd never know to look at it, but inside The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Spring there’s a massive bomb shelter that was meant to house the 500-plus members of Congress in the event of a nuclear attack during the Cold War.
The Bunker is located in the mountainside beneath the hotel’s West Virginia Wing. For years, only a handful of people knew about it. Not even the resort’s historian knew.
The Bunker's walls are made of concrete 3 feet deep. Its air intake system was meant to filter out radiation. This image is from a postcard given to visitors who take the tour.
This is an image from the Bunker's construction. It was top secret for 30 years until an investigative reporter from the Washington Post reported on it in the early 1990s. Were it not for that, the Bunker might still be secret.
Though it was a top secret then, it’s open for tours now.
It also has meeting rooms, which were added in 2006 and named for members of the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as the architect of the Capitol when the Bunker project started in 1956 - Knowland, Johnson, Rayburn, Stewart, and Martin.
