THIS IS AMERICA - Remembering the Cold War: A Bomb Shelter F

THIS IS AMERICA - Remembering the Cold War: A Bomb Shelter Fit For Congress
By Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Monday, May 16, 2005

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. This week, we go inside what used to be one of America's best-kept secrets.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

 
Greenbrier Hotel
Our story begins in the town of White Sulphur Springs, in the beautiful Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia. Many people come to bathe in the mineral waters at White Sulphur Springs. These waters are on the property of a historic¹ place, the Greenbrier Hotel. Other guests come to the hotel to swim or play golf, or just to have a quiet time away from busy city life.

But at the end of the nineteen fifties, some people came to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, for a very different reason. These people had a job to do.

VOICE TWO:

Trucks brought tons of concrete and other building materials. Workers with heavy machinery² dug a huge hole next to the Greenbrier Hotel.

Walls were built underground. But these were not average walls. These were thick and lined with steel. Steels doors hung at each entrance.

The Greenbrier Hotel built an addition over the mysterious hole in the ground. The hotel called the addition the West Virginia Wing. It was a good explanation when people asked about all the activity. It was better than telling them the truth: that the addition was built to hide a bomb shelter for members of Congress.

The government had its own name for the building project: "Project Greek Island." Today, it is difficult to find anyone who remembers why that name was chosen.

VOICE ONE:

The government ordered "Project Greek Island" during a time of great tensions and fear. Both the United States and the Soviet³ Union were busy producing nuclear weapons. This was war -- the Cold War.

(SOUND)

PRESIDENT DWIGHT EISENHOWER: "The Soviet Union has informed us that, over recent years, it has devoted⁴ extensive resources to atomic weapons. During this period the Soviet Union has exploded a series of atomic devices, including at least one involving thermo-nuclear reactions. If at one time the Unites States possessed⁵ what might have been called a monopoly⁶ of atomic power, that monopoly ceased to exist several years ago."

VOICE ONE:

President Dwight Eisenhower, from his "Atoms for Peace" speech to the United Nations General Assembly on December eighth, nineteen fifty-three. He said the United States did not wish simply "to present strength but also the desire and hope for peace."

But the threat of nuclear war remained. American schoolchildren were taught to "duck and cover." They learned to hide under their desks and cover their heads with their hands if the Soviets⁷ ever attacked.

Some American families built bomb shelters and loaded them with food for a long stay. These families thought their shelters would protect them from the radiation of a nuclear strike.

VOICE TWO:

The government also needed places to keep its leaders safe if America were attacked. Officials chose the White Sulphur Springs area to build a refuge⁸ for members of Congress. There were several reasons.

The town was a little more than four hundred kilometers from Washington, D.C., but away from other big cities. There would be fewer people to notice the building project. A railroad passed near the Greenbrier Hotel. And there was an airport nearby.

VOICE ONE:

In addition, the Greenbrier Hotel had a long history of meeting other needs besides those of its usual guests. In the eighteen sixties, both sides in the American Civil War occupied the hotel. At different points in the fighting, both the Union and the Confederacy established hospitals or headquarters on the property.

The hotel closed again during World War Two. The State Department kept diplomats⁹ from Germany, Japan and Italy in the Greenbrier. After seven months, these diplomats were exchanged for American diplomats held overseas.

The United States Army bought the Greenbrier in nineteen forty-two. The military made the hotel into a hospital with two thousand beds. Doctors treated more than twenty thousand soldiers.

VOICE TWO:

The Greenbrier re-opened to guests in nineteen forty-eight. Then, in nineteen fifty-nine, the bomb shelter was built. It remained secret to most people for more than thirty years. Then, in nineteen ninety-two, a story appeared in the Washington Post Magazine. The story told all about the bomb shelter under the West Virginia Wing of the Greenbrier.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen seventy, a man named Paul Bugas took a new job. Mister Bugas, known as Fritz, had served twenty years in the military. He went to work for an organization called Forsythe Associates. This company was responsible for television services for guests at the Greenbrier Hotel.

But that was not all Forsythe did.

Fritz Bugas directed a team of government agents who kept food and medical supplies in the shelter fresh. And they kept communications equipment in working order, including television and radio studios.

VOICE TWO:

The studios were built so members of Congress could speak to the outside world from the bunker. The television studio even had big pictures of the Capitol building, where Congress normally meets. The idea was to show that while America might have suffered an enemy attack, there would not be anarchy¹⁰. Lawmakers could still carry on their responsibilities.

 
Greenbrier Bomb Shelter
Had an attack taken place, the legislators would have been behind solid barriers. Doors weighing twenty-five tons protected against nuclear explosions.

Signs on doors leading from the hotel warned of a danger from electrical equipment inside. These signs were meant to scare away all but the people for whom the shelter was built.

VOICE ONE:

On arrival in White Sulphur Springs, members of Congress would have entered the bunker through a long passageway. They would have had to quickly remove their clothes and pass through a high-pressure water system to wash off any radioactive¹¹ materials. Then they would have put on clean clothes and begun life underground.

VOICE TWO:

Come with us now as we step back in time to look inside the bunker. There are dormitory areas for hundreds of lawmakers and their aides to sleep. Beds are built one on top of another. The Senate majority leader has a private bedroom along with private meeting rooms.

The cafeteria is big enough to serve food to up to four hundred people at one time. And there is a fourteen-bed medical center. It has an X-ray machine, laboratory, intensive-care area and nurses' call station. There are examining rooms, a drugstore and an operating room. A dental chair sits empty, awaiting a patient with a bad tooth.

VOICE ONE:

Other areas of the shelter include telephone rooms and a room for processing messages.

A power plant occupies three levels of the bunker. Water tanks are on the lowest level. A defense¹² system against radiation would operate from the power plant in case of a nuclear strike.

VOICE TWO:

Guests of the Greenbrier Hotel sometimes entered part of the shelter without knowing it. People held business conferences and watched movies in the meetings rooms built for emergency use by Congress.

After the Washington Post described the bunker, officials removed all secret materials. In the middle of the nineteen nineties, the shelter was opened for hotel guests to visit. Restoration is currently¹³ in progress. The shelter is temporarily closed.

But in the spring of two thousand six, the public again will be able to step into this place built for a terrible event that never happened.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver¹⁴. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember.  Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

1 historic   

adj.历史上著名的，具有历史意义的

参考例句：

• This is a historic occasion.这是具有重大历史意义的时刻。
• We are living in a great historic era.我们正处在一个伟大的历史时代。

2 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

3 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

4 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

5 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

6 monopoly   

n.垄断，专卖，垄断物（商品），专卖商品

参考例句：

• His monopoly of shipbuilding in that country has been established.他对那个国家造船业的垄断已经建立起来。
• In many countries,tobacco is a government monopoly.在许多国家，烟草由政府专营。

7 soviets   

苏维埃（Soviet的复数形式）

参考例句：

• A public challenge could provoke the Soviets to dig in. 公开挑战会促使苏联人一意孤行。
• The Soviets proposed the withdrawal of American ballistic-missile submarines from forward bases. 苏联人建议把美国的弹道导弹潜艇从前沿基地撤走。

8 refuge   

n.避难（处），庇护（所）；v.庇护，避难（所）

参考例句：

• They took refuge in a cave yesterday.他们昨天是在一个洞里避难的。
• We took refuge in the lee of the wall.我们在墙的背风处暂避。

9 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 anarchy   

n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• There would be anarchy if we had no police.要是没有警察，社会就会无法无天。
• The country was thrown into a state of anarchy.这国家那时一下子陷入无政府状态。

11 radioactive   

adj.放射性的

参考例句：

• People should keep away from the radioactive waste.人们应远离放射性废物。
• The radioactive material is stored in a special radiation-proof container.放射性材料储存在防辐射的特殊容器里。

12 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

13 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

14 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。