Mount Pony

Some 100 years after being used as a signal station during the Civil War, Mount Pony was transformed into a Cold War-era underground bunker for the Federal Reserve Bank. Now, having recently undergone another radical change, the hilltop hosts the world’s largest audiovisual collection.

Established by presidential order in the 1960s, the Mount Pony bunker contained a supply of uncirculated money if the need arose to rebuild the nation’s banking system after an attack. Sitting on and beneath 45 acres, the 140,000-square-foot facility contained a 400-foot-
long underground steel bunker, dedicated December 1969.

In January 1995, the facility shut down; two years later, Congress authorized the transfer of the property to the Library of Congress National Audiovisual Conservation Center, thanks to a $155 million grant from the Packard Humanities Institute. The collection includes theatrical films, newsreels, TV programs, radio broadcasts, early voice recordings, screenplays, photographs and much more.

During the last decade, the bunker was renovated into its current 415,000-square-foot and four-building campus. The campus is not a public facility, but public film festivals are planned for its theater as early as this fall.