In 1958, the U.S. government hid a 112,544-square-foot congressional bunker beneath a luxury hotel in West Virginia. 35 years later, its secret was revealed, exposing a fully operational underground government built for nuclear war

The Greenbrier was known for its luxury, famous guests and secluded setting in the mountains of West Virginia. But beneath the resort was a secret facility designed for one of the darkest possibilities of the Cold War.

Beginning in 1958, the US government secretly built a 112,544-square-foot bunker beneath the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, as per a report. The facility was designed to shelter Congress if a nuclear attack destroyed Washington, D.C., allowing the legislative branch to continue operating underground.

For more than three decades, the bunker remained operational while its existence was kept secret. It contained dormitories, industrial kitchens, a power plant, water tanks, communications equipment, blast doors, chemical, biological and radiological filtration equipment and a television studio, as per a Popular Mechanics report. The facility was designed to keep the government functioning for 90 days after the surface became unsafe.


Then, in 1992, a Washington Post investigation exposed the facility.

The Greenbrier was chosen for more than its location

The bunker was part of Cold War planning for the possibility of a nuclear attack on Washington. In 1955, the President's Office of Defense Mobilization developed plans for relocation sites where parts of the federal government could continue operating after an attack.

The Greenbrier had several advantages. It was located in the Allegheny Mountains, where the terrain and geology were considered suitable for underground construction. It also had a Chesapeake & Ohio Railway connection to Washington.

The resort's private ownership was another factor. Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson wanted Congress's emergency refuge to remain physically independent of the executive branch, according to the report.

The Greenbrier also had a history of government use. During World War II, the federal government used the resort to hold Axis diplomats awaiting repatriation. In 1942, the hotel was converted into Ashford General Hospital, where thousands of American soldiers were treated.

The bunker was hidden behind a hotel expansion

The secret project was authorized through an agreement involving Architect of the Capitol J. George Stewart and C&O Railway president Walter J. Tuohy. The government and C&O signed a contract in 1958, and the project was given the code name Project X.

To the public, the work looked like a hotel expansion. The Greenbrier's West Virginia Wing provided the cover for the underground facility. One 17,000-square-foot section was designed to serve as an exhibit hall for business conferences during peacetime. In a nuclear emergency, it would become a chamber for Congress.

The construction was difficult to hide completely. Workers noticed large quantities of concrete, unusual elevators and more than 100 urinals underground. Excavated soil was used to extend the resort's airport runway to 7,000 feet, while some was used to expand a golf course.

The bunker was eventually protected by steel-reinforced concrete walls as thick as five feet. One blast door stood 15 feet tall and weighed 28 tons. Another 18-ton door was hidden inside the hotel behind a movable screen covered with the Greenbrier's Dorothy Draper wallpaper.

People suspected something was there

Rumors about the construction began almost as soon as the work started. Workers, hotel employees and residents of White Sulphur Springs noticed that something unusual was happening beneath the resort. But the Greenbrier's culture of discretion helped keep the rumors from becoming public knowledge.

Approximately 100 employees eventually held top-secret security clearances. Most were plumbers, mechanics, electricians and other engineering workers who needed access to the facility. Even some senior employees were kept outside the secret.

Ted Kleisner, who joined the Greenbrier in 1980 as director of operations, began to suspect that something was wrong after an invoice crossed his desk for 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel, as per the Popular Mechanics report.

The resort's vehicles could not plausibly use that much fuel. When Kleisner questioned the order, he could not get a clear explanation. His concerns eventually brought him into contact with men from Forsythe Associates, the company that provided the cover for the bunker operation.

Kleisner was taken to a sensitive compartmented information facility and formally read into the project.

The hidden facility was built to keep Congress running

The bunker was more than a shelter. It was designed as a working underground government headquarters.

The original plans provided space for 535 members of Congress and support staff. The facility contained 18 dormitories, industrial kitchens stocked with months of food, a power plant and three 25,000-gallon water tanks.

There was also a communications center and a television studio where congressional leaders could broadcast messages to people outside. Hidden antennas and mountaintop towers connected the facility to the outside world.

The ventilation system included chemical, biological and radiological filtration equipment. Fresh air was drawn through underground shafts connected to an intake hidden inside a wooden shack near the resort's tennis courts.

The entire system was designed around the assumption that the surface could remain dangerous for 90 days.

The government later expanded the bunker for families

The original plans had a major weakness: There was not enough room for lawmakers' families. The plan initially required members of Congress to leave their spouses and children behind during an evacuation.

That proved difficult to accept. In 1973, the government expanded the facility. Additional underground areas were built beneath parts of the resort, including spaces associated above ground with Colonial Hall and the Eisenhower Parlors.

New dormitories were added for lawmakers' families, with the expanded bunker designed to accommodate roughly two family members per legislator.

Ordinary technicians were secretly maintaining it

A facility designed to remain ready for a nuclear attack required constant maintenance. That work was handled under the cover of Forsythe Associates.

To guests, its employees appeared to be television technicians working around the resort. Many were actually former military communications specialists and intelligence officers.

They serviced the resort's television equipment while also testing the bunker's air filtration systems, rotating food supplies and maintaining communications equipment.

Fritz Bugas, a former Army intelligence officer, was among those involved in the facility's day-to-day operation, according to the report. The arrangement allowed the bunker to have a permanent maintenance operation without revealing its purpose.

A newspaper investigation exposed the bunker

The bunker remained operational until 1992, when Washington Post reporter Ted Gup published an investigation into the secret facility, as per the Popular Mechanics report. Gup's reporting drew on interviews with current and former Greenbrier employees, contractors and security officers, as well as former government officials who had direct knowledge of the bunker.

On May 29, Greenbrier president Ted Kleisner gathered about 20 front-of-house employees. He told them the resort was about to acknowledge its 35-year secret relationship with the federal government.

Later that day, The Washington Post published Gup's investigation. The bunker was no longer secret. The facility's existence, size and purpose had been made public, ending the secrecy that had protected it for decades.

The bunker was dismantled after its exposure

Once the facility became public, it could no longer serve as a secret congressional refuge.

Defense Department teams arrived at the Greenbrier and began removing, destroying and dismantling sensitive equipment and information.

The process took three years. On July 31, 1995, an official decommissioning ceremony marked the end of the bunker. It had spent more than three decades preparing for a nuclear war that never came. That same year, the Greenbrier opened the bunker for public tours.