Sunday, March 12, 2006

Colorado Springs, CO.: Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, NORAD

Can you spot the entrance to the mountain?

From the NORAD site:
"In 1956, the idea of a hardened command and control center was conceptualized as a defense against Soviet bombers. The Cheyenne Mountain Complex became completely operational April 20, 1966. The Army Corps of Engineers supervised the excavation and construction, using 1.5 million pounds of dynamite to excavate approximately 700,000 tons of granite. The actual operations complex is a series of 15 buildings, 12 of which are three stories tall. The entire operations complex is mounted on 1,319 springs, each weighing 1,000 pounds, that allow the complex to sway up to 12 inches horizontally in any direction. The tunnel structure is reinforced by 110,000 rock bolts six to 32 feet in length that function like molly bolts, pushing outward on the walls to prevent implosion or cave-in. The two main blast doors are 25 tons, 3½-feet-thick baffled steel."

Learn more about NORAD and Cheyenne Mountain