Forbidden History - Florida's Nuclear Apocalypse Bunker | Where Did Everyone Go?

Episode Date: March 23, 2025

Discover how a top-secret government bunker would help America survive a worst-case nuclear war scenario.  Bringing you a bonus episode from a brand new podcast from the Like A Shot network. Join historian Sascha Auerbach, and comedian Tom Ward, as they reveal the incredible stories behind eerie ghost towns, ruined mansions, forgotten factories, crumbling castles, wartime relics, haunted prisons, and much more. 'Where Did Everyone Go? Histories of the Abandoned' is an entertaining journey into the world’s most remarkable abandoned places. If you enjoyed this episode, search for ‘Where Did Everyone Go?’ on your favourite podcast platform and be sure to follow for more episodes. Or click here to follow.  — Hosts: Sascha Auerbach, Tom Ward Producer: Lewis Rumbol Assistant Producer: Alice Chuter Editor: Chris Scott “Where Did Everyone Go? Histories of the Abandoned” is a recorded ‘as live’ podcast presented by comedian Tom Ward and historian Sascha Auerbach. Together they discuss abandoned things and places. Please be aware this is an unscripted discussion and whilst we try to ensure historic and factual accuracy, this isn’t always possible and as such ‘facts’ discussed may be the views and opinions of the presenters and should not be relied upon for historical accuracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi listeners. Today we wanted to bring you an episode from a brand new podcast from the Like a Shot Network. Where did everyone go? Histories of the Abandoned. Here from historian Sasha Auerbach and comedian Tom Ward as they reveal the incredible stories behind fascinating abandoned places around the world. We hope you enjoy this episode. So today we're going into one of the scariest what-if scenarios imaginable. Full-on nuclear war. Our abandoned location offers a chilling look and to the extent the American government

was prepared to deal with nuclear fallout within its own borders. They were so ready, it just makes you wonder how close it all came to actually being put into action. How close were we? That's the question. This is Where'd Everyone Go with me, Sasha Auerbach. And me, Tom Ward, a journey into the weird history of abandoned places.

And when are we talking here? 60s, 70s? It's the 60s. It's the 60s. And let me give you a little flavor of what was going on at the start of this decade. In 1961, the USSR

had just tested the largest nuclear weapon ever built. In 62, an American spy plane had taken photographs of Soviet nuclear missile launch sites under construction in Cuba, just a few hundred miles

off the Florida coast. And in 1963, America deployed the Titan 2 missile built to carry a nuclear warhead with the explosive power equivalent to 9 million tons of TNT. There's a lot of threat and menace. Sounds like some Cold War arms race fun to me. Yeah, yeah. In the 1960s, nuclear war was terrifyingly close. Yeah.

So I'm guessing we're either going to America or Russia with this one. Yes. Well, if you look on the video, here we're on the east coast of Florida, on the outskirts of the city of Fort Pierce. Okay, and you can see that the structure here is surrounded by trees and covered in earth. So you could easily walk right past it or even over it without knowing. Yeah, but as you get closer, you see what looks like ventilation shafts sticking out of the ground. and there's this giant plain white door that lets you inside.

And as you go through this big steel door, you're met with a second security zone, a sort of decontamination center. Yeah, and further inside, you can see the whole thing is built with these big steel beams. They look like they're strong enough to support a skyscraper or a stadium. And yet, the only thing above them is a grassy mound. And it looks like it's been built to withstand something serious.

and to be completely hidden from view. Yeah, and this wasn't the only one. This bunker was part of a huge network that covered the entirety of the country. And the whole point here was, in the official wording, ensuring the continuity of communication during a post-nuclear attack scenario. Okay, and what were long-distance comms like in America at the time?

We're talking phones and television? Well, this was the era when long-distance phone conversations and television signals were transmitted by microwave. Microwave. So you had this vast network of microwave relay towers built across the country, but microwaves travel in straight lines and they need a clear line of sight. So the towers were arranged in a zigzag pattern across the entire continent to allow for continuous communication. and then in between them you had power regeneration stations to boost and amplify the signal. You also had communication centers, which housed all the technical equipment to monitor the signal and direct the signals to the correct routes, which would have been manned 24-7.

I mean, all this infrastructure, but with it being microwave technology, I'm guessing a lot of the phone calls still were quite cold in the middle. Yeah, and you can't be wearing massive. metal when you make them. Right. This will set off sparks. Yeah. Phizzes and, yeah.

But if you hold up some popcorn near your face, by the time the conversation's over, it's done. Yeah. That's one perk. That is one perk. Nice. So this was all US government stuff then, was it? Actually, no. It was built by a company, AT&T, who have a long history of communication technology in America,

going back to Alexander Bell and the invention of the telephone. Allegedly. No, no, actually, factually. they were so big and powerful as a company and they had such a monopoly that the Department of Justice actually broke them up in 1984. Yeah, there's talk of doing that to our pod. That's a whole other story. So you've got this massive microwave network that people are using for long distance calls and watching TV, though some TV shows do get a little soggy when repeated.

And this is all owned by AT&T. And then what war happens or something happens and then what? You want to know what this bunker in Florida has to do with all of this. Yes. Yeah. How does this bunker become relevant? Well, it's popcorn storage. Right.

Okay. Because they're going through a lot of popcorn. Now, this is the start or the end, depending on whether you look at it, of this cross-country communication system. And this is a power regeneration station. but it's protected. Actually hardened is the technical term. It was also part of a different communications network,

a secret one used by the U.S. military. Nice. Okay. Everyone loves a little secret communication network. Oh, do I? Is that why we strung that wire between our apartments with a little cans at the end? Hey, Tom, what you have to? So that your wife can't hear us.

Who are you talking to, Sash? It's Tommy. Hi, Tom. Whisper history to me at bedtime, Sash. That'll definitely put you to sleep. What was it like, the bunker? Well... How close did we come?

Oh, nuclear war. Can I call you, Daddy? No, you absolutely cannot. And also, my son calls me Papa, because he's a proper European one. Oh, nice. So, here's Mark, the current owner of the site, to explain what the U.S. government's fear was. Well, they were really afraid of a block out of communications. They were afraid that if the Cuban missile crisis had actually turned hot and Cuba had fired on us,

that the rest of the United States may have been blacked out from even knowing it occurred. So if the missiles hit and communications had gone down, we may not know that anything happened. We may not know who caused it, where they came from, anything like that. So this was one of the primary, I guess, core, hardened type systems that the military was, required to build. Okay, so it's like an extra secret connection so that in case there is a blackout, but why would there be a blackout? Well, it has to do with the physics of nuclear weapons.

So we think of a nuclear explosion, which in this time, you see their fission or fusion explosion. We think of it releasing enormous amounts of light and heat and concussive force. You see models of these things and it's just, you know, insiderating buildings and people and then, you know, blasting them apart. But there's also an intense release of electromagnetic energy called an electromagnetic pulse. And that high energy pulse, sort of like a solar flare, can completely wipe out electronics.

So most are in the electronic equipment that wasn't specially shielded against this electromagnetic pulse or an ENP would instantly be. fried, too much energy traveling across the wires, it's gone. To add to these problems, whatever the telephone exchange is still working would be totally swamped by ordinary men and women trying to get in touch to find out if their friends and relatives survived, whatever it happened. Okay, so the government basically lean on AT&T for the sweet extra connection line. Yeah, they want special priority that they can use if this happens. AT&T obviously agrees and this line is set up to run parallel to the normal network and it's called autovan. Calls on this line took precedence over all of the communication and the system used this automatic

switching system to root calls through these dedicated lines. Hence the name, Otto Von, which stands for automatic voice network. Okay. It sounds, unfortunately, it sounds a bit German, doesn't it? AutoVan. Yeah. Yes. Sounds like a van that's just, he's ready to go, he's auto vaan.

Yes. Have you ever driven your car on the auto van? Yeah, it does. It sounds like a freeway, doesn't it? Yes, you can go as fast as you like on the auto van. Yes, the rules don't apply on the auto van. The rules don't apply on this auto van. Have your fun. Express yourself.

We like to have fun too. We do, we do. On the auto van only. Yes. Until nuclear bombs drop and then all the fun stuff. And then it's no fun. No fun at all. No fun at all.

No, very serious. Except all the popcorn pops at once. Get to the vanker. We're getting back to the auto van. Okay. This is good advertising for AT&T as well to be linked to something. Well, yeah, but they were, they were busted up.

They were busted up because they had a monopoly. Oh, so they were. So what exists now is like the rump. Okay, okay. So that was the end of AT&T as they knew it. So on this Orovan, the Pentagon and the White House are obviously connected. It was also connected to the famous hotline between the leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union. For their daily flirty call.

For the daily flirty call. You're hot. No, we're cold. Is Khrushchev there? Oh, he's busy? Can he come out and play? Is he talking to another president? Why does he do that?

What's he doing? Did he say anything about me? What's he wearing? Does he like me? I can't even tell. You know, love and hate is such a fine line. It really is. Who was the U.S. president at the time?

Well, I mean, we're going across a course of decades, so it depends on what period we're talking about. We're either talking about JFK, LBJ, later on Nix, I mean, the Cold War lasts a long time, right? The Cold War lasts up until Reagan. So we're talking early 60s to late 80s? Yeah, yeah. I mean, the Cold War really doesn't end until the Berlin Wall comes down in 89.

So it's quite a long period to be on the edge of nuclear annihilation when you think about it. And it actually was worse towards the end because Reagan was so aggressive about it. I mean, Reagan was absolutely determined to kind of outspend the Soviets and you kind of get them to beggar themselves. So they just couldn't, that's what the, for example, the Afghan war. it was all about, you know, supplying the majority, and so they kind of drain the Soviets dry. Anyway, so this station down in Florida, probably wondering why was it part of this special network. Okay, yeah. Have you ever been to Florida?

No. It's a crazy place. Yeah. It's sort of a retirement home, isn't it? Well, for some people, yeah, but it's a big state, heavily populated state. So lots of gaiters, a lot of swamp. Disney World. What's a gator?

An alligator. Oh, right. Why don't you say that? Because they call them gators. To what, to save time? Yeah, I mean, charged by the letter. I guess if there's an alligator coming towards you, you want to cut out. You know, it's like, oh, it's an alligator.

No, it's too late. It's got you by the freaking leg and dragging you down. You're like, gator, run! Right, right, okay. Yeah, fair point. Yeah, but they're ambush predators, like my first wife. Hey, I do your wife jokes. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Don't empower, don't empower the language around your own wives, all right? That's my terrain. No, why it's just the first one? So, Florida, why Florida? Well, it's close to a major target of nuclear attack at the time, the Kennedy Space Center, but also to a major threat and launching point, Cuba. The bunker is actually built purposefully facing away from the Kennedy Space Center. So in case that was hit with a nuclear bomb,

all the important equipment here would be facing away from the entrance and thus better protected by the mass of the structure itself. That's clever. I mean, how do you make a building or a bunker, whatever, nuclear bomb proof? Well, it ain't easy, but we'll get to that after the ad break. So, since I grew up during the Cold War, I had to learn a lot about it. And I got to tell you that you say, well, how do you survive it? The answer is you don't.

You survive it by not having one ever. And if I had my way, we would be dismantling every single one of these things as fast as possible. because there's just there's nothing good to ever come of it. But, you know, they tried and they did studies and said, well, this is, you know, this, and if it's this distance and so on and so forth. But, you know, I think it's at best, optimistic, wishful thinking. In fact, one of the big differences between the way the communications the Soviets had to their citizens and the communications the U.S. had to their citizens in the U.K. probably too,

the Soviets were like, you know, you're not going to survive this. Like, we're all going to die. Okay. And we were told like, oh, if you just, you know, stop, drop and roll. Like, if you just are in the right place and the right bunker, you can survive this. Right. Okay. So it's all about what level of fear.

I guess it's, yeah, the tone of the culture, maybe Russian was a bit more clinical, more pragmatic. And we were a bit more, you know, we needed those symbols of hope to give us. You know, and it's funny because the time of which the Americans are portraying the Soviets as the masters of propaganda, which they were. But America had its own propaganda as well. And I think one of the kind of their more successful propaganda campaigns is, oh, nuclear war, it's not as scary as you think. Yeah, just get behind this wall. Yeah. And just do this.

Just, you know, put, yeah, yeah. Hold on to your hair. If you're not taken out by the initial blast. Like, you can survive in the nuclear wasteland that remains. Just hold your breath for a few seconds and then out you come. Just protect your popcorn. And, uh, so what kind of, you know, there's, you know, only three things that survive a nuclear attack, which is Twinkies, cockroaches and. Sasha's first wife.

Yes, exactly. Okay, and possibly this bunker. The walls were as thick as 48 inches. The doors weighed 3,000 pounds, and the foundation was nine feet thick. But what's particularly crazy here is that all the equipment was mounted on springs, even the toilet. I mean, my toilet is still spring mounted. With good reason. With good reason.

So if a shockwave hit your toilet, it was. would all move and then would gradually come to a stop rather than a sudden jolting force that would tear everything apart. So you could move a panel that was on a spring yourself and come back 10 minutes later and it would still be kind of slowly returning to its original position. And statistically someone, if there had been a nuclear strike, would have been on the toilet. Statistically. You'd be so upset when you, that would be. I would be hiding in the bathroom the whole time, absolutely. Yeah.

In a way, it's a good place to be for the initial shock. but then also you've got this you know people are saying come out you've got to come out and get into the special room you do you do what do you do you don't want to go into the little bunker room for months on end stinking you know yeah I'm sure the real the real worry in case of a nuclear attack would be like am I my freshest after a visit to the bathroom yeah and then you'd probably have a sort of pathologized thing around toilet after the nuclear strike you probably wouldn't be able to go unless there was one and somehow this wasn't part of my thing civil defense training as a child.

I don't know why they left this bit out. Yeah. I'm glad they did because I would have been stocking toilet paper like nobody's business. Yeah. Just whole room's full of it. Unable to go. Yeah. Come on, you haven't had a poo in three years, honey?

I did, I did have a girlfriend. What was a bit about on the toilet when they hit? I did have a girlfriend at the time whose father was like stocking ammunition. And I mean like a whole room full of it. Really? And I was like, what does he need all these bullets for? And she's like, just in case. Yeah.

Yeah. just in case what? Fair enough. So tell me again the dimensions of the... So you say 48 inches, the wall? Yeah, well, it's as thick as 48 inches.

So that's the height of Bono. If you need to know. Bono's 48 inches high. Really? Yeah. It's so small. It means camera trickery. Yours looks normal.

Oh, they always shooting from under. Oh, okay, that makes sense. And then what else was it? Doors weigh 3,000 pounds and foundation 9 feet thick. But think about what we've talked. about what might that not protect you from? So the thickness, the... Well, remember, what's stored in here?

What they're not just worried about the blast, they're also worried about this EMP pulse. Right, okay. Those things can travel through a lot. Okay. And what would that do if you were in there? Well, it wouldn't do anything to you, but this is about communication equipment.

It would mangle all the equipment. So here's the guy, who owns the bunker now, Mark, to tell us more. Okay. Oh, it'd be massive. So an event like the Carrington event took out all of the telegraph communication systems in both North America and Northern Europe. That happened in the late 18, middle of late 1800s. And then in 2013, NASA actually viewed that we had missed a similar event happening by four days when a solar flare launched in an electromagnetic, pulse out and missed us by about four days worth of rotation. Had that hit us, it would have sent

anywhere on Earth that was visible to the sun at that point back about 100 years in time. Jeez. So we would have time traveled? I think it means technologically, not actually. I was going to say that would be quite fun. Everyone wakes up wearing like petticoats and wool. Horses taking you to the store. Yeah, top hats. Yeah. death by public stoning if you're caught looking at another man? No. I think you're thinking a thousand years ago, no hundred years ago. Except in certain parts of Utah, I guess.

I don't know. Yeah. Okay. Wow. So this, what's it called? The Carrington? The Carrington event. The Carrington event.

How have I never heard of this? Yeah, yeah. No. This was, this was new news to me too. I had to look into it. So it happened in 1859. And as Mark says, it was basically when the. sun sent an intense pulse of electromagnetic radiation towards the Earth.

What's the Sun? The Sun is a giant nuclear explosion that just is happening over and over and over again. A ball of plasma that is heated by these reactions. Now, these auroras were observed everywhere as a result because what happens is electromagnetic wave hits the magnetosphere around the Earth and these highly charged particles like luminous, right? And that's why you get these beautiful lights. the northern lights, but you normally only get them kind of towards the poles, except in extreme

events. Well, this is all over the place. And an electrical current was induced all over the earth's surface, which destroyed and even set fire to the most sensitive equipment at the time, which was telegraph stations. Okay. And this is what would happen if a nuclear bomb was dropped somewhere in the 60s? Yeah, except times 100 because we're, you know, up to our eye teeth electronic devices by that time. But it would be a much bigger deal. Because think about it, I mean, who was really using telegraphs back then? Not many people, but 1960s, everybody is relying on long-distance communication.

So you're talking about an almost instantaneous nationwide communications blackout. Wow. And this nearly happened in 2013? Yep. Yeah. Well, 2012, actually. And imagine how much we rely on electronics now. But back to our bunker here. It was hoped it would survive because not only was it under this giant mound of earth and had these thick walls, but the area inside is also enclosed in an enormous metal cage. And this metal cage is designed to neutralize electric charges and protect electronics.

It acts like a device that's called a Faraday cage. Okay. So the building and the electronics survive, but obviously less importantly, What about the people inside? Do they survive? Are they all right? Well, here's Mark to give us some more details. There were large cans of powdered butter, powdered eggs, spaghetti, meat sauce, I mean, all kinds of things. And those were meant to sustain five people, five workers, within this facility for 30 days 24-7. And the goal was if a nuclear event happened and the gamma-ray detectors had alerted them to close the facility down,

they would be locked inside here to ensure that radio communications or telecommunications stayed running and operational in case they needed to communicate with the military or the other government installations. Wow, so they really did think this was going to happen. This wasn't just political flexing. This was a genuine, it sounds like they were genuinely prepared for this to happen. They were generally, and, you know, it's this idea that, okay, if there is, you know, a limited nuclear exchange, which I think is pretty optimistic to believe, not like full-scale nuclear war

that turns the whole place into glowing slag, but a few bombs, you know, just tossed here and there, what you don't want is you don't want the government to collapse. You know, you want to keep some level of organization so you can aid on it. Yeah, that's the worst of it, isn't it? The government collapses. Hey, that would be, I mean, regardless of what people say

about what they're bigger, government, smaller government, you need a government. There's no doubt about that. And you need it, especially you need it during times of emergency. I mean, you know, the place gets flooded, you know, the giant fires recently, like, the government is the only institution with the power and resources to help the people who need help. And even if they're doing nothing, we just need white guys in suits to say, we are here for you, we are doing everything we can to protect you, just to help us to feel better about ourselves, even though we know we know it's all bullocks. Oh, I think that's what we rely on media types for, you know, get on the news, yeah, everything's fine. Actually, they want to get on the news and say, everything's screwed, panic.

And also keep watching. Yeah, yeah. Keep watching for more. Here's a sitcom. Okay, wow. So the doors were weighed so heavy. Was it 3,000 pounds? 3,000 pounds.

Which is the weight of a Honda Civic, if you don't know how much that is. Maybe even a Honda Accord. Yeah. So that's heavy. So you're locked in there. You're not getting out easily, are you? No, no, no. The gamma ray detector is automatically closed,

sealing off the bunker and locking them inside. Okay, but then what? After 30 days you're allowed out? Yeah, and there were radiation showers. for when they came back in after surveying the carnage outside, make sure if no contaminated material gets inside, because these explosions throw up this irradiated material into the air that then filters down, but it's still radioactive,

and that would be covering everything, so you've got to wash that off. Radiation showers? I mean, they're actually anti-radiation showers. Get back in there and have some more powdered meat. You're done. I mean, again, all of this, I think, is wildly optimistic about, you know, how you're going to survive, but, you know, it's the goal of the government to try to put in these fail saves so that at least some, yeah, some, yeah, it's almost as important to make people believe there's a plan as there is to have a plan.

The illusion of security. Yes, the illusion of security. Maybe it's the best we've got, Sasha. Well, fortunately for everyone, they didn't have to face large-scale nuclear fallout. Now, in the instances where people have experienced this kind of radiation, the results have been absolutely catastrophic. You know, you look at the Bikini Atoll nuclear testing where they sent sailors onto these ships that they used as targets. And there was a remarkable level of cancer for those sailors afterwards. Or you look at the Chernobyl disaster and all the people that died

of cancer from exposure, you know, the firemen and the people, the miners sent to try to, you know, prevent a full nuclear meltdown. And those were, you know, indirect effects of intense radiation. That wasn't even the full, the full Monty. So in the 1970s, fiber optic technology, which transmits data as light pulses through glass or plastic fibers and satellite communication emerged as the superior alternatives to microwave transmission. And this AT&T network and the military Audubon system are rendered obsolete.

But this bunker, thanks to our man Mark, is having a second life. Want to guess is what? A gay nightclub called Nuclear Strike. That is an interesting proposition. Why not just a gay nightclub? I don't know. Why not? Probably a better nightclub.

Be more fun. It would be more fun. Yeah. Better music. Friendly atmosphere. You have shots called nuclear bombs? Do they have those already? They have aftershock.

Aftershock. Comcazi is not really the same thing. They have the Chernobyl on the beach. Chernobyl on the beach. We put a little bit of radio in it. The Marie Curie. Won't cure you. Might kill you.

What is it? I don't know. Is it a powdered food restaurant now or a public toilet? Nope. No, strangely enough, it's a data center. Okay. Apparently, it's quite common for companies to want to protect their servers and data from extreme weather events and even the threat of nuclear war, which some feel is rising again.

So the story of this Florida bunker is kind of gone full circle. Yeah, nuclear war, I think maybe from an existential point of view, we need that sense that it could end. Maybe that's the little bit of seasoning we need to keep life spicy. I don't think I need my life that spicy, to be honest. Yeah. But I mean your first wife was kind of like

a nuclear strike, wasn't it? She was definitely fallout, I'll tell you that much. I felt poisoned afterwards. What was the something glowing slag? What did you call that stuff? Glowing slag? You had a... Plasma? A few moments

ago you were describing a turning the whole landscape into... Into Into slag, yes. Slam. Nelted, indistinguishable piles of gunk. Right. Yeah. But I don't know.

Maybe we need this nuclear strike thing. Because otherwise, you know, from a personal point of view, I'm just a bloke walking around, getting sandwiches. You know, is this it? You know what I mean? Is this there all there is? You need the threat of nuclear annihilation. Yeah, just a little something.

To make you feel alive? Yeah. Oh, I don't know, man. And I was so frightened at this stuff as a kid. I remember one time there was an earthquake. You know, you grew up in just north of New York City. And what happened was the ground started shaking. And I assumed it was nuclear war.

Did you? Yeah, this was like four in the morning. I think it was like 14, 15. And because I knew about the electromagnetic pulse and they would take out all electronics, I immediately turned on the television. And much to my relief, it was like early morning news. And I was like, okay, it wasn't nuclear. I turned out was an earthquake, which seemed really unlikely where I live,

but apparently there was a fall line there. Right. But man, no, it was, in fact, because I grew up near New York City, and New York City was a prime target zone. I was really excited because I went to college out in Ohio, kind of in the middle of farmland. I was like, oh, finally, like, you know, I don't have to worry about nuclear war. They're not going to come from me here. And someone was like, oh, no, didn't you know that the air traffic control center for the entire Midwest of the country

is like half a mile down the road? There's more bombs named at this place and there wasn't New York City. So you just couldn't escape the stuff. And no earthquakes. So if you do, hear some rumbling, you're fucked. And worse weather. Oh, man. No, but I think, I think, yeah, we should dismantle all these things.

They're doing nobody any good. It's a nice thought, but I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. What's it called? It's called the prisoner's dilemma where you escalate because you're sure that there's two prisoners. They separate them. They were both involved in a crime, and they say to one of them, look, if you own up, you'll reduce the sentence for both of you. And they do that to both, but both of them are so paranoid.

A classic tactic. They both don't try and help the other, and then that doubles their prison time. So once that element of, who's going to back down? Well, look, I know it sounds corny. I know it sounds corny. But you as a vegetarian, should understand this. Sorry, vegan, pescatarian. No.

Overtarian? Worse people. Vegetarian that eats fish? No. Just dream with me for a moment. Imagine a world without nuclear weapons. Yes, nice little one. I guess what I'm there?

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