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NYC Parks Department Denies Existence Of Secret Bunker City Hidden Under Central Park
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jan 23, 2017
Modified Apr 23, 2019
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jan 23, 2017
Modified Apr 23, 2019
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Belvedere Castle in the 1980s. (Courtesy of the Central Park Conservancy)
Let's say you were to Google some keywords in an effort to find out if there are any underground bunkers in New York that you can hole up in if President Trump fulfills your worst nightmares. What would you find? A wonderful conspiracy theory that places an underground city beneath Central Park.
The conspiracy theory is called "Manhattan Project" (not to be confused with the other Manhattan Project), and it claims that in 1853, hundreds of acres were developed for a secret subterranean city, which still remains 100 feet beneath the park. It also claims that the U.S. government kept it a secret, and used it to hide Czar Nicholas, Adolf Hitler, and the Roswell aliens.
We asked Parks rep Sam Biederman about this magical underground city, and he told us this afternoon, "The Central Park Mole City is strictly off-limits to the Above Grounders. I mean, we don’t know what you’re talking about." (Yep, you just got Biedermanned.)
The theory goes on to say that park architects Vaux and Olmstead were completely unaware that the park "was paid for by the Federal government as the place to house the first underground government complex in the world," and presumably their above-ground work was all just a cover-up. From the website dedicated to this theory, which shockingly uses normal fonts and a non-black background, stepping back from a conspiracy theory web design tradition:
This complex, known as the Manhattan Project (or MP) was housed in a series of underground caves designed to protect the Union government if the Confederacy started to win the United States Civil War (1861-1865). After the war the project was abandoned until it was later revised and expanded to 300 acres during World War One (1914-1918). Since that time it has been expanded several times to now include over 700 acres in a huge underground city within a city. It is located deep within the bedrock, over 300 feet below the park.
This massive city complex is now designed to safely house up to 4,000 central Government personnel in the event of a nuclear strike. It presently houses all United States government UFO activities and was the home for Nazi Adolf Hitler until his death in 1956.
This Super-secret location is the site of the main Emergency Government War Headquarters - the hub of the Country's alternative seat of power outside Washington, D.C.
It is said to contain hospitals, supplies for survival, an underground lake, 60 miles of roads, accommodations for the President of the United States and his entire Cabinet Office, civil servants and an army of domestic support staff. It is "blast proof and completely self-sufficient and can accommodate up to 14,000 people."
You know, aside from that business of giving the President a desk (according to the theory, Hitler's already got one down there anyway), maybe this whole survival bunker thing isn't a bad idea.
Previously: Are there dinosaurs under Central Park?
Tagged
bunker
central park
conspiracy theory
underground city
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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