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All the United States New York State New York City Manhattan Brooklyn Bridge Fallout Shelter

Brooklyn Bridge Fallout Shelter

There’s a secret bunker inside the Brooklyn Bridge, but the city won’t say where.

New York, New York

Added By
claude chappe
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Some of the found medical supplies (including dextran) and blankets   2006 Bridges and Tunnels Annual Condition Report
Some of the found medical supplies (including dextran) and blankets   2006 Bridges and Tunnels Annual Condition Report
There were 140 boxes of survival crackers and 50 barrels of drinking water   2006 Bridges and Tunnels Annual Condition Report
Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan-side anchorage. The fallout shelter is somewhere inside that structure.   Image capture Jul 2015
Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan-side anchorage. The fallout shelter is somewhere inside that structure.   Image capture Jul 2013
DOT crew with some of the discovered Civil Defense supplies   2006 Bridges and Tunnels Annual Condition Report
NYC publicity posters found along with the supplies   2006 Bridges and Tunnels Annual Condition Report
From “Facts About Fallout”   National Archives
Office of Civil Defense Fallout Shelter signage   Steve Snodgrass
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About

In 2006, a group of inspectors from the New York City Department of Transportation were on their usual rounds of bridge and tunnel inspections. The rounds were usual except for one discovery: Somewhere deep in the Manhattan anchorage of the Brooklyn Bridge they stumbled into a hidden room filled with blankets, water, a shock-prevention drug called dextran, and 350,000 crackers.

Judging from the dates stamped on the supplies (1957 and 1962), what they discovered seemed to be a Cold War-era bunker or fallout shelter. Emergency survival shelters weren’t unusual back then – you can still see thousands of old “Fallout Shelter” signs and logos on buildings throughout the city. But one inside the Brooklyn Bridge? That no one knew about? That’s a different story.

The inventory of the bunker’s cache followed a typical shopping list for emergency preparedness during the arms race of the 1950s and 60s: barrels of potable water (which the labels say can double as commodes when empty, so there’s that), first aid supplies and blankets, boxes of high-calorie survival crackers (yum), and a healthy supply of the drug dextran, which is used to prevent and treat shock (probably a good idea if you’re stranded inside a Brooklyn Bridge bunker).

The supplies were marked as coming from the Office of Civil Defense, the Cold War precursor to what eventually became FEMA. Since the DOT had no idea the stash was there – or why it would be there – explanations are really only guesses. And, as with all the rooms and tunnels inside the anchorages of the Bridge, the public isn’t allowed inside. So the question of where, exactly, in the Manhattan-side anchorage they found the room, the DOT is keeping that under wraps for security reasons.

They found one other stockpile alongside the survival supplies – a bunch of Mad Men-looking New York City promotional posters. The bunker may have been closed to the public, but not to a little old fashioned public relations.

Related Tags

Bridges Atom Bombs Architectural Oddities Cold War Architecture Military

Know Before You Go

While you can't go in the old shelter, you can see the part of the Brooklyn Bridge where they found it - in what's called the anchorage (that's the base of a suspension bridge where the cables attach) on the Manhattan side, at the corner of Pearl Street and Dover Street.

Community Contributors

Added By

claude chappe

Published

July 13, 2016

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Sources
  • http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/bridgerpt06.pdf
  • http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/nyregion/inside-the-brooklyn-bridge-a-whiff-of-the-cold-war.html?_r=0
  • http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0324_060324_brooklyn_2.html
  • https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/fallout-docs/
Brooklyn Bridge Fallout Shelter
Manhattan-side anchorage of the Brooklyn Bridge
Dover and Pearl Streets
New York, New York, 10038
United States
40.709457, -74.001715
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