White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia: The Congressional Bunker
RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Report
Greenbrier Resort
- Address:
- 300 W. Main St., White Sulphur Springs, WV
- Directions:
- At the Greenbrier Resort. From the west: I-64 exit 181, turn right onto Main St., then drive 1.5 miles to the resort entrance on the right. From the east: I-64 exit 175, turn left, drive to stop sign, then turn right onto Main St. and drive 3.5 miles to the resort entrance on the left. Stop at the gatehouse, tell the guard you're going on a bunker tour, then good luck finding a place to park; you may have to walk a distance from your car to the building.
- Hours:
- Tours daily, but you must book in advance by phone. (Call to verify) Local health policies may affect hours and access.
- Phone:
- 800-624-6070
- Admission:
- Adults $34, 10-17 $17, no children under 10.
- RA Rates:
- Major Fun
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Tour a once-secret Cold War refuge where our elected representatives would've enjoyed their post-apocalyptic days.
Roadsideamerica.com Report... [03/11/2012]Visitor Tips and News About The Congressional Bunker
Reports and tips from RoadsideAmerica.com visitors and Roadside America mobile tipsters. Some tips may not be verified. Submit your own tip.
Don't get your hopes up. First, they don't allow motorcycles on their property, so we had to park down the hill and take a shuttle bus up to the hotel (We were on a road trip especially to see the bunker). We did the gift shop and asked when and where the tour was. At that time, they were down to, like, one tour a day. Very disappointing. Definitely call ahead before arranging your trip around this.
[Noi, 07/29/2014]The Greenbrier resort has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to the Washington Post. The posh hotel and golf course, in the hills of eastern West Virginia, has been battered by the recession and the precipitous drop in bookings at posh hotels. Our interest, naturally, is in what's under the Greenbrier, the no-longer-secret Atomic Armageddon redoubt for Washington politicians. The 1950s ear Nuclear War Bunker has been operated off and on as a tourist attraction since it was outed in the 1990s.
Marriott may end up buying the property, so we suspect (hope) the Congressional Bunker may continue in some form as a place the public can tour.
[Roadsideamerica.com Team, 03/19/2009]In its heyday, there was no posher place for the political elite to survive the Apocalypse than at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. In the late 1950s, President Eisenhower, who liked to golf, secretly spent umpteen-million of your parents'/grandparents' tax dollars to have a 112,000-square-foot Congressional bunker surreptitiously dug beneath this private retreat in the Appalachian Mountains....
[10/15/2006] Complete News StoryNearby Offbeat Places
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The Greenbrier Resort, which hid the bunker, is still an exclusive enclave, with a gate house, and they make their own rules. Always, always call ahead before taking a road trip to see an attraction, to avoid a scheduling disappointment.