Tunnel roofs are shored up with some 21,000 iron bolts driven 8 to 10 feet into the overhead rock. Based on a favorable evaluation of the hardness and integrity of the mountains rock, the Bureau began construction of the facility’s tunnels in 1954, which were completed by the Army Corps of Engineers under the code name “Operation High Point.” 2 Total constuction costs, adjusted for inflation, are estimated to have exceeded $1 billion. In 1936 it passed to the Bureau of Mines, which bored a short experimental tunnel less than 300 feet beneath the mountain’s crest to test new mining techniques. The site was originally acquired by the National Weather Bureau to launch weather balloons and kites. COOP was activated hours after the attacks on September 11, and since that time these unknown individuals have been serving in rotations lasting up to three months, in Raven Rock and Mount Weather.” 1 History of the Site The present day version of this plan, when it is activated, as recent articles in national newspapers have claimed, calls for 75 to 100 government workers to be kept in one of two underground locations, briefed daily and prepared to take over if the active, elected government is wiped out. the main relocation sites for the highest level civilian and military officials, and what is called, seemingly interchangeably, the “Continuity of Government” and the “Continuity of Operations Plan” (COOP). The center also states that, along with Raven Rock (Site R), these facilities serve as:

The Center for Land Use Interpretation states that the facility has nearly 600,000 to 700,000 square feet of underground space. The above ground support facilities include about a dozen buildings providing communications links to the White House Situation Room. The site is located on a 434 acre mountain site on the borders of Loudon and Clarke counties, approximately 48 miles west of Washington, DC in Bluemont, Virginia. The 200,000 square foot facility also houses FEMA’s National Emergency Coordinating Center. The Mount Weather Special Facility is a Continuity of Government (COG) facility operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Weather underground under maintenance