Obsolete secret infrastructure like CARTWHEEL tower, only revealed decades later, intrigues me not just for its scale and design, but also for the obvious question it gives rise to. If this stuff effectively managed to stay unnoticed for decades, what newer secrets are hiding under our noses today?
@[email protected] I used to live in a small town called Griesheim in Germany and would regularly drive past an abandoned US airbase. The gate was still manned and I'd occasionally see people in cars getting checked there. Thought it was a bit weird, but that was it.
A couple of years later the Snowden revelations came out and it turns out it housed the infamous underground Dagger Complex (there were radomes too, but I never really gave it much thought).
@[email protected] If you're ever in Scotland you might want to visit the Secret Government Bunker attraction in Fife, just over the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh. It's a former ROTOR nuke-hardened air force control centre turned continuity of government HQ, and it's run as a cold war museum. Up top, it's disguised as farm buildings. Underground? Three levels of accommodation for a couple of hundred military and civil servants in event of nuclear war.
@[email protected]@[email protected] I can second this. It’s only a few miles from where I grew up up. Never knew it was there until years later when I found out a friend’s dad (who worked at the Uni) was on the list of people supposed to head there in the event of nuclear tits up.
@[email protected]@[email protected] My spouse says we're going to visit the moment Scotland leaves the UK and rejoins the EU. Whether I like it or not. She can park me in a pub with wifi somewhere.
It's great, but strange. The owners have a very weird and dark sense of humour. It's also very,... British eccentric, I think is the best way to describe it.
The audio tour is definitely worth it.