2024-07-22 12:23:26
It hides tons of gold and once housed the crown jewels of several European kingdoms. Fort Knox is the most secure building on the planet. Apart from the employees, almost no one looks here – not even the president. Fort Knox is the start of the Aktuálně.cz series about the world’s most guarded places.
The 1930s were tumultuous for the United States. They were stumbling economically, struggling with a major economic crisis, high unemployment and a depreciating dollar.
The government therefore began to cover the currency with gold, which people were not allowed to own and had to surrender. The precious metal was then melted down by the authorities and stored in gold bars. As Adolf Hitler’s power grew in Europe, they decided it was no longer safe to harbor them in coastal New York and Philadelphia. The administration therefore decided to move them inland. The Americans found the ideal place to build a new safe in Kentucky, in an area covered by mountains on one side and right next to a military camp.
Workers at the mint package gold bullion for shipment to the new government vault in Ft. Knox, KY., 12 Jan 1937 | Photo: CTK
Fort Knox was completed in December 1936 and its construction cost $560,000 at the time, according to the US Mint. The two-story building also has an underground floor and over 160 tons of granite, 750 tons of reinforced steel and 670 tons of structural steel were used for its construction, as well as for the adjacent security structures.
The fortress began to be filled with gold bars the very next month. They were brought to the local station by the trains of the US Post Office, which was then the only company willing to take responsibility for millions in gold. Unloading and depositing directly into the vault were in charge of locals who responded to the mint’s advertisement. In addition to the job offer, detailed information about where the trains will go so that people can come and see them, reports the PBS station.
According to Netizens Report, five thousand tons of gold should be stored in Fort Knox this year, which is about half of the United States’ reserves. At the same time, historically valuable documents are also stored here, such as the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and also large stocks of drugs used to produce morphine, which relieves pain. During the Second World War, some European countries also stored their valuables here. Fort Knox was also the home of the British crown jewels.
Trained guards and ubiquitous sensors
Building security has several levels. In the fortress itself, the safe is protected by a 64-centimeter-thick door that has a time lock: when opened, it soon closes again by itself. However, in order to open the safe at all, a long code must be entered. No one knows all of it, it takes ten employees of the fortress, each with knowledge of part of the code.
There is fencing all around the United States Bullion Depository and the grounds are heavily guarded. There are also warning signs. Image from 2007. | Photo: Profimedia.cz
The roof of the building should be blast-proof, and in addition to cameras, there are motion sensors and microphones everywhere. At the same time, there are few people who know the exact plan of the building.
Security here is overseen by US Mint employees who have been carefully selected for the task and have undergone special training. First, they have twelve weeks of basic training, the next five are taught directly on the spot. After graduation, they can handle weapons and deal with potential robbers and other extreme situations.
At the same time, the building is protected by a concrete wall, electric fences, watchtowers, tanks and helicopters. The United States will give approximately five million dollars (116 million crowns) annually for the protection of the fortress, writes the website My Base Guide. The next level is provided by the army, which has its military camp of several thousand soldiers around the fortress.
Inside was the only president
Only a few delegations have been allowed to see Fort Knox during the almost ninety-year existence of the fortress. In 1943, then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited her together with congressmen. Then politicians in 1974 and 2017 got a peek inside.
US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his car as he left the gold metal depository at Fort Knox in Kentucky, USA on April 29, 1943. | Photo: Profimedia.cz
It used to be possible to take photos in front of the building, but that changed after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. “When I was a child, there were trees and forests around. There’s nothing like that anymore. After 9/11, Fort Knox went into strict lockdown,” Doug Simmons, who worked at the fort for eleven years, told PBS.
Fort Knox historian Paul Urbahns confirms his words. “Before, we could drive tourists in front of the building and take their picture with it. But today, if you come to the gate and take out your camera, the guards will confiscate it,” he said last year.
The fort is so protected that it has become synonymous with security. In English, therefore, the simile “safe as Fort Knox” is used.
Fort Knox was also in the Bond movie
The existence of the vault is known even beyond the borders of the United States thanks to the film Goldfinger from 1964, where actor Sean Connery played James Bond’s agent 007. He tried to protect the gold from a criminal who wanted to detonate a bomb in the safe and devalue the gold reserves.
A scene from the movie Goldfinger. | Photo: United Artists
Simmons, who worked at the fort on audit, therefore imagined Fort Knox as it was shown in the film. But the scenes were filmed in London. “We had all seen the movie, so our idea of what we were going to do came from it. But then we realized that we were going into a basement and that we were in a typical army building. There’s no gold glitter and it’s nothing fancy,” he recalled.
“When you drop a (12-kilogram) brick on your hand, it breaks all the bones in your hand. So the excitement wears off the second you write it down. And you realize you’re not going to get anything out of it. So no, it’s not like Goldfinger,” he added.
Photo author: Aktuálně.cz
A series about the most guarded places in the world
The newspaper Aktuálně.cz will bring a seven-part series about the most guarded places in the world. Thanks to it, readers will get to know archives where the most secret documents lie, shelters in case of natural disasters or impregnable vaults full of gold