Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny

Tonight on "Secrets Declassified"...

government sites so surprising or dangerous

that they're kept from the public--

from a luxury resort hiding a government doomsday bunker...

- If a bomb drops on the golf course,

anyone behind the blast doors would be okay.

- To an explosive factory where every shift

is life or death...

I can't imagine something more stressful

than trying to disassemble a thermonuclear warhead.

- And even a fake country in Virginia

that's really a CIA training camp.

- When you cross the border into this fake world,

it's Disney World for adults.

- These are the astonishing and sometimes terrible places

built by governments and the people who work for them.

It's time to bring them to light.

In West Virginia, there's a luxury hotel

for the rich and famous

that boasts over 700 guest rooms,

exclusive restaurants, an 18-hole golf course,

and a secret underground bunker primed for Armageddon.

Nuclear anxiety is peaking in the 1950s...

and the U.S. president is concerned

about the safety of the government

in the case of a nuclear attack.

The government has commissioned

these bomb-proof havens

for the president and his cabinet.

Now they want a bunker

for members of Congress--

somewhere big enough

to house over 1,000 government officials

and discreet enough to keep it secret.

The answer-- a five-star hotel.

The Greenbrier is a luxury resort

in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

This place is a slice of old-school luxury,

where the rich and powerful come to do business and relax.

You can find presidents or celebrities

sipping drinks at the bar.

It sounds like the perfect place

to see out World War III.

- It's far enough from Washington, D.C.,

that hopefully it could escape the effects

of a direct nuclear attack on the capital city

but also close enough

that people would be able to escape to it in time.

It's shielded by mountains

for extra protection.

- Perhaps what swings it, literally,

is the hotel's golfing facilities.

Eisenhower is a regular on the Greenbrier course.

The government discreetly approaches

the hotel for their assistance,

and the management at the Greenbrier

are happy to oblige.

The only problem is keeping it a secret.

- An immense construction project

on the grounds of the Greenbrier

is sure to get the VIP guests gossiping.

So the bunker needs a cover story.

The Greenbrier gets a brand-new extension--

the West Virginia Wing.

Underneath...

a vast doomsday bunker unlike any other

begins to take shape.

The bunker underneath

the Greenbrier Hotel

hosts 153 rooms

spread out over 112,000 square feet.

There are two chambers

for the House and the Senate,

and there is this vast hall

for joint sessions.

It's essentially a giant underground capitol

for the government to continue functioning

in the event of a nuclear war.

- Beyond these chambers are the facilities you'd expect

in a top-of-the-range government survival bunker--

high-pressure shower to rinse off nuclear fallout,

over 1,000 beds for congressmen and women,

a hospital, a cafeteria,

and a small arsenal of handguns.

Perhaps the most impressive features

are two enormous blast doors to seal Congress inside.

- Each door is 19 inches thick, weighs 28 tons,

and they're strong enough to withstand a nuclear blast

from only 2,000 feet away.

If a bomb drops

on the eighth hole of the golf course,

anyone behind the blast doors will be okay.

- And these doors are hidden behind a false wall

in the exhibition hall just inches away

from where guests are mingling.

- For 30 years, the false wall stands firm,

and the bunker remains secret...

until 1992, when rumors finally begin to leak out.

Ted Gup is a investigative reporter

for "The Washington Post,"

and an anonymous source tips him off

that the Greenbrier resort

might not be all that it seems.

Gup speaks to former employees,

who confirm that something mysterious

is hidden beneath the West Virginia Wing.

But for a genuine scoop,

Gup needs hard evidence.

- So he decides to go stay at the Greenbrier himself

to see if he can get that final bit of proof.

When Gup meets the manager,

he goes straight to the point.

He asks, "Is there a government nuclear fallout shelter

under the hotel?"

Well, the manager immediately denies this.

Gup doesn't get the answers he's hoping for,

but he's determined not to leave the Greenbrier

without his story.

- Gup visits the office of a maintenance company

called Forsyth Associates,

who are supposedly in charge

of maintaining the Greenbrier TVs.

When he gets to the offices, he sees something strange.

He sees a wall covered with books

on nuclear war and Armageddon.

You don't need that if you're building TV antennas.

- When he digs deeper, he finds out

that many of the people who work at Forsyth Associates

are former U.S. military cryptographers

and radio specialists.

- Turns out, Forsyth Associates is just a front company.

Their real job is maintaining the communications

for the bunker.

"The Washington Post"

runs Gup's story on May 31, 1992.

And the Greenbrier's secret is finally unearthed.

Within days, the government goes public

about the Greenbrier bunker...

and announces its deactivation.

- Today the bunker is a tourist attraction.

For about $50,

you can go tour the halls where the American government

might have been reborn after Armageddon.

- A luxury hotel might be the perfect place

to hide a government bunker,

but in the 1950s, the CIA has to hide something much bigger--

a vast college campus set up

to train the next generation of super spies.

At the dawn of the Cold War,

the CIA realizes that this is a conflict

that's not going to be fought

by traditional soldiers with bullets and bombs

but by covert agents stealing secrets

from under the enemy's nose.

When it comes to training spies, though,

the Americans are on their back foot

compared to their rivals at the KGB.

The KGB has a decades-old infrastructure

for training spies,

and CIA is relatively new to the game.

So they realize that if they're going to keep up

with their KGB counterparts, they have to step up big.

The spy-craft skills that could save your life

and maybe even your country isn't something that's taught

in any college or university.

The CIA brass realize that their agents

need training to prepare them for the real world--

what they're gonna face out there in the field.

So, in secret, they set up

a new espionage university.

The first step is finding the right place

for a campus.

They need a very large place,

someplace secluded, someplace cut off,

but someplace large enough with infrastructure enough

to simulate the activities of a normal city.

They find it

at a former naval base called Camp Peary.

- It stretches for 9,000 acres--

more than half the size of Manhattan.

To the outside world,

Camp Peary remains a regular naval base.

But behind its fences, the site is transformed

into an elite proving ground for spies.

- Trainees refer to it as "The Farm."

And generations of spies are secretly schooled here,

right up to the present day.

Training begins

when students leave CIA Headquarters in Langley

on a blacked-out bus.

- The men and women chosen for this

are among the most elite.

They've gone through rigorous testing--

psychological testing, physical testing--

to prove that they are truly the best of the best.

When a CIA trainee arrives at The Farm,

they leave their real identity at the door.

They're given a new cover story

that they must maintain throughout the training.

They are leaving the real world