National Audio-Visual Conservation Center

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The National Audiovisual Conservation Center is the Library of Congress' new audiovisual archive located inside Mount Pony in Culpeper, Virginia. From 1969 to 1988, the facility was a high security storage facility operated by the Federal Reserve Board.

Contents

[edit] Federal Reserve Bunker

With Cold War tensions came fear that in the event of a nuclear war, the economy of the United States would be destroyed. In response to this, the United States Federal Reserve constructed a bunker to house enough U.S. currency to replenish the cash supply east of the Mississippi River in the event of a catastrophic event.

Commissioned on December 10, 1969, the bunker was also a back-up continuity of government, therefore it 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 shrink-wrapped notes from 1969 until 1988.

The facility also housed the Culpeper Switch, which was the central switching station of the Federal Reserve's Fedwire electronic funds transfer system, which at the time connected only the Fed's member banks. The Culpeper Switch also served as a data backup point for member banks east of the Mississippi.

[edit] Post Cold War

In 1988, all money was removed from Mount Pony. The Culpeper Switch ceased operation in 1992, its functions having been decentralized to three smaller sites. In addition, its status continuity of government site was removed. The facility was poorly maintained by a skeleton staff until 1997 when the bunker was put up for sale. With the approval of the United States Congress, 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. With a further $4.5 million dollar grant from the foundation, the facility was transformed into the National Audiovisual Conservation Center. The center offered, for the first time, a single site to store all 4 million pieces of the library's the movie, television, and sound collection.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dalrymple, Helen (July/August 2006). Film & Sound Treasures In the Mountain Lair. Information Bulletin. Library of Congress. Retrieved on April 8, 2007.

[edit] Further reading

  • McCamley, N.J. Cold War Secret Nuclear Bunkers. Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2002. ISBN 0-85052-746-5

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../n/a/t/National_Audio-Visual_Conservation_Center_cf7e.html"