When Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Secret Service realized something unsettling: If the White House were the target of a similar attack, the soft sandstone structure would easily crumble, and they had no plan of action for ferrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt to safety.
Within weeks, construction had begun on two subterranean projects. The first was a tunnel that connected the East Wing of the White House to the nearby (and much sturdier) Treasury Building, a granite stronghold with underground bank vaults. According to Robert Klara’s book The Hidden White House, one or more of those vaults was transformed into an 1100-square-foot shelter with 10 rooms, including a bedroom, a well-stocked kitchen, a cozy leather chair, and plenty of plush carpeting. The other was a smaller bunker below the East Wing itself. At just 40 feet by 40 feet, the two-room suite featured 7-foot-thick concrete walls, a medical room, enough food and water to sustain dozens of people for days, and a diesel-generated power system.
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