Abby Connolly
With the airing of the new “Fallout” television series, which is based on a famous post-apocalyptic, nuclear-themed video game, more people have been considering what they’d do if they had to survive in bunkers during nuclear decimation.
Did you know there was a project to build a high-end bunker for United States members of Congress in the event of nuclear war or disaster?
It was named ‘Project Greek Island’ and focused on building the Greenbrier Bunker at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia.
This project came about in the late 1950s after the United States was involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis and the middle of the Cold War.
Government officials under the Eisenhower Administration went to the Greenbrier Resort and Inn, a luxury location in West Virginia, to grant them space to construct emergency housing for members of Congress in the event things went downhill.
Owners of the Greenbrier agreed that for 30 years if there was an international emergency, the government could convert the entire resort and use it solely for governmental use.
The project needed to be kept top secret, so to distract the public from what they were doing, the government had the hotel install an addition, the ‘West Virginia Wing,’ as a cover-up.
Meanwhile, in 1959, they began constructing a complex and high-end underground bunker to use as emergency housing for the legislative branch.
The Greenbrier bunker was built 720 feet underground and was not only strong enough to face a nuclear attack but was also big enough to house every member of Congress and a staff of hundreds of people.
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