Constructed: ~1962
Architect/Engineer: Glenn L. Martin Company
This past summer I had the chance to visit the Titan Missile
Museum in Tucson Arizona. It is an eerie piece of our nation’s history. It once
contained a missile capable of obliterating 900 square miles, the entire city
of Tucson and its suburbs, to put it into something relatable. During the cold
war, prior to SALT teams of people would take 24hr watches in these silos to
man the launch systems. If the order was sent they would authenticate it
through a series of specially designed and clever tricks, and if it was real,
they would set the target location and fire the 9 megaton nuclear missile.
These bunkers were built in very interesting ways. It is all
on springs. So during the launch, or if there was a nearby attack the bunker’s
shell wouldn’t be cracked, and the people manning it would be in relatively
little danger considering. Inside they were also short. When I visited the
museum and got to travel down into the silo and bunker I had to wear a hardhat.
I am 6’2” and anyone over 5’11” had to wear one.
But overall, walking through a missile silo is eerie when
you know that only 55 years before it was armed and ready for mutually assured
destruction.
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