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Authors: Daniel Smith
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as members of the Supreme Court in the event of a disaster. Much of Congress was rumored to have been transferred here in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001.
Sited inconspicuously off Route 601, the center first came to public attention in 1977, after a Boeing 727 crashed nearby in bad weather. Toward the end of the 1970s, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), now part of the Department of Homeland Security and charged with disaster response, opened above-ground training facilities. It is also rumored that the US National Gallery of Art has an emergency plan to deposit at-risk works of art here.
While FEMA’s operations are in the public domain, the underground part of the complex retains its mystique. No journalists or members of the public have ever been granted a tour, and all personnel associated with it in an official capacity maintain a strict code of silence. The area is surrounded by razor-wire fencing and barriers, while signs warn “US Property. No Trespassing.” Armed guards patrol the environs and protect the main entrances, which are believed to include 3-meter (10-ft) thick blast doors weighing over 30 tons each. Some conspiracy theorists have become convinced that the complex houses a “shadow government” pulling Washington’s strings, although there is little evidence to back this up.
1 PANIC STATIONS FEMA was constituted in 1979 and has run a facility at Mount Weather since its inauguration. The organization received fierce criticism for its response after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Pictured left is a search-and-rescue flyover during that operation.
2 PRESIDENTIAL BOLTHOLE In the event of a catastrophe such as the outbreak of full-scale war, the underground complex beneath Mount Weather would offer a possible shelter for the US President and senior government officials, arriving aboard military helicopters such as the President’s Marine One.
23 Raven Rock Mountain Complex
LOCATION Pennsylvania, USA
NEAREST POPULATION HUB Camp David, Maryland
SECRECY OVERVIEW Operations classified: Alternate Joint Communications Center for the US government.
Sometimes known as the “underground Pentagon,” or simply as “Site R,” the Raven Rock facility is a communications hub built into a mountain, running dozens of systems and providing information technology services to, among others, the National Command Authority (i.e. the President and the Secretary of Defense), the Joint Chiefs of Staff and assorted other agencies in the Department of Defense.
Raven Rock was initially constructed with the intention that it should serve as an alternative operations base for the government in the event of a military emergency such as a nuclear strike. With the threat from the Soviet Union growing ever more pressing in the late 1940s, it was decided to locate the base amid the natural defenses of Raven Rock, which is formed of greenstone—one of the hardest forms of granite known to man. The complex lies a few kilometers away from Camp David, which is over the state border in Maryland. However, Raven Rock spent long spells under the jurisdiction of Camp Albert Ritchie in Maryland.
Building on Raven Rock began in 1951, during the presidency of Harry S. Truman, and the facility became operational three years later. Hewn out of rock some 200 meters (650 ft) beneath the mountain’s peak, the complex is thought to boast some 65,000 square meters (700,000 sq ft) of space and room for up to 3,000 people. According to informed conjecture, the site contains five main buildings, each three stories high, with rooms full of computers and even a giant underground reservoir and a helipad. Above ground, the site is surrounded by a forest of communications antennae, towers and satellite dishes.
There are thought to be perhaps four or five entrances into the complex, constantly under guard by the Raven Rock Military Police Company and closed-circuit surveillance. Some of
Sited inconspicuously off Route 601, the center first came to public attention in 1977, after a Boeing 727 crashed nearby in bad weather. Toward the end of the 1970s, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), now part of the Department of Homeland Security and charged with disaster response, opened above-ground training facilities. It is also rumored that the US National Gallery of Art has an emergency plan to deposit at-risk works of art here.
While FEMA’s operations are in the public domain, the underground part of the complex retains its mystique. No journalists or members of the public have ever been granted a tour, and all personnel associated with it in an official capacity maintain a strict code of silence. The area is surrounded by razor-wire fencing and barriers, while signs warn “US Property. No Trespassing.” Armed guards patrol the environs and protect the main entrances, which are believed to include 3-meter (10-ft) thick blast doors weighing over 30 tons each. Some conspiracy theorists have become convinced that the complex houses a “shadow government” pulling Washington’s strings, although there is little evidence to back this up.
1 PANIC STATIONS FEMA was constituted in 1979 and has run a facility at Mount Weather since its inauguration. The organization received fierce criticism for its response after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Pictured left is a search-and-rescue flyover during that operation.
2 PRESIDENTIAL BOLTHOLE In the event of a catastrophe such as the outbreak of full-scale war, the underground complex beneath Mount Weather would offer a possible shelter for the US President and senior government officials, arriving aboard military helicopters such as the President’s Marine One.
23 Raven Rock Mountain Complex
LOCATION Pennsylvania, USA
NEAREST POPULATION HUB Camp David, Maryland
SECRECY OVERVIEW Operations classified: Alternate Joint Communications Center for the US government.
Sometimes known as the “underground Pentagon,” or simply as “Site R,” the Raven Rock facility is a communications hub built into a mountain, running dozens of systems and providing information technology services to, among others, the National Command Authority (i.e. the President and the Secretary of Defense), the Joint Chiefs of Staff and assorted other agencies in the Department of Defense.
Raven Rock was initially constructed with the intention that it should serve as an alternative operations base for the government in the event of a military emergency such as a nuclear strike. With the threat from the Soviet Union growing ever more pressing in the late 1940s, it was decided to locate the base amid the natural defenses of Raven Rock, which is formed of greenstone—one of the hardest forms of granite known to man. The complex lies a few kilometers away from Camp David, which is over the state border in Maryland. However, Raven Rock spent long spells under the jurisdiction of Camp Albert Ritchie in Maryland.
Building on Raven Rock began in 1951, during the presidency of Harry S. Truman, and the facility became operational three years later. Hewn out of rock some 200 meters (650 ft) beneath the mountain’s peak, the complex is thought to boast some 65,000 square meters (700,000 sq ft) of space and room for up to 3,000 people. According to informed conjecture, the site contains five main buildings, each three stories high, with rooms full of computers and even a giant underground reservoir and a helipad. Above ground, the site is surrounded by a forest of communications antennae, towers and satellite dishes.
There are thought to be perhaps four or five entrances into the complex, constantly under guard by the Raven Rock Military Police Company and closed-circuit surveillance. Some of
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