dimanche, avril 01, 2007
they build you up only to tear you down
Yesterday I took shelter at a nuclear fallout bunker, the so-called "Diefenbunker", located just west of Ottawa near the village of Carp.
My political history prof told our class about the bunker recently, and it sounded intriguing. After this modest-looking entrance into the "blast tunnel", you turn a corner into a four-storey building buried in the ground, designed to withstand the impact of a very big bomb within a certain range, and function as a mini-headquarters of the Canadian government in case of such an event. It was designed to accommodate five-hundred and thirty-five people! I hadn't learned this during the course of my Dief research, but apparently Dief himself refused to visit the place 'cause he was mad that he wouldn't be allowed to bring his wife with him in case of emergency. It's true, we saw the Prime Minister's quarters and his room only had a single bed.
Anyway, it was pretty nifty, if not a little eerie, to check the place out. I wouldn't be able to handle the lack of daylight that place is necessarily subject to. But the facility is quite impressive, indeed a mini-city, including a "gym", an impressive cafeteria/restaurant (which was required to serve excellent food in case of an unplanned visit by the PM), a fully-equipped hospital, several de-contamination showers, a radio broadcast centre for the CBC, and the administrative offices required to house and serve the needs of all necessary government departments.
We were given a lot of information by our guide about the engineering specifications of the building. In addition to "floating floors", everything is spring mounted and reinforced to withstand crazy amounts of vibration and force. I didn't take note of the precise details - it was overwhelming and mind-boggling, but more useful in comprehending it all was the mere physical proof of one room in particular, the "Bank of Canada" Vault. This room was itself encased in crazy-thick walls, surrounded by several feet of space on all sides, and had the thickest door I've ever seen, with massive pistons to secure it closed. Since this vault was never used for its intended purpose (holding lots and lots of gold), our guide pointed out that it was now Canada's most secure "storage room".
It's amazing that a multi-million dollar facility such as this was never used for its intended purpose - I mean, it's great that it was never needed, but it's this odd sort of ghost town feeling to visit something like this. The government stopped using it altogether in 1994 and it was scheduled for demolition until a private group bought it and now runs it as a museum. Very educational, and recommended if you are fascinated by history like me. | ¶ 2:14 p.m.
Yesterday I took shelter at a nuclear fallout bunker, the so-called "Diefenbunker", located just west of Ottawa near the village of Carp.My political history prof told our class about the bunker recently, and it sounded intriguing. After this modest-looking entrance into the "blast tunnel", you turn a corner into a four-storey building buried in the ground, designed to withstand the impact of a very big bomb within a certain range, and function as a mini-headquarters of the Canadian government in case of such an event. It was designed to accommodate five-hundred and thirty-five people! I hadn't learned this during the course of my Dief research, but apparently Dief himself refused to visit the place 'cause he was mad that he wouldn't be allowed to bring his wife with him in case of emergency. It's true, we saw the Prime Minister's quarters and his room only had a single bed.
Anyway, it was pretty nifty, if not a little eerie, to check the place out. I wouldn't be able to handle the lack of daylight that place is necessarily subject to. But the facility is quite impressive, indeed a mini-city, including a "gym", an impressive cafeteria/restaurant (which was required to serve excellent food in case of an unplanned visit by the PM), a fully-equipped hospital, several de-contamination showers, a radio broadcast centre for the CBC, and the administrative offices required to house and serve the needs of all necessary government departments.We were given a lot of information by our guide about the engineering specifications of the building. In addition to "floating floors", everything is spring mounted and reinforced to withstand crazy amounts of vibration and force. I didn't take note of the precise details - it was overwhelming and mind-boggling, but more useful in comprehending it all was the mere physical proof of one room in particular, the "Bank of Canada" Vault. This room was itself encased in crazy-thick walls, surrounded by several feet of space on all sides, and had the thickest door I've ever seen, with massive pistons to secure it closed. Since this vault was never used for its intended purpose (holding lots and lots of gold), our guide pointed out that it was now Canada's most secure "storage room".
It's amazing that a multi-million dollar facility such as this was never used for its intended purpose - I mean, it's great that it was never needed, but it's this odd sort of ghost town feeling to visit something like this. The government stopped using it altogether in 1994 and it was scheduled for demolition until a private group bought it and now runs it as a museum. Very educational, and recommended if you are fascinated by history like me. | ¶ 2:14 p.m.
