The majority of my trips to West Virginia have always been focused on the outdoors, so visiting the Greenbrier was a big exception. If you’ve seen many of my other pages, you’ve probably figured out that I’ve learned to suffer and I’m not normally one for fancy resorts. The Greenbrier interested me for a completely different reason, though. Hidden beneath the luxury hotel was once a massive government secret known to relatively few people. The story has since been declassified, and learning about it made this one of my most interesting trips in West Virginia.
Before getting into the secret bunker, the Greenbrier itself has a long history. Visitors began traveling to White Sulphur Springs in the late 1700s to take advantage of the area’s mineral springs, and a resort gradually developed around them. The enormous main hotel building seen today dates to the early 20th century and has been expanded and renovated many times since.
The property is massive, spreading across thousands of acres of the Allegheny Mountains. Just walking around the grounds and main building gives you an idea of how enormous the resort really is.
The Greenbrier is much more than simply a luxury hotel. The resort offers golf, swimming pools, a spa, bowling, shopping, restaurants, and even a casino. There are also cottages and larger homes spread around the property, some with enough bedrooms for entire families or groups.
The photo above was taken inside the main lobby where I first entered the hotel. The interior immediately feels very different from the modern hotels I’m used to visiting, with bold colors and an intentionally old-fashioned style throughout much of the property.
I probably explored only a small percentage of the resort. These photos show one of the elegant ballrooms and the indoor swimming pool. Since I was only visiting for the day, I didn’t stay in one of the rooms or take advantage of most of the amenities.
I do regret not at least having lunch or dinner here. The Greenbrier has numerous restaurants, bars, and lounges, so there really wasn’t much excuse for me not to try one. Fortunately, it’s close enough that returning someday wouldn’t be difficult.
This hallway was actually one of my favorite parts of the hotel. I normally prefer modern decor, but I really liked the Greenbrier’s distinctive old-fashioned style. Walking through parts of the building feels a little like stepping back several decades, and I imagine the overall atmosphere isn’t dramatically different from what guests experienced generations ago.
The Secret Congressional Bunker
This is where the Greenbrier becomes much more interesting than a normal luxury resort. Hidden inside the complex was a massive Cold War bunker secretly constructed for the United States Congress. The project was developed during the late 1950s and early 1960s as tensions with the Soviet Union and fears of nuclear war were increasing.
The bunker was built while the Greenbrier was undergoing a large expansion, providing a convenient explanation for the enormous amount of construction taking place. The classified project became known as Project Greek Island and remained ready for use for decades.
The purpose of the bunker was to provide an emergency relocation site for Congress if Washington, D.C. became unusable following a nuclear attack. Members of the House and Senate could theoretically have been evacuated to West Virginia and continued operating from inside the protected facility.
For decades, ordinary hotel guests had little idea that such a huge government installation was hidden nearby. Maintaining that secret seems almost impossible considering the size of the project, especially with hotel employees and local residents living and working around the property.
The bunker contained enormous meeting rooms designed to accommodate members of Congress. The rooms above were intended to provide working spaces for the legislative branch if lawmakers were forced to evacuate Washington. Beyond the meeting areas were dormitories, kitchens, medical facilities, communications equipment, and everything else necessary to keep hundreds of people functioning underground for an extended period.
Massive blast doors protected the entrances to the facility. Had the bunker ever been activated, these doors would have helped seal the complex from the outside world and protect the people inside from the effects of a nuclear attack.
The bunker was never actually used for its intended purpose. Its existence eventually became public in the early 1990s, ending its usefulness as a secret relocation site. Today parts of the former bunker can be explored on guided tours, making it possible to walk through one of the strangest surviving pieces of America’s Cold War infrastructure.
I went to the Greenbrier expecting an interesting hotel and ended up far more fascinated by what had been hidden beneath it. The contrast is what makes the place so memorable: elegant ballrooms, pools, golf courses, and luxury rooms above ground, while underneath them the U.S. government had quietly prepared for nuclear war.
