As construction worker Randy Wickline recalled, “Nobody came out and said it was a bomb shelter, but…they weren’t building it to keep the rain off them. Government officials tried to hide the secret project by announcing the construction of Greenbrier’s “West Virginia Wing.” Construction workers and locals were suspicious, however, particularly about the sheer volume of concrete that was poured for the project. Although it returned to its original function as a hotel after the war, government officials occasionally held conferences at Greenbrier.Ĭonstruction on the bunker began in 1957. During World War II, Greenbrier had served as an internment facility for Japanese, Italian, and German diplomats and then as a military hospital, where Eisenhower himself was at one time a patient. Greenbrier was chosen because of its location -relatively close and accessible to Washington, but far enough away to be safe from an atomic bomb -and because of its prior relationship with the United States government. They ultimately selected the Greenbrier, a luxury resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

As part of these efforts, the Army Corps of Engineers was charged with scouting the location of a nuclear bunker for the members of Congress. Even if Washington, DC was destroyed, American officials needed a procedure to maintain the continuity of government. Eisenhower instructed the Department of Defense to draft emergency plans for Congress in case of a nuclear strike. One of the great vestiges of the Cold War is the Greenbrier bunker, a facility built to house all 535 members of Congress in the event of a nuclear attack.

Cold war fallout shelter plans