Fort Ritchie, Maryland

Fort Ritchie was a 638-acre Army post in the hills near the Pennsylvania/Maryland border, until its closure in 1998. There have been various attempts over the years to develop the site for mixed usage, but none so far have produced the desired results. Much of the mission of the base was taken over by Fort Detrick, MD. One of the missions of Fort Ritchie was as the support facility for Site R, otherwise known as Raven Rock, an underground command center for the Pentagon, located underneath 650 acres, near the Fort. Site R is officially called the Alternate Joint Communications Center. Representatives of all the military departments and the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the federal government were said to have been (and may still be) located here as a contingency against a wipeout of the command structure in the event of a nuclear war.