Mount Pony Federal Reserve Bunker

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The Mount Pony Federal Reserve Bunker was a high security storage facility that was operated by the Federal Reserve Board located in Culpeper, Virginia. The bunker, commissioned in December 1969, held billions of dollars in U.S. currency until 1988. It also served as a "continuity of government" facility, a back-up bunker for important figures of the government in the event of a nuclear war.

Mount Pony had enough supplies to support a staff and/or VIPs of 540 for thirty days. The entrance is a steel reinforced concrete building with lead-lined radiation-proof steel shutters that can seal the bunker off from the surface in a matter of seconds. The entire facility is 140,000 square feet. The main vault was 23,500 square feet and contained billions in shrinked wrapped notes from 1969 until 1988. The facility also served as a computer server center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. It kept a record of all American electronic fund transfers.

In 1988, all money was removed from Mount Pony. The facility was poorly maintained by a skeleton staff until 1997 in which the bunker was put up for sale. It was purchased by the Library of Congress from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond with the help of a $5.5 million dollar grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to become the new home for their movie, television, and sound archive. With a further $4.5 million dollar grant from the same foundation, an extensive renovation project made the bunker more suitable for its new purpose.