Fair enough. Soon, badge on blazer, fully briefed, I walk with four escortstwo men who are civilians and two women who are military officerstoward this constructed cave. It is, perhaps, the place on this planet most able to cut itself off from the rest of Earth. And given that miners had to excavate , tons of granite to make the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, you might expect its entryway to wow. But the mountain itself is so tall, so sheer, that the foot, two-lane arch leading to the north tunnel looks especially puny by comparison.
The granite makes a half-cylinder around us, bolts knocked into the rock like some kind of sadistic climbing gym. People get used to these depths, the disconnection. The tunnel curves ahead of us, a skew that will route nuclear or whatever material and send it out through the south entrance.
The blast doors that lead to the complex's buildings branch off from the tunnel at around 90 degrees, so any material will glance off rather than slam into them. We pass through one open ton doorit'll get closed in the event of a potential or impending threat to the areaand enter a rock-walled room with a second such door at its far end. A slight breeze blows by. Back when humans were cold warring, one of these doors stayed closed. When both get shut, their uber-deadbolts and substantial concreteness keep everything out.
They have to know the humans can do their jobsbest of times, worst of times, regardless of how sad or scared they are. And the electronics that let them do those jobs have to continue functioning, even as they're cut off from an outside that, in a real emergency, might not have working electronics. Mullins points inside the second door. Locked in, people share bunked cots.
They eat MREsmeals ready to eat, whose calorie-dense contents are almost as indestructible as the complex itself. They breathe filtered air that comes in through blast valves. Their lives run on six generators, an internal Mullins leads us through that second blast door, where an awning like those fronting old apartments juts from the first of 15 buildings. And no one can come in. Inside, we cross little walkways that can move independently of the buildings. These structures don't sit together in some giant cavern: They're encased in a series of tunnels.
The trim color changes from building to building, so you know where ish you are. This sign illustrates the sentiment that air conditioning is vital to the operations inside Cheyenne Mountain. Contrary to popular perception, there are no furnaces or other heating infrastructure inside the mountain. Rather, it features four giant chillers designed to help cool the interior.
Only two are needed at any time, so two are redundant. Deep inside the complex is a reservoir of diesel fuel that has a capacity of , gallons, though it is not filled all the way. The fuel is floated on several feet of water in order to keep it from seeping through the granite.
The process of shutting down access to Cheyenne Mountain in the case of an attack or a drill is called "button up. If Cheyenne Mountain is in "button up," the complex needs a giant heat sink to maintain a cool interior temperature. For that purpose, the complex has a reservoir with a capacity of 4. This is one "leg" of the reservoir, which is spread out in the shape of an E.
To many people, this "duck" on the surface of the reservoir is the most famous element inside Cheyenne Mountain. Reportedly, it was placed there by maintenance divers who wanted a way to orient themselves while underwater. The main Cheyenne Mountain entrance is in the center of the facility.
But there are also two lesser-known portals, one to the north, and another to the south. Among other things, the south portal is where fuel is brought in so that gravity will push it downhill into the main part of the complex more efficiently than having it pumped up from the north portal. This tunnel heads toward the southern portal. A view out, and toward the light, of the main tunnel that heads into Cheyenne Mountain. Daniel Terdiman June 27, a.
Tunnel into the fortress A thousand feet up a restricted-access road from Colorado Springs, Colo. A very thick door Cheyenne Mountain's main entry--already deep inside the mountain--has two blast doors like this.
Cheyenne Mountain and the tunnel A wide view of Cheyenne Mountain and the famous tunnel that leads to the military installation, which is secured under 2, feet of granite. Three stories high There are actually several buildings inside Cheyenne Mountain, each fully three stories high.
Security window Anyone entering the Cheyenne Mountain complex must go through this security checkpoint. Fork in the road Upon entry into the Cheyenne Mountain complex, visitors and employees are faced with a choice: Which adit, or underground entrance, do they take?
Escape hatch In the highly unlikely case of a complete emergency in which none of the other exits are available, those inside the Cheyenne Mountain complex can leave via this tiny trap door, which offers a crawlspace out of the facility. Giant springs One of the many Cheyenne Mountain features designed to protect the complex from a nuclear blast--or an earthquake--are these giant springs.
Blast valve Blast valves like this one are installed at the Cheyenne Mountain complex to protect the air that those inside breathe. Then all of sudden the floor began to vibrate, uh, oh, I thought, Mr. I was shot in the shin, elbow, shoulder, hip, foot and arm by a Canadian guy in grey camoflauge holding an M4A1 rifle. On a serious note, thanks for everything you do for not only North America, but the world. The engineering of the complex is enticing.
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