National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Virginia

Now the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, and part of the Library of Congress, this used to be a 140,000 square foot, hardened underground complex built by the US Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve, completed in 1969. Until 1988, several billion dollars in currency was stored there to resupply the nation in the event of a devastating nuclear attack. Until 1992, the facility was also a continuity of government facility, with a regular staff of 100 on hand to care for selected government officials who would flee to the site in the event of nuclear war. In 1997, the site was purchased by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond on behalf of the Library of Congress, for $5.5 million. Using additional funds provided by the Packard Humanities Institute as well as the U.S. Congress, the site was converted into the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. Having opened in 2007, the site is described as a "state-of-the-art facility where the Library of Congress acquires, preserves and provides access to the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of films, television programs, radio broadcasts, and sound recordings."