The Mount Weather Special Facility is an unacknowledged US Continuity of Government (COG) facility located in a huge underground bunker 45 miles west of Washington D.C., near Bluemont, Virginia. OK, there isn’t high res coverage of the exact area but I love these secret bunkers :). The facility was built in the ’50s as a relocation point for senior government officials in the event of nuclear attack or other national emergency. Today, the site also houses the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Emergency Coordinating Center. Some other cool facts:

• Total constuction costs, adjusted for inflation, are estimated to have exceeded $1 billion.
• Tunnel roofs are shored up with some 21,000 iron bolts driven 8 to 10 feet into the overhead rock.
• The entrance is protected by a 34-ton blast door that is 5 feet thick and reportedly takes 10 to 15 minutes to open or close.
• Tunnels inside the complex accomodate 20 office buildings, some of which are three stories tall.
• On-site 90,000 gallon/day sewage treatment plants and two 250,000 gallon above-ground storage tanks are intended to support a population of 200 for up to 30 days.

Loads more reading and higher res photos at FAS and GlobalSecurity.

Thanks: John

Another strangely beautiful shot of six cooling towers. This one is at Catawaba Nuclear Power Station in South Carolina.

Pinal Airpark was originally built in 1942 as a WW2 Army Airfield and was known as Marana Army Airfield. It later became the headquarters of all CIA air operations during the Vietnam War years.

Today, the primary occupant of the field is Evergreen Air Center who offer various maintenance services for planes (look for the large hangar capable of completely enclosing a 747). Evergreen also serves as “the world’s largest storage facility for non-military aircraft”, with a total capacity of 300 aircraft (including 747’s, DC-10’s, etc.). Marc Borom’s site has some ground level shots of the various planes stored here.

Just a little to the north of Pinal Airpark is Silverbell Army Heliport, the location of the Western Army National Guard Aviation Training Site.

The 2002 design for the Fritzlers Corn Maze depicts an eagle in front of the American flag and the slogan “God Bless America”.

Thanks: Gus