Cold War relics near you?

[rationtin440]

The link at http://coldwar-c4i.net/ATT_Project/index.html shows 5 hardened underground bunkers which were used by AT&T during the cold war. There are many such places across the country and the main website for them ishttp://coldwar-c4i.net I'm curious how many members of the forum live near such facilities, here in the U.S., the U.K., and all other places represented in the forums, thanks!

[armorrich]

Interesting topic.......i used to live near an AT&T facility like the ones you describe. It was located in Maple Hill, NY...just outside the town of Rosendale. As a member of the local VFD, we were given a tour of the place. It wasn't a very big building and was mostly concrete with some brickface around the enterance. As a kid in the early 60's, i remember seeing it being built from the window of the schoolbus. It extended about 3-4 stories underground and contained a lot of switching gear. Rumor was that the "hotline" passed through the place and it was targeted on Russion missle maps. Who knows really but it was an interesting place nonetheless. Is been long since shut down and i've never gone back to see what ever happened to the place. Now you got me wondering......cheers, rich

[sodjer]

in the uk there was a complex of bunkers ,but most towns had one of these www.rocbunkers.co.uk.the network closed down in sept 1991 and most were locked up and havent been open since.

[dirtbag]

I live near Vandenberg Air force Base, and there are numerous ICBM silos and underground Command Posts all over, from 1959 to the present.
Bomarc, Atlas E, Titan 1 & 2, MX (Peacekeeper), Minuteman 1,2 &3, Midgetman, all have Bunkers/Silos everywhere!
Most of these stood Alert (armed with Nukes) here, and Minuteman training continues, with 3-5 launches a year(no nukes ).
I toured one of the Minuteman complexes, 30 years ago. Interesting, but not for me, I went into the Navy!

[rationtin440]

Thanks for replies guys! There is an air force bunker in Hadley, MA. about 40 minutes from me, which has been turned into a records storage site for the 5 colleges around Amherst and Hadley area. Interestingly, Chesterfield Custom Products, also mentioned on the cold war site, was once a switching center and had an area set aside on its lower level called the "Nixon Suite." This was where Julie (?) Nixon was to be taken by secret service in case of nuclear attack during her father's time as president and while she was going to Hampshire College. sodjer, I've seen pics of those roc bunkers with the hatches sticking out of the grassy hills and I think it would be very hard for me to stay in one for any length of time with my claustrophobia, but hey----considering the alternative! There were also a couple of large bunkers in Tully and Attica NY which I believe are no longer used.

[rationtin440]

One cool thing to do is to follow the AT&T cable trail markers in the woods and other "off the beaten path" places, because you can come across all kinds of interesting things, most of which are surrounded by chain-link fences, but you still get a good view. Alot of cable trails and repeater huts are in my area of western MA. and it is fun to hike them, but of course buried cable can go places where you can't walk, including under river bottoms, so it is usually necessary to take a map to keep oriented. I'm interested to know if our forum members who live in Europe and other areas outside the U.S. have places like this near them.