A Look Inside Iron Mountain, a Fort Knox of Cultural Treasures

A local television station got inside Iron Mountain, a secret records facility that’s the equivalent of Fort Knox for original records and archives.

The underground bunker is a records repository for some of the country’s most valuable cultural history, with vaults housing hundreds of thousands of original film negatives from major studios, iconic photos of celebrities and figures like Albert Einstein and Rosa Parks, federal government records, data centers, and who knows what other priceless treasures that private clients pay to keep safe from the apocalypse. With 15 Walmart-sized vaults (and more to come) across a 1.8-million-square-foot mine, the space is cooled to optimal temperatures through pumps fed by water from an underground lake.

Given the financial and cultural value of its contents, the bunker’s location is completely secret, and security is tight, so this may be the best look most of us will ever get at the treasures hidden under western Pennsylvania.

[h/t: Digg]