![]() ![]() When David Krugler, history professor at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, wrote This Is Only a Test: How Washington, D.C., Prepared for Nuclear War, he was struck by D.C.’s heroic futility during the 1950s and ’60s. An unquantified but far smaller number still exist as shelters, which can be anything from minimally fortified rooms with supplies to large-scale floors like the one at Adams Bilingual School.Īfter Tuesday night’s presidential upset, and given Donald Trump’s support for nuclear proliferation, the District may someday need to revive its forgotten network of more than 1,000 Cold War-era fallout shelters.Īlthough most people don’t even know these shelters exist, one guy has written the book on them. According to the website District Fallout, which is dedicated to preserving and identifying remaining fallout shelter signs, only about 5 to 10 percent of the shelters built are still marked. It’s one of D.C.’s only surviving nuclear fallout shelters: a perfectly preserved Cold War relic, complete with ration biscuits made in 1962 and medicine that expired before President Barack Obama learned to talk. And perched on top of an old school chair is a guide to water purification in the case of nuclear contamination, circa 1961. Over the years, several of the outer rooms have been converted into janitorial closets, and every step kicks up a small cloud of chalk. In the corner, old basketball trophies accumulate dust. Through one corridor is a rusty bicycle and a pile of dirt. Underneath three floors of classrooms, several hundred adolescent students, a cafeteria, and an auditorium at Adams Bilingual School in Adams Morgan lies a large, nearly empty concrete room with a few hallways and smaller spaces on the edges. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription.
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