Inside Cheyenne Mountain Complex, the U.S.’s atomic blast-proof base of operations [video]
Posted by staff / March 24, 2016
If you thought walking into your office was like entering a cave, imagine how the 350 people working in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex feel when the blast doors close after them on the way into work.
Opened in 1966 as the United States base of operations in case of a long-range nuclear missile hit from the Soviet Union, the complex gathers data from satellites around the world from inside the mountain in which it sits to keep a close eye on the safety of the U.S. and its allies.
Though it now contains all the cutting edge technology you’d expect from such a facility, the location’s significance hearkens from ancient times.
According to legend, Colorado’s Cheyenne Mountain is a sleeping dragon that many years ago saved the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. In the Native American story, the Great Spirit punished the people by sending a massive flood, but after they repented, it sent a dragon to drink the water away. The dragon, engorged by the massive amount of water, fell asleep, was petrified and then became the mountain. Unlike the dragon of legend, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex has never slept during 50 years of operations.
Full story at Airman via Gizmodo.
Graphics credit: Canva
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