Major funding for backstory is provided by an anonymous donor, the National

Endowment for Humanities, the University of Virginia, and the Robert and Joseph

Cornell Memorial Foundation.

For Virginia Humanities, this is backstory.

Welcome to backstory, the show that explains the history behind today's

headlines. I'm Brian Bello, I'm Ed Ayers. I'm Joanne Freeman.

If you're new to the podcast, we're all historians, and each week we

explore the history of one topic that's been in the news.

Now, picture a luxury hotel, attentive staff buzz around serving

drinks to thirsty golfers who've just come in after playing 18 holes.

But behind a false wall, there's a blast door intended to keep out

radiation from a nuclear bomb. Nobody who works here knows, but this is where

the American president, senators, and congressmen will hide out if America

comes under attack by nuclear weapons. Sounds like a James Bond movie, right?

We're going to start off today by going underground to a secret facility

standing by not far from here.

I ever went to was the Green Briar bunker, which would have been the

congressional bunker and relocation facility during the course of the Cold War.

This is the brighter and historian, Garrett Graff.

It was this bunker hidden under this very fine golf resort.

In white sulfur springs, West Virginia, the resort is still used as an

annual congressional retreat.

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