In the late 1950s, the U.S. government approached The Greenbrier for assistance in creating a secret emergency relocation center to house Congress in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. The classified, underground facility, dubbed "Project Greek Island",[9] was built at the same time as the West Virginia Wing (an above-ground addition to the hotel), from 1959 to 1962. For thirty years, The Greenbrier owners maintained an agreement with the federal government that, in the event of an international crisis, the entire resort property would be conveyed to government use, specifically as the emergency location for the legislative branch.
The underground facility contained a dormitory, kitchen, hospital, and a broadcast center for members of Congress. The latter had changeable seasonal backdrops to appear as if members of Congress were broadcasting from Washington, D.C.[citation needed] A 100-foot radio tower was installed 4.5 miles away for these broadcasts. The convention center, used by The Greenbrier guests for business meetings, was actually a disguised workstation area for members of Congress complete with hidden, 30-ton blast doors. The walls of the bunker were made of reinforced concrete designed to withstand a nuclear blast in Washington, D.C. The center was maintained by government workers posing as hotel audiovisual employees, and operated under a dummy company named Forsythe Associates. Many of these same workers are now employed by the hotel and, for a time, gave guided tours. The complex is still maintained by The Greenbrier, and the facility remains much as it was in 1992, when the secret was revealed in the national press. While almost all of the furnishings were removed following the decommissioning of the bunker, the facility now has similar period furnishings to approximate what the bunker looked like while it was still in operation. Two of the original bunks in the dormitories remain.
The bunker was designed to be incorporated into the public spaces of the hotel so as to not draw attention. Much of the bunker space was visible to the public but went undetected for years, including The Exhibition Hall in the West Virginia Wing, which differs from other public spaces in the hotel due to large concrete columns present for reinforcing. Adjacent to the entrance of The Exhibition Hall is one of the original blast doors which can now be seen openly the original screen which used to hide its presence removed.
AT&T provided phone service for both The Greenbrier Hotel and the bunker. All calls place from the bunker were routed through the hotel's switchboard to make it appear as if they originated from the hotel itself. The communications center in the bunker today contains representatives of three generations of telephone technology used.
Although the bunker was kept stocked with supplies for 30 years, it was never actually used as an emergency location, even during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The bunker's existence was not acknowledged until The Washington Post revealed it in a 1992 story; immediately after the Post story, the government decommissioned the bunker.
