Everything Everywhere Daily · Sunday, September 13, 2026
The Cheyenne Mountain complex houses 15 principal buildings constructed within excavated chambers, with most not rigidly attached to the floor. Instead, they rest on approximately 1,300 large steel coil springs, designed to allow buildings to move independently from the mountain during a nuclear blast's shockwave. This system acts like shock absorbers for entire structures to prevent catastrophic damage and protect sensitive equipment.
“Engineers first excavated enormous underground chambers. They then constructed conventional steel buildings inside of the chambers.”
“The truly remarkable feature is that most of those buildings are not rigidly attached to the cavern floor. They sit on enormous steel coil springs.”
“Roughly 1,300 springs support the buildings, each spring is several feet tall and can carry tremendous loads. The idea is similar to shock absorbers in a vehicle, only the scale is of an entire building.”