"Mysteries at the Museum" The White House: Mysteries at the Museum

1 00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:03,940 Just about any kid in America could tell you 2 00:00:03,940 --> 00:00:06,440 that's where the president of the United States lives. 3 00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:09,510 But the real story of the White House is bigger, 4 00:00:09,510 --> 00:00:11,280 with secrets going deeper... 5 00:00:11,280 --> 00:00:12,550 That's cool. 6 00:00:12,550 --> 00:00:14,150 ...than we ever thought possible... 7 00:00:14,150 --> 00:00:15,880 This looks like a king lives here. 8 00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:17,420 from little-known facts... 9 00:00:17,420 --> 00:00:19,720 You can see what appears to be a tunnel 10 00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:22,460 being built deep beneath the White House. 11 00:00:22,460 --> 00:00:24,160 ...to long-held myths. 12 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:27,090 And check it out -- no red phone. 13 00:00:27,100 --> 00:00:30,060 I'm chasing this incredible evolution... 14 00:00:30,070 --> 00:00:31,670 Shift. Go. 15 00:00:31,670 --> 00:00:33,430 ...from simple stone house... 16 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:35,400 That just, like, sends rock everywhere. 17 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:37,740 ...to the world's most important address -- 18 00:00:37,740 --> 00:00:41,780 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 19 00:00:41,780 --> 00:00:43,280 I'm Don Wildman. 20 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:46,480 I've explored the world's greatest mysteries, 21 00:00:46,480 --> 00:00:48,980 examined rare artifacts and epic monuments. 22 00:00:48,980 --> 00:00:50,380 That's amazing. 23 00:00:50,390 --> 00:00:51,890 Now, I'm digging deeper 24 00:00:51,890 --> 00:00:55,620 into some of the most perplexing and famous cases in history. 25 00:00:55,620 --> 00:00:59,090 My goal -- to get closer to the truth. 26 00:00:59,090 --> 00:01:01,460 It's a totally alien environment down there. 27 00:01:01,460 --> 00:01:06,600 This is "Mysteries at the Museum: The White House." 28 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:14,074 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm 29 00:01:15,740 --> 00:01:18,710 I'm going through a familiar preflight ritual. 30 00:01:18,710 --> 00:01:20,810 Turn around, please. 31 00:01:20,820 --> 00:01:23,420 But this is no ordinary trip. 32 00:01:23,420 --> 00:01:24,820 We have a special agent from the Secret Service. 33 00:01:24,820 --> 00:01:26,320 He'll be flying with you today. 34 00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:27,650 -How are you doin'? -Good, Don. 35 00:01:27,660 --> 00:01:28,990 -How are you? -I'm good, thanks. 36 00:01:28,990 --> 00:01:31,490 All right. Following you. 37 00:01:34,630 --> 00:01:36,530 I'm flying over the White House. 38 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:41,470 To book this flight, 39 00:01:41,470 --> 00:01:44,740 I needed clearance from three federal agencies 40 00:01:44,740 --> 00:01:46,870 and a background check. 41 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:50,580 And, yes, the Secret Service is along for the ride. 42 00:01:50,580 --> 00:01:52,410 Whoo. Here we go. 43 00:01:54,380 --> 00:01:56,780 Washington, D.C., has been the capital 44 00:01:56,790 --> 00:01:59,690 of the United States since 1790. 45 00:01:59,690 --> 00:02:02,290 And for much of its history, the skies above the city 46 00:02:02,290 --> 00:02:06,290 buzzed with airplanes and helicopters. 47 00:02:06,300 --> 00:02:10,100 That all changed on September 11th, 2001, 48 00:02:10,100 --> 00:02:13,670 when Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four jetliners 49 00:02:13,670 --> 00:02:15,740 and hurled them at the Twin Towers 50 00:02:15,740 --> 00:02:17,670 and the Pentagon. 51 00:02:17,670 --> 00:02:22,310 The last plane might have been meant for the White House. 52 00:02:22,310 --> 00:02:23,540 In the aftermath, 53 00:02:23,550 --> 00:02:26,780 the government shut down the skies over Washington. 54 00:02:26,780 --> 00:02:30,680 Today, it's a no-fly zone 10 miles wide. 55 00:02:30,690 --> 00:02:34,690 Chopper flights like this come along once in a lifetime. 56 00:02:34,690 --> 00:02:37,290 And so does the chance to get a big-picture look 57 00:02:37,290 --> 00:02:39,890 at our nation's most famous front yard. 58 00:02:39,900 --> 00:02:44,330 Wow. You don't get this view every day, do you? 59 00:02:44,330 --> 00:02:47,270 We are in front of the most protected chunks 60 00:02:47,270 --> 00:02:51,340 of air space in the country, let alone the world. 61 00:02:51,340 --> 00:02:53,670 There she is, the White House. 62 00:02:59,050 --> 00:03:01,350 Just beautiful. This is amazing. 63 00:03:01,350 --> 00:03:03,280 What a privilege to get this close in 64 00:03:03,290 --> 00:03:07,290 and see the whole design of the Mall right before you. 65 00:03:07,290 --> 00:03:09,490 You can see all the monuments -- 66 00:03:09,490 --> 00:03:11,520 Washington, Lincoln Memorial. 67 00:03:11,530 --> 00:03:15,060 The Capitol to my left there. 68 00:03:15,060 --> 00:03:18,200 And there's nothing moving in the sky. 69 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:20,730 I mean, in any other major metropolis -- 70 00:03:20,740 --> 00:03:23,700 New York, L.A. -- you'd see air traffic teeming, 71 00:03:23,710 --> 00:03:25,040 helicopters and so forth. 72 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:30,040 This just points out how secure this city has to be. 73 00:03:30,050 --> 00:03:32,850 The Washington flight-restricted zone is surrounded 74 00:03:32,850 --> 00:03:35,620 by a sophisticated laser warning system. 75 00:03:35,620 --> 00:03:37,980 If a pilot ignores the warnings, 76 00:03:37,990 --> 00:03:42,120 a fighter jet will escort them to the nearest runway. 77 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:44,320 And that's if everything goes well. 78 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:50,830 I mean, that is what it's all about, 79 00:03:50,830 --> 00:03:53,330 protecting the White House, 80 00:03:53,340 --> 00:03:55,200 the executive branch of the government, 81 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:57,340 the president. 82 00:03:57,340 --> 00:03:58,710 And it looks kind of vulnerable there. 83 00:03:58,710 --> 00:04:04,010 And that's why it needs to be so secure out here. 84 00:04:04,010 --> 00:04:07,310 It's really an amazing impact on me as an American 85 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:10,020 to feel a part of this. 86 00:04:10,020 --> 00:04:14,190 Of course, the flight-restricted zone is a recent addition 87 00:04:14,190 --> 00:04:17,090 and just one of the ways the White House adapts 88 00:04:17,090 --> 00:04:20,290 to the ever-changing needs of the presidency. 89 00:04:20,300 --> 00:04:23,760 This constant evolution is what keeps the White House 90 00:04:23,770 --> 00:04:26,930 rooted at the center of our American story. 91 00:04:30,270 --> 00:04:33,210 It was here, in a great map-covered office, 92 00:04:33,210 --> 00:04:35,510 now used as the State Dining Room, 93 00:04:35,510 --> 00:04:37,180 that Thomas Jefferson planned 94 00:04:37,180 --> 00:04:40,180 the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1802. 95 00:04:42,250 --> 00:04:43,550 60 years later, 96 00:04:43,550 --> 00:04:46,320 the president's office was upstairs. 97 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:48,390 Abraham Lincoln tracked army movements 98 00:04:48,390 --> 00:04:49,690 during the Civil War 99 00:04:49,690 --> 00:04:53,090 with telegraphed dispatches from the front. 100 00:04:53,100 --> 00:04:55,630 During the Great Depression, the Oval Office 101 00:04:55,630 --> 00:04:58,030 was connected to every living room in America 102 00:04:58,030 --> 00:05:00,430 as Franklin Roosevelt harnessed the air waves 103 00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:04,040 to reassure a troubled nation. 104 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:06,270 And in the years after 9/11, 105 00:05:06,270 --> 00:05:09,580 the president was once again connected to the front lines, 106 00:05:09,580 --> 00:05:11,780 but this time from the state-of-the-art 107 00:05:11,780 --> 00:05:14,450 Situation Room under the West Wing. 108 00:05:14,450 --> 00:05:17,050 Here, Barack Obama watched over the raid 109 00:05:17,050 --> 00:05:19,390 to take down Osama bin Laden. 110 00:05:22,990 --> 00:05:25,230 But for every line of history written 111 00:05:25,230 --> 00:05:26,560 within these walls, 112 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:30,760 there are nearly as many myths and misconceptions. 113 00:05:30,770 --> 00:05:35,400 For example, George Washington never lived at the White House 114 00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:39,410 because the new capital city was still under construction. 115 00:05:39,410 --> 00:05:42,740 Abraham Lincoln never slept in the Lincoln Bedroom. 116 00:05:42,740 --> 00:05:45,380 He used the room as his office. 117 00:05:45,380 --> 00:05:47,950 And Kennedy never spoke with Khrushchev 118 00:05:47,950 --> 00:05:50,580 on the famous Oval Office red phone 119 00:05:50,590 --> 00:05:54,090 because the red phone never existed. 120 00:05:54,090 --> 00:05:55,990 The White House has been the home 121 00:05:55,990 --> 00:05:58,590 of the president of the United States since 1800. 122 00:05:58,590 --> 00:06:01,860 But it's easy to forget just how old this building really is. 123 00:06:01,860 --> 00:06:03,600 When the first president moved in, 124 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:06,300 the only bathroom was a wooden outhouse 125 00:06:06,300 --> 00:06:08,470 right there on the South Lawn. 126 00:06:08,470 --> 00:06:10,870 So how did a two-century-old building 127 00:06:10,870 --> 00:06:13,210 with no running water become the nerve center 128 00:06:13,210 --> 00:06:15,310 of the most powerful nation on Earth? 129 00:06:15,310 --> 00:06:18,480 To find out, I'm going all the way back to the beginning. 130 00:06:23,450 --> 00:06:27,020 My trip back in time has led me to an out-of-the-way corner 131 00:06:27,020 --> 00:06:28,820 of Stafford County, Virginia, 132 00:06:28,820 --> 00:06:31,390 40 miles downriver from Washington. 133 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:36,800 This is Government Island on the Aquia Creek. 134 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:38,100 If you're looking for the birthplace 135 00:06:38,100 --> 00:06:39,300 of the White House, 136 00:06:39,300 --> 00:06:41,330 this is as close as you're gonna get. 137 00:06:41,340 --> 00:06:45,910 In 1792, this whole island was a stone quarry. 138 00:06:45,910 --> 00:06:49,080 The government bought it and ran it for one reason. 139 00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:51,310 This is Aquia sandstone. 140 00:06:51,310 --> 00:06:54,750 This is the stone that built the White House. 141 00:06:54,750 --> 00:06:58,420 President Washington required that the new federal buildings 142 00:06:58,420 --> 00:07:00,790 in the capital be made out of stone. 143 00:07:00,790 --> 00:07:03,220 The White House was designed to last. 144 00:07:03,230 --> 00:07:04,820 Look at this. 145 00:07:04,830 --> 00:07:07,760 These are all quarriers' pick marks 146 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:10,130 from 200 years ago, okay? 147 00:07:10,130 --> 00:07:13,970 The quarriers were the lowest skilled laborers on the island. 148 00:07:13,970 --> 00:07:15,540 Many of them were slaves. 149 00:07:15,540 --> 00:07:18,540 These slaves toiled away cutting stone 150 00:07:18,540 --> 00:07:21,610 that was used on the president's house. 151 00:07:21,610 --> 00:07:22,880 Hey, Rick. 152 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:25,510 I've invited local historian Rick MacGregor 153 00:07:25,510 --> 00:07:29,220 to meet me here on the island to get a better understanding 154 00:07:29,220 --> 00:07:32,790 of what it was like to be an 18th-century quarrier. 155 00:07:32,790 --> 00:07:35,160 Are these real or replica? 156 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:37,690 That's an original pick that was found here in this quarry. 157 00:07:37,690 --> 00:07:39,690 -Really? -Yes. It's about 200 years old, 158 00:07:39,690 --> 00:07:41,730 -handmade by a blacksmith. -Wow! 159 00:07:41,730 --> 00:07:44,300 And that's a wedge, handmade also. 160 00:07:44,300 --> 00:07:46,430 Basically, with these few tools, 161 00:07:46,430 --> 00:07:49,940 very simple tools, this stone was cut, yeah? 162 00:07:49,940 --> 00:07:51,170 Yes. Yeah. 163 00:07:51,170 --> 00:07:52,510 I'd love to get a feel for this. 164 00:07:52,510 --> 00:07:53,870 -Absolutely. -Cool. 165 00:07:56,280 --> 00:07:58,780 I want to be clear -- This is a practice stone 166 00:07:58,780 --> 00:08:00,310 that Rick brought for me 167 00:08:00,320 --> 00:08:03,520 because the whole island is a historic site. 168 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:04,920 All right. 169 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:06,320 Ooh, man. 170 00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:08,990 It just, like, sends rock everywhere. 171 00:08:08,990 --> 00:08:11,360 Can you imagine doing this day in, day out? 172 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:15,460 Sun up, sun down? 173 00:08:15,460 --> 00:08:18,200 And, you know, this place was, like, hopping 174 00:08:18,200 --> 00:08:20,370 because stone was in real demand. 175 00:08:20,370 --> 00:08:24,100 So you had all these guys working like crazy 176 00:08:24,110 --> 00:08:27,770 trying to get the rock to build the president's house. 177 00:08:27,780 --> 00:08:29,540 Okay. 178 00:08:29,540 --> 00:08:31,440 Okay. Well, I've had enough. 179 00:08:31,450 --> 00:08:34,110 Thank God for the Industrial Revolution, huh? 180 00:08:34,120 --> 00:08:36,150 -Thank you. -All right. 181 00:08:36,150 --> 00:08:40,350 Quarrying the stone was only the first step. 182 00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:44,060 It took eight more years to build the White House. 183 00:08:44,060 --> 00:08:48,030 George Washington personally guided the process. 184 00:08:48,030 --> 00:08:50,800 But it was our second president, John Adams, 185 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:54,130 who would finally move in in 1800. 186 00:08:54,140 --> 00:08:57,500 Some rooms were still unfinished. 187 00:08:57,510 --> 00:09:02,780 And only a few years later, during the war of 1812, 188 00:09:02,780 --> 00:09:05,380 the British army invaded the capital 189 00:09:05,380 --> 00:09:08,110 and burned the White House down. 190 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:10,650 But America rebuilt it. 191 00:09:10,650 --> 00:09:15,620 And the White House has been home to every president since. 192 00:09:15,620 --> 00:09:17,090 Abraham Lincoln's White House 193 00:09:17,090 --> 00:09:21,890 in 1865 looked a lot like Andrew Jackson's in 1835. 194 00:09:21,900 --> 00:09:24,460 The Civil War was in its fifth brutal year. 195 00:09:24,470 --> 00:09:28,100 But Lincoln continued his open-door policy at the house. 196 00:09:28,100 --> 00:09:31,300 In those days, anyone could walk right in off the street, 197 00:09:31,310 --> 00:09:32,710 enter that door right there 198 00:09:32,710 --> 00:09:34,940 and request a meeting with the President. 199 00:09:34,940 --> 00:09:38,710 Lincoln's advisors pleaded with him to limit his exposure. 200 00:09:38,710 --> 00:09:40,750 It was well known that there were Confederate spies 201 00:09:40,750 --> 00:09:42,120 right here in the capital. 202 00:09:42,120 --> 00:09:46,820 But Lincoln refused to cut himself off from the people. 203 00:09:46,820 --> 00:09:49,820 On April 14th, 1865, 204 00:09:49,820 --> 00:09:52,930 five days after the Confederacy surrendered, 205 00:09:52,930 --> 00:09:55,900 John Wilkes Booth snuck into the president's box 206 00:09:55,900 --> 00:09:58,430 at Ford's Theatre 207 00:09:58,430 --> 00:10:01,900 and shot Abraham Lincoln at point-blank range. 208 00:10:04,070 --> 00:10:08,170 Lincoln died at 7:22 the next morning. 209 00:10:08,180 --> 00:10:10,110 The nation was stunned. 210 00:10:10,110 --> 00:10:11,410 It was the first time 211 00:10:11,410 --> 00:10:15,420 an assassin had brought down an American president. 212 00:10:15,420 --> 00:10:18,150 The legislation creating the Secret Service 213 00:10:18,150 --> 00:10:21,990 was on Abraham Lincoln's desk the night he was assassinated. 214 00:10:21,990 --> 00:10:24,390 Then two more presidents were killed in office -- 215 00:10:24,390 --> 00:10:26,490 James Garfield and William McKinley. 216 00:10:26,490 --> 00:10:31,160 So in 1901, Congress finally charged the Secret Service 217 00:10:31,170 --> 00:10:34,770 with the duty of protecting the president. 218 00:10:34,770 --> 00:10:36,970 Today, the Secret Service has hardened 219 00:10:36,970 --> 00:10:39,440 the White House into a fortress. 220 00:10:39,440 --> 00:10:42,640 But a modern president is always on the move. 221 00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:44,840 So what happens when the president ventures 222 00:10:44,850 --> 00:10:46,310 beyond the Beltway? 223 00:10:46,310 --> 00:10:49,220 And more importantly, how does the Secret Service 224 00:10:49,220 --> 00:10:51,050 get him safely back home... 225 00:10:51,050 --> 00:10:51,980 Turn. 226 00:10:51,990 --> 00:10:52,790 ...to the White House? 227 00:10:55,740 --> 00:10:58,140 I'm tracking the ways the White House adapts 228 00:10:58,140 --> 00:11:00,280 to the president's needs. 229 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:02,180 After the Lincoln assassination, 230 00:11:02,180 --> 00:11:05,410 the nation clamored for better security. 231 00:11:05,420 --> 00:11:07,480 Today, the president is surrounded 232 00:11:07,490 --> 00:11:09,820 by multiple layers of protection, 233 00:11:09,820 --> 00:11:12,920 courtesy of the United States Secret Service. 234 00:11:14,930 --> 00:11:17,430 But how exactly do they do it? 235 00:11:17,430 --> 00:11:20,300 I'm going deep inside their secure training grounds 236 00:11:20,300 --> 00:11:22,160 to find out. 237 00:11:22,170 --> 00:11:25,070 The Secret Service protects the president 24/7 238 00:11:25,070 --> 00:11:26,640 wherever he goes. 239 00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:28,300 Now, it's one thing when he stays inside 240 00:11:28,310 --> 00:11:29,540 the White House security bubble. 241 00:11:29,540 --> 00:11:31,270 But when he ventures outside, 242 00:11:31,280 --> 00:11:33,140 these guys gotta be ready for anything. 243 00:11:35,950 --> 00:11:38,810 The Secret Service compound features 244 00:11:38,820 --> 00:11:41,220 full-size mock-ups of Marine One 245 00:11:41,220 --> 00:11:44,550 and the forward fuselage of Air Force One. 246 00:11:44,560 --> 00:11:46,560 There's also an urban street 247 00:11:46,560 --> 00:11:48,820 for practicing presidential movements. 248 00:11:48,830 --> 00:11:50,530 It's the Secret Service's job 249 00:11:50,530 --> 00:11:53,260 to get the president wherever he needs to go 250 00:11:53,260 --> 00:11:56,200 and then bring him back to the White House safely. 251 00:11:56,200 --> 00:11:58,700 On top of everything else, these men and women 252 00:11:58,700 --> 00:12:00,900 have to be masters behind the wheel. 253 00:12:00,910 --> 00:12:04,270 Now I can't show you who these Secret Service agents are. 254 00:12:04,280 --> 00:12:05,640 But they've agreed to demonstrate 255 00:12:05,640 --> 00:12:07,540 a little of what they can do. 256 00:12:10,750 --> 00:12:12,010 Whoo, man. 257 00:12:12,020 --> 00:12:14,650 Rule number one for the presidential motorcade 258 00:12:14,650 --> 00:12:15,750 is to keep moving. 259 00:12:15,750 --> 00:12:16,650 Wow! 260 00:12:16,650 --> 00:12:18,320 That's how fast they're going. 261 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:19,260 That's amazing. 262 00:12:19,260 --> 00:12:22,020 A sitting car is an easy target. 263 00:12:22,030 --> 00:12:25,260 Okay, so this is a critical situation they train for. 264 00:12:25,260 --> 00:12:27,600 Now, imagine they're on a tight, narrow passageway. 265 00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:29,230 They've just been blocked at the end of an alley. 266 00:12:29,230 --> 00:12:30,730 They got to get out there. 267 00:12:30,740 --> 00:12:33,300 And they reverse. 268 00:12:33,300 --> 00:12:35,770 And without stopping, whoo, there you go. 269 00:12:35,770 --> 00:12:37,870 Wow. That's called a J-turn. 270 00:12:37,880 --> 00:12:40,710 That is reversing in a tight alleyway without stopping. 271 00:12:40,710 --> 00:12:43,410 And they are gone! 272 00:12:43,410 --> 00:12:45,880 Wow. 273 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:48,950 But how hard is it to master skills like that? 274 00:12:48,950 --> 00:12:50,750 I intend to find out. 275 00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:52,520 You have to be in the Secret Service 276 00:12:52,520 --> 00:12:55,060 to actually use their training facility. 277 00:12:55,060 --> 00:12:57,290 So I found the next-best thing. 278 00:12:57,300 --> 00:12:59,860 Summit Point Motorsports Park 279 00:12:59,860 --> 00:13:03,600 is home to the BSR Tactical Driving School. 280 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:06,300 This is where federal officials and security professionals 281 00:13:06,300 --> 00:13:09,170 hone their chops behind the wheel. 282 00:13:09,170 --> 00:13:11,610 Today, I'm meeting instructor Guy Frank 283 00:13:11,610 --> 00:13:13,040 for some driver's ed... 284 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:14,780 -How you doing? -Very well, Don. 285 00:13:14,780 --> 00:13:15,950 Good morning and welcome. 286 00:13:15,950 --> 00:13:17,510 ...Secret Service-style. 287 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:21,380 So I saw the Secret Service demonstrate how to escape 288 00:13:21,390 --> 00:13:23,720 from an ambush situation, tactical driving, 289 00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:25,390 -the J-turn, right? -Yes. 290 00:13:25,390 --> 00:13:26,820 We know the J-turn very well here. 291 00:13:26,820 --> 00:13:28,690 It's the cornerstone of evasive driving. 292 00:13:28,690 --> 00:13:30,760 Can a guy like me learn how to do this? 293 00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:31,890 Absolutely. 294 00:13:33,230 --> 00:13:34,860 Show me how this works. 295 00:13:34,870 --> 00:13:36,300 -Give me a J-turn. -All right. 296 00:13:36,300 --> 00:13:38,900 So three things to remember -- lift, turn, and shift. 297 00:13:38,900 --> 00:13:40,400 Yikes. Man, he just went into it. 298 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:42,300 -So here we go. -All right. 299 00:13:42,310 --> 00:13:43,810 Here's our lift... 300 00:13:43,810 --> 00:13:44,640 turn... 301 00:13:44,640 --> 00:13:47,840 Whoa! Whoo! 302 00:13:47,850 --> 00:13:49,450 Oh, boy! 303 00:13:49,450 --> 00:13:52,150 Man, that was intense. 304 00:13:52,150 --> 00:13:55,250 How do you keep that straight, literally? 305 00:13:55,250 --> 00:13:56,220 Practice. 306 00:13:56,220 --> 00:13:59,460 Man, that is wild. 307 00:13:59,460 --> 00:14:02,090 Guy pulls off a full-speed J-turn 308 00:14:02,090 --> 00:14:04,130 as smoothly as a stunt man. 309 00:14:06,500 --> 00:14:09,730 And it looks like a move straight out of Hollywood. 310 00:14:09,730 --> 00:14:11,800 These sort of maneuvers could be critical 311 00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:13,940 for getting the president out of danger 312 00:14:13,940 --> 00:14:15,970 and back to the safety of the White House. 313 00:14:15,970 --> 00:14:17,810 -Are you ready? -Can I give this a shot? 314 00:14:17,810 --> 00:14:19,110 Absolutely. 315 00:14:22,450 --> 00:14:24,350 I didn't think I'd be so nervous about this, 316 00:14:24,350 --> 00:14:25,610 but I am. 317 00:14:25,620 --> 00:14:28,050 Guy talks me through the three steps 318 00:14:28,050 --> 00:14:30,590 of a J-turn -- lift off the gas, 319 00:14:30,590 --> 00:14:33,090 turn the wheel hard, shift into drive. 320 00:14:33,090 --> 00:14:34,190 Here we go. 321 00:14:34,190 --> 00:14:36,460 So it's in reverse, attack, back away. 322 00:14:36,460 --> 00:14:38,190 All right, let's do this. You can do this. 323 00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:39,660 Let's go when you're ready, Don. 324 00:14:39,660 --> 00:14:41,130 All right. 325 00:14:41,130 --> 00:14:42,600 Keep backing. Keep backing. 326 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:44,030 Keep backing. Keep backing. 327 00:14:44,040 --> 00:14:45,500 Keep backing. Keep backing. 328 00:14:45,500 --> 00:14:46,340 Lift. 329 00:14:46,340 --> 00:14:49,570 Turn. 330 00:14:49,570 --> 00:14:52,010 Cut. 331 00:14:52,010 --> 00:14:53,380 Turn us around. Let's go back, try it again. 332 00:14:53,380 --> 00:14:55,850 Oh, boy. Failure. 333 00:14:58,580 --> 00:14:59,820 Okay. What happened? 334 00:14:59,820 --> 00:15:01,980 Okay, as soon as you become uncomfortable 335 00:15:01,990 --> 00:15:03,490 you went to the comfort pedal. 336 00:15:03,490 --> 00:15:04,550 Everybody comfort pedal's what? 337 00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:05,890 -The brake pedal. -The brake. 338 00:15:05,890 --> 00:15:08,490 You try to do what's normal, but it's not normal driving. 339 00:15:08,490 --> 00:15:09,660 I mean, that's the thing. 340 00:15:09,660 --> 00:15:10,590 You're just trying to do something 341 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:12,490 completely counterintuitive. 342 00:15:15,170 --> 00:15:16,970 -Okay. -All right. 343 00:15:16,970 --> 00:15:18,270 -Back us up. -I'm ready. 344 00:15:18,270 --> 00:15:20,570 Here we go. Keep backing. 345 00:15:20,570 --> 00:15:22,270 Keep backing. Lift. 346 00:15:22,270 --> 00:15:23,470 Turn. 347 00:15:23,470 --> 00:15:25,410 Shift. 348 00:15:25,410 --> 00:15:28,310 Oh, I braked. I braked. 349 00:15:30,150 --> 00:15:33,150 I'll tell you, the scary part is going backwards as fast. 350 00:15:35,290 --> 00:15:37,250 All right, here we go again. Oh, boy. 351 00:15:37,260 --> 00:15:39,360 It's the most terrifying thing I've ever done. 352 00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:40,460 No brake this time. 353 00:15:40,460 --> 00:15:43,490 I'm going right to shift and gas. 354 00:15:43,490 --> 00:15:44,860 You got it. 355 00:15:44,860 --> 00:15:47,700 Whoo. Okay. 356 00:15:47,700 --> 00:15:49,530 All right, attack. Back away. 357 00:15:52,340 --> 00:15:54,840 Keep backing. Keep backing. 358 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:56,810 Lift. Turn. 359 00:15:56,810 --> 00:15:57,610 Shift. 360 00:15:57,610 --> 00:15:58,870 Go. 361 00:15:58,880 --> 00:16:00,440 No bonus points for turning on the wipers, Don. 362 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:02,210 -Nice job! -Whoo! 363 00:16:02,210 --> 00:16:03,880 Yeah! Oh, my God. 364 00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:06,820 It's a very successful feeling. Thank you so much. 365 00:16:06,820 --> 00:16:08,820 Secret Service, here I come. 366 00:16:13,820 --> 00:16:16,330 But before I celebrate too much, 367 00:16:16,330 --> 00:16:19,630 Guy has one more Secret Service technique for me to try. 368 00:16:19,630 --> 00:16:21,400 -What's next? -Barricade breaching. 369 00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:22,770 Barricade breaching. What's that? 370 00:16:22,770 --> 00:16:24,030 We're gonna ram our way 371 00:16:24,040 --> 00:16:26,240 through a vehicle blocking our space 372 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:27,740 so that we can exit that attack. 373 00:16:27,740 --> 00:16:29,570 So I went in reverse at high speed. 374 00:16:29,570 --> 00:16:31,840 -Now, I'm going forward. -Correct. 375 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:33,310 -All right. -Those are our vehicles. 376 00:16:33,310 --> 00:16:35,410 And here's our exercise, in front of us. 377 00:16:35,410 --> 00:16:37,180 They look lovely. 378 00:16:37,180 --> 00:16:38,510 Why don't you have a seat behind the wheel? 379 00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:39,720 Okay. 380 00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:44,150 Guy tells me a successful barricade breach 381 00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:45,520 comes down to physics. 382 00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:48,020 The key is to align my car's frame 383 00:16:48,030 --> 00:16:50,330 with the blocking car's axle. 384 00:16:50,330 --> 00:16:52,430 And I want to hit it at just the right speed -- 385 00:16:52,430 --> 00:16:55,200 about 15 miles per hour. 386 00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:56,000 Let's go. 387 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:57,300 Little faster. 388 00:16:59,340 --> 00:17:01,770 Ram. 389 00:17:01,770 --> 00:17:03,310 Oh, yeah! 390 00:17:03,310 --> 00:17:04,240 Nice, nice. 391 00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:06,210 Wow, right down the gullet. 392 00:17:08,250 --> 00:17:09,180 Ram. 393 00:17:11,780 --> 00:17:13,050 Phew. 394 00:17:13,050 --> 00:17:14,450 How to get out of an ambush. Thank you. 395 00:17:14,450 --> 00:17:16,220 -Well done, sir. -I'm well equipped. 396 00:17:17,220 --> 00:17:19,320 I'm getting out of this car now. 397 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:22,090 My crash course in Secret Service training 398 00:17:22,090 --> 00:17:23,760 was exhilarating. 399 00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:26,300 But it's time to get back to the White House, 400 00:17:26,300 --> 00:17:29,930 to the years after Lincoln's assassination. 401 00:17:29,930 --> 00:17:32,430 It's hard to believe today that the White House 402 00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:35,100 was little loved in the late 19th century. 403 00:17:35,110 --> 00:17:36,610 The building was old and outdated 404 00:17:36,610 --> 00:17:38,110 by American standards. 405 00:17:38,110 --> 00:17:41,580 President Andrew Johnson wanted to build a new executive mansion 406 00:17:41,580 --> 00:17:42,750 north of the city 407 00:17:42,750 --> 00:17:45,250 in what is today Rock Creek Park. 408 00:17:45,250 --> 00:17:47,580 He was impeached before that could happen. 409 00:17:47,590 --> 00:17:51,350 But that wasn't the last attempt to reimagine the White House. 410 00:17:51,360 --> 00:17:52,620 The modern White House 411 00:17:52,620 --> 00:17:55,660 only came to be in the 20th century. 412 00:17:55,660 --> 00:17:58,460 In fact, its most famous room 413 00:17:58,460 --> 00:18:00,900 was just built in 1934. 414 00:18:00,900 --> 00:18:02,800 For its first 100 years, 415 00:18:02,800 --> 00:18:06,440 the White House was plagued by a fundamental design flaw, 416 00:18:06,440 --> 00:18:09,470 which nearly led to its ultimate demise. 417 00:18:13,750 --> 00:18:15,540 I'm tracing the surprising ways 418 00:18:15,550 --> 00:18:17,580 that presidents have changed the White House 419 00:18:17,580 --> 00:18:20,420 to meet their needs. 420 00:18:20,420 --> 00:18:22,750 Take the Oval Office, for example. 421 00:18:22,750 --> 00:18:26,490 This famous room is an iconic emblem of the presidency. 422 00:18:26,490 --> 00:18:31,560 But the modern Oval Office was only added in 1934. 423 00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:33,760 So where did the President work 424 00:18:33,770 --> 00:18:36,330 before the Oval Office was built? 425 00:18:36,330 --> 00:18:39,440 The answer uncovers an inherent problem 426 00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:44,410 with the building's original 1792 design. 427 00:18:44,410 --> 00:18:46,180 For its first 100 years, 428 00:18:46,180 --> 00:18:50,510 the White House never had purpose-built offices. 429 00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:53,180 Each president had to choose a room to work in, 430 00:18:53,180 --> 00:18:56,550 usually a converted bedroom upstairs. 431 00:18:56,550 --> 00:18:58,050 That meant official visitors 432 00:18:58,060 --> 00:19:03,160 were just steps away from where the first family slept. 433 00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:07,060 By the late 1800s, the problem had come to a head. 434 00:19:07,070 --> 00:19:10,570 The White House was bursting at the seams. 435 00:19:10,570 --> 00:19:12,070 Peter? Hey. Don. 436 00:19:12,070 --> 00:19:14,200 -Hi. Nice to meet you. -You too. 437 00:19:14,210 --> 00:19:15,570 Peter Brower heads 438 00:19:15,570 --> 00:19:19,680 the Cartographic Reference Branch at the National Archives. 439 00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:22,310 Here, among priceless old maps, 440 00:19:22,310 --> 00:19:26,120 you can find original hand-drawn blueprints of the White House, 441 00:19:26,120 --> 00:19:30,590 some as it is and some as it might have been. 442 00:19:30,590 --> 00:19:33,160 Look at that. That is so neat. 443 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:34,360 Oh, I see. That's... 444 00:19:34,360 --> 00:19:36,390 Yeah, so these are the first two. 445 00:19:36,390 --> 00:19:39,960 Peter has proof of the extreme ways presidents tried 446 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:43,230 to fix the White House in the late 1800s. 447 00:19:43,230 --> 00:19:46,740 President Chester Arthur tried to add room by building 448 00:19:46,740 --> 00:19:51,210 a whole new private residence off to the side. 449 00:19:51,210 --> 00:19:54,680 But it has nothing to do with what the house originally, 450 00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:56,010 and to this day, looks like... 451 00:19:56,010 --> 00:19:57,710 -Exactly. -...as a monument. 452 00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:00,850 It looks like the mansion of a rich guy, a robber baron. 453 00:20:00,850 --> 00:20:04,250 A decade later, President Benjamin Harrison proposed 454 00:20:04,260 --> 00:20:05,920 an even grander solution 455 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:08,620 to the White House's space problem. 456 00:20:08,630 --> 00:20:10,960 This is a site plan. 457 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:14,430 And you have the original 1792 mansion there. 458 00:20:14,430 --> 00:20:18,300 And then the idea was to build a completely enclosed court, 459 00:20:18,300 --> 00:20:20,440 very similar to a castle 460 00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:22,400 or other estate grounds, like a European setting. 461 00:20:22,410 --> 00:20:23,940 That's what I'm seeing here. 462 00:20:23,940 --> 00:20:25,840 This looks like a king lives here. 463 00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:29,150 The plan would quadruple the White House in size 464 00:20:29,150 --> 00:20:31,750 by adding new wings to house offices 465 00:20:31,750 --> 00:20:33,620 for the president's staff 466 00:20:33,620 --> 00:20:36,950 and an art gallery for visiting tourists. 467 00:20:36,950 --> 00:20:39,760 But Congress refused to pay for it. 468 00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:42,460 This drawing dates from 1905. 469 00:20:42,460 --> 00:20:44,960 This is from Theodore Roosevelt's administration. 470 00:20:44,960 --> 00:20:47,060 So this is TR's, 471 00:20:47,060 --> 00:20:50,130 his own reimagining of the whole complex, 472 00:20:50,130 --> 00:20:53,140 which is pared down to basics. 473 00:20:53,140 --> 00:20:56,370 He's getting back to the original idea. 474 00:20:56,370 --> 00:20:58,770 In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt 475 00:20:58,780 --> 00:21:02,480 finally did what a century's worth of presidents could not. 476 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:05,920 He reorganized the White House to separate its public 477 00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:09,020 and private functions and returned the building 478 00:21:09,020 --> 00:21:11,520 to its clean, original appearance. 479 00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:12,760 Theodore Roosevelt was famous 480 00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:15,220 for loving the presidency, you know, 481 00:21:15,230 --> 00:21:16,890 and therefore loving the White House 482 00:21:16,890 --> 00:21:19,260 and what it represented, the history behind the office. 483 00:21:19,260 --> 00:21:21,230 But he has done the pragmatic thing 484 00:21:21,230 --> 00:21:22,970 of separating from the living space -- 485 00:21:22,970 --> 00:21:24,100 I mean, he has a huge family, 486 00:21:24,100 --> 00:21:25,630 so they have to have some place to live. 487 00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:28,570 So he's separated from the president's house 488 00:21:28,570 --> 00:21:31,410 the offices over here on the West Wing. 489 00:21:31,410 --> 00:21:34,510 Roosevelt's 1902 restoration claimed 490 00:21:34,510 --> 00:21:38,680 the entire second floor as private living space. 491 00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:42,790 He added new wings to separate the house's official functions. 492 00:21:42,790 --> 00:21:45,090 The public entrance moved to the east 493 00:21:45,090 --> 00:21:48,860 and the executive offices to the western wing. 494 00:21:48,860 --> 00:21:50,830 At last, there was plenty of space 495 00:21:50,830 --> 00:21:53,230 for the president's cabinet and staff, 496 00:21:53,230 --> 00:21:55,430 a new office for Roosevelt himself, 497 00:21:55,430 --> 00:21:59,240 though one with four walls and four corners. 498 00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:01,500 The Oval Office as we know it today 499 00:22:01,510 --> 00:22:04,140 would be built by another President Roosevelt 500 00:22:04,140 --> 00:22:06,110 30 years later. 501 00:22:06,110 --> 00:22:07,280 So interesting. 502 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:09,850 I mean, you have right here the White Houses 503 00:22:09,850 --> 00:22:11,510 as they could have been 504 00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:14,120 and then the White House as it is today. 505 00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:15,650 So cool. Thanks, man. 506 00:22:15,650 --> 00:22:17,190 All right. Thank you. 507 00:22:17,190 --> 00:22:20,160 Theodore Roosevelt ended any plans of replacing 508 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:21,860 or reconfiguring the White House. 509 00:22:21,860 --> 00:22:24,330 His restoration was hailed as a success 510 00:22:24,330 --> 00:22:26,800 and set the tone for the building's appearance 511 00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:28,900 as it is today. 512 00:22:28,900 --> 00:22:31,070 What Roosevelt didn't know is that the changes 513 00:22:31,070 --> 00:22:34,700 he made would also help doom the old house. 514 00:22:39,340 --> 00:22:42,340 I'm chasing the incredible evolution 515 00:22:42,350 --> 00:22:43,680 of the White House, 516 00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:46,050 and I've arrived at a crossroads. 517 00:22:48,090 --> 00:22:50,350 In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt 518 00:22:50,350 --> 00:22:52,890 solved the White House's oldest problem 519 00:22:52,890 --> 00:22:55,890 and separated its public and private halves. 520 00:22:55,890 --> 00:22:58,230 But one of the changes he made would lead 521 00:22:58,230 --> 00:23:01,060 directly to the building's greatest crisis 522 00:23:01,070 --> 00:23:05,730 and indirectly to its deepest mystery. 523 00:23:05,740 --> 00:23:07,840 In the late 1940s, 524 00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:09,410 the United States was emerging 525 00:23:09,410 --> 00:23:12,610 from two decades of war and austerity. 526 00:23:12,610 --> 00:23:14,540 The economy was roaring. 527 00:23:14,550 --> 00:23:17,080 Millions of Americans were moving to the suburbs 528 00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:21,050 and buying brand-new homes. 529 00:23:21,050 --> 00:23:24,150 But at the White House, President Harry Truman 530 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:28,260 was beginning to notice the building's age. 531 00:23:28,260 --> 00:23:32,190 In the summer of 1948, a piano leg suddenly burst 532 00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:34,830 through the ceiling into the family dining room. 533 00:23:34,830 --> 00:23:37,800 The upstairs floor had given way. 534 00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:40,070 Truman ordered a complete inspection. 535 00:23:40,070 --> 00:23:42,400 The results were dire. 536 00:23:42,410 --> 00:23:45,140 The White House was falling down. 537 00:23:47,180 --> 00:23:51,110 Sagging timbers and leaking pipes had been hastily patched 538 00:23:51,120 --> 00:23:55,280 and painted for a century and a half. 539 00:23:55,290 --> 00:23:56,750 But the real culprit 540 00:23:56,750 --> 00:24:00,290 was Theodore Roosevelt's 1902 renovation. 541 00:24:00,290 --> 00:24:02,690 Roosevelt expanded the State Dining Room 542 00:24:02,690 --> 00:24:03,890 to seat more guests, 543 00:24:03,890 --> 00:24:07,000 which required removing a load-bearing wall. 544 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:09,970 The house's frame had been overstressed 545 00:24:09,970 --> 00:24:12,770 for nearly 50 years. 546 00:24:12,770 --> 00:24:14,670 The engineer's report warned 547 00:24:14,670 --> 00:24:17,270 that the White House was in danger of collapsing, 548 00:24:17,270 --> 00:24:21,040 claiming it was staying up by force of habit only. 549 00:24:21,050 --> 00:24:22,780 The easiest solution would be 550 00:24:22,780 --> 00:24:25,050 to knock down the old house and build a new one. 551 00:24:25,050 --> 00:24:28,020 Some even suggested moving to a new location 552 00:24:28,020 --> 00:24:29,650 outside the city. 553 00:24:29,650 --> 00:24:31,650 But Truman was having none of that. 554 00:24:31,660 --> 00:24:33,890 He insisted that the original White House 555 00:24:33,890 --> 00:24:36,960 be preserved in every possible way. 556 00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:40,200 The answer was an epic gut renovation. 557 00:24:40,200 --> 00:24:44,300 Doors, trim and paneling were carefully cataloged and removed. 558 00:24:44,300 --> 00:24:48,900 Then everything inside the stone walls was demolished. 559 00:24:48,910 --> 00:24:50,940 A new steel frame was built. 560 00:24:50,940 --> 00:24:52,980 And the old interior was re-created 561 00:24:52,980 --> 00:24:56,680 with a mix of original items and modern materials. 562 00:24:56,680 --> 00:24:59,250 But the renovation would also provide cover 563 00:24:59,250 --> 00:25:02,750 for a huge excavation project. 564 00:25:02,750 --> 00:25:05,250 So what's underneath the White House? 565 00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:14,100 This is the famous Off the Record Bar 566 00:25:14,100 --> 00:25:16,700 in the basement of the Hay-Adams Hotel. 567 00:25:16,700 --> 00:25:19,500 And on the other side of this wall, 568 00:25:19,500 --> 00:25:22,240 through about 1,000 feet of earth, 569 00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:24,110 is the White House subbasement. 570 00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:30,450 Truman took advantage of the renovation 571 00:25:30,450 --> 00:25:32,180 to add some square footage, 572 00:25:32,180 --> 00:25:34,920 mostly in a two-level subbasement 573 00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:37,150 beneath the original basement. 574 00:25:37,150 --> 00:25:39,760 These subbasements were mostly for utilities, 575 00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:41,160 service areas, and storage. 576 00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:43,730 But there might have been more to them than that. 577 00:25:43,730 --> 00:25:44,790 Check this out. 578 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:47,200 This is a photo from the excavation 579 00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:49,100 inside the White House in 1950. 580 00:25:49,100 --> 00:25:52,770 And right away, you can see what a gut reno this really is. 581 00:25:52,770 --> 00:25:54,770 I mean, you could see the steel structure that's been 582 00:25:54,770 --> 00:25:56,710 added to support the floors. 583 00:25:56,710 --> 00:25:58,410 And you can also see, interestingly, 584 00:25:58,410 --> 00:26:00,910 the line of the original foundation 585 00:26:00,910 --> 00:26:02,540 that they are now digging beneath. 586 00:26:02,550 --> 00:26:03,950 Here, look at this. 587 00:26:03,950 --> 00:26:05,710 So this is the bulldozer, 588 00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:07,080 you can see, is digging deeper 589 00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:09,890 and deeper beneath that original foundation. 590 00:26:09,890 --> 00:26:11,190 So they are going down. 591 00:26:11,190 --> 00:26:13,890 So here's a shot from inside 592 00:26:13,890 --> 00:26:16,630 the new subbasement in late 1950. 593 00:26:16,630 --> 00:26:18,290 And you can see what appears to be 594 00:26:18,300 --> 00:26:20,260 a reinforced concrete tunnel 595 00:26:20,260 --> 00:26:23,070 being built deep beneath the house. 596 00:26:23,070 --> 00:26:26,670 And this is inside that tunnel in the construction process. 597 00:26:26,670 --> 00:26:28,240 And look at all the conduit 598 00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:30,240 that's run along the floor there. 599 00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:33,680 This last shot is inside the finished tunnel. 600 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:35,840 I mean, this is heavy construction. 601 00:26:35,850 --> 00:26:37,810 Look at the thickness of this wall. 602 00:26:37,820 --> 00:26:40,080 I mean, this is all deep underground. 603 00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:42,680 So what's it for? 604 00:26:42,690 --> 00:26:43,990 Hard to say. 605 00:26:43,990 --> 00:26:45,490 What we do know is that 606 00:26:45,490 --> 00:26:48,690 FDR built a bomb shelter beneath the East Wing 607 00:26:48,690 --> 00:26:50,160 during World War II. 608 00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:51,390 It was never used. 609 00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:58,070 Our national policy is not directed toward war. 610 00:26:58,070 --> 00:27:01,700 So could this hallway have been built by Truman 611 00:27:01,710 --> 00:27:03,770 to connect that shelter to the house? 612 00:27:03,770 --> 00:27:06,340 Or did he enlarge Roosevelt's shelter 613 00:27:06,340 --> 00:27:09,850 to create a larger bunker complex? 614 00:27:09,850 --> 00:27:11,750 Nobody knows for sure. 615 00:27:11,750 --> 00:27:16,990 These subbasements are not on the White House tour. 616 00:27:16,990 --> 00:27:18,320 We do know this. 617 00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:20,720 The Soviets detonated their first atom bomb 618 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:22,860 while the White House was being rebuilt. 619 00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:30,930 If any of those underground spaces 620 00:27:30,940 --> 00:27:34,440 were meant to be bomb shelters, they were suddenly obsolete. 621 00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:36,740 To survive that kind of bomb, 622 00:27:36,740 --> 00:27:39,680 the President was gonna need a much bigger basement. 623 00:27:43,950 --> 00:27:46,720 The White House at the dawn of the atomic age 624 00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:49,280 had come a long way from the open-door days 625 00:27:49,290 --> 00:27:51,190 of the Lincoln administration. 626 00:27:51,190 --> 00:27:53,520 Already, the house was evolving 627 00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:56,390 into the secure command center we know today. 628 00:27:56,390 --> 00:27:58,630 So how did the president prepare 629 00:27:58,630 --> 00:28:00,730 for the ultimate security threat... 630 00:28:03,700 --> 00:28:07,700 a nuclear attack on the White House? 631 00:28:07,710 --> 00:28:12,470 We know about FDR's World War II bomb shelter. 632 00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:14,410 And we have photos from 1950 633 00:28:14,410 --> 00:28:17,310 showing heavy underground construction. 634 00:28:17,310 --> 00:28:19,580 But it's unlikely that any of this could 635 00:28:19,580 --> 00:28:22,320 withstand a direct nuclear attack. 636 00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:25,620 So is it possible that there's another, secret bunker 637 00:28:25,620 --> 00:28:28,190 somewhere beneath the White House? 638 00:28:28,190 --> 00:28:31,730 In 2011, President Obama quietly kicked off 639 00:28:31,730 --> 00:28:35,030 a large excavation project under the West Wing. 640 00:28:35,030 --> 00:28:37,030 Officials claimed it was an update 641 00:28:37,030 --> 00:28:38,900 of the building's cooling system. 642 00:28:38,900 --> 00:28:42,240 Whatever it is, it's off-limits. 643 00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:46,610 But I know of a recently declassified top-secret location 644 00:28:46,610 --> 00:28:48,710 that can give us an insider's look 645 00:28:48,710 --> 00:28:52,510 at the ultimate Cold War contingency plan. 646 00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:54,820 I'm in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, 647 00:28:54,820 --> 00:28:57,590 about 200 miles southeast of Washington, 648 00:28:57,590 --> 00:29:00,890 heading to one of the grandest hotels in America. 649 00:29:00,890 --> 00:29:05,430 The Greenbrier is a sprawling 11,000-acre resort nestled 650 00:29:05,430 --> 00:29:08,760 in the Allegheny Mountains. 651 00:29:08,770 --> 00:29:11,930 The Greenbrier has a long connection to Washington. 652 00:29:11,940 --> 00:29:14,300 26 presidents have stayed here. 653 00:29:14,300 --> 00:29:15,540 And the army ran the place 654 00:29:15,540 --> 00:29:18,140 as a military hospital back in World War II. 655 00:29:18,140 --> 00:29:22,110 But I'm here for a whole different reason. 656 00:29:22,110 --> 00:29:26,380 In 1955, the Cold War was heating up. 657 00:29:26,380 --> 00:29:28,250 The United States and the Soviet Union 658 00:29:28,250 --> 00:29:31,450 had warheads aimed at each other's capitals. 659 00:29:31,460 --> 00:29:34,660 President Eisenhower issued an executive order 660 00:29:34,660 --> 00:29:36,790 outlining a plan for the federal government 661 00:29:36,790 --> 00:29:39,690 to survive a nuclear attack. 662 00:29:39,700 --> 00:29:43,130 The Greenbrier was an essential part of the plan. 663 00:29:43,130 --> 00:29:44,730 Beneath this hotel is one of the most 664 00:29:44,740 --> 00:29:47,640 top-secret locations of the Cold War, 665 00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:51,170 a giant fallout bunker hidden in plain sight. 666 00:29:51,180 --> 00:29:53,640 Check this out. 667 00:30:02,090 --> 00:30:05,790 The program was code named Project Greek Island. 668 00:30:05,790 --> 00:30:08,660 The government funded the construction of the bunker 669 00:30:08,660 --> 00:30:10,660 and built a new wing of the hotel 670 00:30:10,660 --> 00:30:12,790 on top to hide it. 671 00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:14,560 The whole complex was designed 672 00:30:14,570 --> 00:30:17,100 to blend seamlessly with the hotel. 673 00:30:17,100 --> 00:30:19,530 Guests were free to enter parts of the bunker 674 00:30:19,540 --> 00:30:24,140 completely unaware of its true purpose. 675 00:30:24,140 --> 00:30:27,010 The bunker had to be kept in a constant state of readiness. 676 00:30:27,010 --> 00:30:29,310 A group of government employees posed 677 00:30:29,310 --> 00:30:31,810 as TV repairmen for the hotel. 678 00:30:31,820 --> 00:30:33,750 And one of them has agreed to meet with me. 679 00:30:36,420 --> 00:30:37,890 Fritz? 680 00:30:37,890 --> 00:30:39,350 Fritz Bugas ran 681 00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:41,720 the undercover team here for 20 years. 682 00:30:41,730 --> 00:30:44,790 So this is the room that was really the center point 683 00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:47,500 of the whole cover story, yeah? 684 00:30:47,500 --> 00:30:48,800 In essence, yes. 685 00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:52,870 This was the Forsythe Television Repair Shop. 686 00:30:52,870 --> 00:30:56,470 But the repair shop was really a front, basically. 687 00:30:56,470 --> 00:31:01,480 That allowed us a reason to be here to start with 688 00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:04,580 so we could do our maintenance work 689 00:31:04,580 --> 00:31:05,780 in the back part of the bunker. 690 00:31:05,780 --> 00:31:07,480 Wow. So this is really 691 00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:12,250 the line between the overt and the covert, the bunker. 692 00:31:12,260 --> 00:31:13,260 That's correct. 693 00:31:13,260 --> 00:31:15,020 So how do you get to the covert? 694 00:31:15,030 --> 00:31:19,160 Don, if you'll turn around and go through this door here 695 00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:20,130 This one? 696 00:31:20,130 --> 00:31:22,260 That leads into a closet. 697 00:31:24,330 --> 00:31:28,640 Now, in this closet, we had electronic supplies, 698 00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:29,840 cable, et cetera, 699 00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:32,640 things necessary to repair the television. 700 00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:34,110 Okay. 701 00:31:34,110 --> 00:31:37,310 And if you turn around, there's a wall behind you. 702 00:31:37,310 --> 00:31:41,150 Now, if you lean or push against that wall... 703 00:31:41,150 --> 00:31:43,950 This is the entrance? 704 00:31:43,950 --> 00:31:45,950 Oh, that's so neat. 705 00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:47,990 That's cool. Wow. 706 00:31:47,990 --> 00:31:49,220 So this is the covert. 707 00:31:49,230 --> 00:31:52,160 This leads you further into the bunker, 708 00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:54,130 into the covert part 709 00:31:54,130 --> 00:31:55,730 Unbelievable. 710 00:31:55,730 --> 00:31:58,200 The Greenbrier bunker was built to house 711 00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:00,970 the entire legislative branch of government. 712 00:32:00,970 --> 00:32:02,500 That's 100 senators, 713 00:32:02,510 --> 00:32:06,840 435 members of the House, plus staff. 714 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:10,650 The entire facility could sustain 1,100 people 715 00:32:10,650 --> 00:32:12,010 for up to 40 days. 716 00:32:12,020 --> 00:32:14,480 Look into the door on the right. You'll see the kitchen. 717 00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:16,850 The refrigeration was off to the left. 718 00:32:16,850 --> 00:32:17,920 And nobody knew this was here? 719 00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:19,220 And nobody knew that this was here. 720 00:32:19,220 --> 00:32:20,420 Crazy! 721 00:32:20,420 --> 00:32:22,020 The plan was for Congress 722 00:32:22,030 --> 00:32:24,830 to arrive by car, plane, and train. 723 00:32:24,830 --> 00:32:28,460 Three giant blast doors would seal them inside. 724 00:32:28,470 --> 00:32:32,770 Then the Greenbrier bunker would become the U.S. capital. 725 00:32:35,670 --> 00:32:39,540 There you go. 726 00:32:39,540 --> 00:32:41,810 So this is the Governor's Hall. 727 00:32:41,810 --> 00:32:44,350 I mean, it looks like a school auditorium. 728 00:32:44,350 --> 00:32:46,350 But there's enough seats in here 729 00:32:46,350 --> 00:32:51,050 for the whole House of Representatives, 435. 730 00:32:51,050 --> 00:32:54,720 Right next door is another meeting chamber for the Senate. 731 00:32:54,730 --> 00:32:57,230 The Greenbrier bunker was only intended 732 00:32:57,230 --> 00:33:00,030 for the legislative branch. 733 00:33:00,030 --> 00:33:03,000 So this is the bunker for the Congress, okay. 734 00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:04,770 There must be other bunkers as well, 735 00:33:04,770 --> 00:33:07,140 one for the president, I suppose. 736 00:33:07,140 --> 00:33:08,700 -I would assume so. -Okay. 737 00:33:08,710 --> 00:33:10,710 But it's part of a network of bunkers 738 00:33:10,710 --> 00:33:13,340 around the whole D.C. area. 739 00:33:13,340 --> 00:33:15,740 Well, you have the executive branch 740 00:33:15,750 --> 00:33:18,310 of government, I'm sure, has bunkers 741 00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:19,880 that are scattered around in D.C. 742 00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:21,980 Well, if anybody should know, it's you. 743 00:33:21,990 --> 00:33:24,020 I do know about the legislative branch, 744 00:33:24,020 --> 00:33:28,190 that it was designed and geared for their relocation. 745 00:33:28,190 --> 00:33:30,660 You're still keeping secrets, aren't you? 746 00:33:30,660 --> 00:33:32,290 No! No! 747 00:33:32,300 --> 00:33:33,660 Not really. 748 00:33:33,660 --> 00:33:34,900 But there's bunkers today 749 00:33:34,900 --> 00:33:38,270 equally prepared, because the threat is still there. 750 00:33:38,270 --> 00:33:40,100 -I would hope so. -Yeah. 751 00:33:40,100 --> 00:33:41,800 A vast complex. 752 00:33:41,810 --> 00:33:43,070 You mind if I take a look around? 753 00:33:43,070 --> 00:33:45,140 -Not at all. -Thank you, sir. 754 00:33:45,140 --> 00:33:47,110 Honor. 755 00:33:47,110 --> 00:33:48,340 It's easy to imagine 756 00:33:48,350 --> 00:33:49,680 that there are active bunkers 757 00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:51,950 for the president out there somewhere. 758 00:33:51,950 --> 00:33:55,880 The Greenbrier complex was declassified in 1992. 759 00:33:55,890 --> 00:33:58,620 But parts of it still seem ready for action. 760 00:33:58,620 --> 00:34:01,460 This would be the first stop for the lawmakers at the bunker, 761 00:34:01,460 --> 00:34:03,220 the decontamination showers. 762 00:34:03,230 --> 00:34:05,860 First, they had to strip off their clothes 763 00:34:05,860 --> 00:34:09,200 and toss them in here to be incinerated. 764 00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:12,130 Then they moved through this passageway. 765 00:34:12,140 --> 00:34:16,400 A series of high-pressure shower heads would wash off 766 00:34:16,410 --> 00:34:18,440 all the radioactive contaminants. 767 00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:22,110 They could process up to 120 people per hour 768 00:34:22,110 --> 00:34:23,450 in this place. 769 00:34:23,450 --> 00:34:26,880 Then they move through here 770 00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:30,220 and get their fresh clothes. 771 00:34:30,220 --> 00:34:31,590 And then they're free to move into 772 00:34:31,590 --> 00:34:33,490 the clean part of the facility. 773 00:34:33,490 --> 00:34:36,690 The bunker contains 153 rooms 774 00:34:36,690 --> 00:34:38,690 on two underground levels, 775 00:34:38,700 --> 00:34:42,560 112,000 square feet in all. 776 00:34:42,570 --> 00:34:45,030 It was designed to be a wholly contained, 777 00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:48,300 self-sufficient city. 778 00:34:48,310 --> 00:34:50,210 This was the TV studio, 779 00:34:50,210 --> 00:34:52,810 one of the most important rooms in the entire bunker. 780 00:34:52,810 --> 00:34:55,510 From here, officials could address the nation, 781 00:34:55,510 --> 00:34:57,380 two available backdrops -- 782 00:34:57,380 --> 00:35:00,180 the U.S. Capitol and, over here, 783 00:35:00,180 --> 00:35:03,520 the White House -- you know, to reassure Americans 784 00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:05,650 that everything's gonna be okay. 785 00:35:05,660 --> 00:35:07,890 See, this place was designed 786 00:35:07,890 --> 00:35:09,390 for the legislative branch. 787 00:35:09,390 --> 00:35:10,890 But the speaker of the House 788 00:35:10,890 --> 00:35:12,690 is the third in line for the presidency. 789 00:35:12,700 --> 00:35:16,030 So depending on what was going on out there, 790 00:35:16,030 --> 00:35:19,800 the Greenbrier could end up housing the president after all. 791 00:35:25,010 --> 00:35:27,740 The Greenbrier bunker was never used 792 00:35:27,740 --> 00:35:30,850 because nuclear doomsday never came. 793 00:35:35,850 --> 00:35:38,090 As the arms race heated up, 794 00:35:38,090 --> 00:35:41,320 cooler heads would have to talk us back from the brink. 795 00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:46,260 Easier said than done. 796 00:35:48,530 --> 00:35:49,560 Oh, that's neat. 797 00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:55,170 I'm digging deep into the White House 798 00:35:55,170 --> 00:35:58,140 and have already uncovered some of the invisible walls 799 00:35:58,140 --> 00:36:00,610 that surround this fortress. 800 00:36:00,610 --> 00:36:02,180 But the modern-day White House 801 00:36:02,180 --> 00:36:04,510 must also be able to connect the president 802 00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:07,680 to any place on Earth at a minute's notice, 803 00:36:07,690 --> 00:36:09,850 a lesson we learned the hard way. 804 00:36:09,850 --> 00:36:13,020 In 1962, the Soviet Union and the United States 805 00:36:13,020 --> 00:36:15,160 were locked in a dangerous standoff. 806 00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:20,100 Both nations had stockpiled massive nuclear arsenals. 807 00:36:20,100 --> 00:36:22,260 If the enemy launched an attack, 808 00:36:22,270 --> 00:36:24,100 the hope was that enough warheads 809 00:36:24,100 --> 00:36:25,770 would survive the first wave 810 00:36:25,770 --> 00:36:28,300 that they could then launch an immediate counterattack. 811 00:36:28,310 --> 00:36:31,910 This strategy was called mutually assured destruction. 812 00:36:35,010 --> 00:36:38,510 In October 1962, American spy planes 813 00:36:38,520 --> 00:36:41,320 found Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba, 814 00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:44,650 only 90 miles off Florida. 815 00:36:44,660 --> 00:36:47,220 President John F. Kennedy's advisors urged him 816 00:36:47,230 --> 00:36:49,260 to launch an air strike. 817 00:36:49,260 --> 00:36:50,690 He refused. 818 00:36:50,700 --> 00:36:53,860 Instead, Kennedy imposed a naval blockade 819 00:36:53,870 --> 00:36:56,330 while he tried to work out a peaceful solution 820 00:36:56,330 --> 00:36:59,470 with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. 821 00:36:59,470 --> 00:37:01,900 To halt this offensive buildup, 822 00:37:01,910 --> 00:37:04,110 a strict quarantine on all offensive 823 00:37:04,110 --> 00:37:06,880 military equipment under shipment to Cuba 824 00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:08,440 is being initiated. 825 00:37:08,450 --> 00:37:11,610 Nobody knew how the Russians would respond. 826 00:37:11,620 --> 00:37:14,580 For 13 days, America held its breath 827 00:37:14,590 --> 00:37:17,420 at the brink of Armageddon. 828 00:37:17,420 --> 00:37:20,290 In the end, the Soviets removed the missiles. 829 00:37:20,290 --> 00:37:24,360 It's as close as we've ever come to full-scale nuclear war. 830 00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:27,060 The Cuban Missile Crisis was a wake-up call. 831 00:37:27,060 --> 00:37:29,430 Messages between Kennedy and Khrushchev 832 00:37:29,430 --> 00:37:31,130 would take more than six hours 833 00:37:31,140 --> 00:37:33,840 to deliver through regular diplomatic channels, 834 00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:36,040 way too long for the nuclear age. 835 00:37:36,040 --> 00:37:39,710 Kennedy knew that fast, direct communication was the key 836 00:37:39,710 --> 00:37:41,540 to avoiding a future crisis. 837 00:37:46,450 --> 00:37:47,980 The John F. Kennedy Library 838 00:37:47,990 --> 00:37:50,390 displays hundreds of real artifacts 839 00:37:50,390 --> 00:37:53,190 from JFK's presidency. 840 00:37:53,190 --> 00:37:57,630 But I'm more interested in something that isn't here. 841 00:37:57,630 --> 00:38:00,530 After the missile crisis, Kennedy and Khrushchev agreed 842 00:38:00,530 --> 00:38:03,730 to set up a Moscow-Washington hotline. 843 00:38:03,730 --> 00:38:06,240 The hotline enabled direct communication 844 00:38:06,240 --> 00:38:10,340 between the two superpowers for the first time. 845 00:38:10,340 --> 00:38:13,580 The red phone has become an icon of the Cold War, 846 00:38:13,580 --> 00:38:15,210 a symbol of the thin line 847 00:38:15,210 --> 00:38:18,780 between peace and mutually assured destruction. 848 00:38:18,780 --> 00:38:20,380 Only there's one problem -- 849 00:38:20,380 --> 00:38:23,790 The red phone never existed. 850 00:38:23,790 --> 00:38:27,220 This is a replica of the Oval Office desk 851 00:38:27,230 --> 00:38:29,760 during President Kennedy's time. 852 00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:32,430 And check it out -- no red phone. 853 00:38:35,930 --> 00:38:37,200 But come with me. 854 00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:42,100 See, the red phone is a total Hollywood creation, 855 00:38:42,110 --> 00:38:43,910 not the hotline itself. 856 00:38:43,910 --> 00:38:45,940 The hotline is real. 857 00:38:45,940 --> 00:38:48,540 I mean, right over here. 858 00:38:48,550 --> 00:38:52,880 That is the real Moscow-Washington hotline. 859 00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:55,950 And that is some serious stuff. 860 00:38:55,950 --> 00:38:57,920 The original hotline was a pair 861 00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:00,860 of electromechanical teletype machines 862 00:39:00,860 --> 00:39:04,360 connected by a 10,000-mile transatlantic cable. 863 00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:06,400 It became operational 10 months 864 00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:08,860 after the Cuban Missile Crisis ended. 865 00:39:11,170 --> 00:39:14,470 This was a major breakthrough in foreign relations. 866 00:39:14,470 --> 00:39:16,610 The hotline agreement marked the first time 867 00:39:16,610 --> 00:39:19,640 the U.S. and Soviet Union both took action 868 00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:21,840 to limit the risk of nuclear war. 869 00:39:21,850 --> 00:39:23,680 The hotline also strengthened 870 00:39:23,680 --> 00:39:26,720 the President's role in Cold War diplomacy. 871 00:39:26,720 --> 00:39:28,480 Now, thanks to technology, 872 00:39:28,490 --> 00:39:32,690 the White House could connect with the Kremlin directly. 873 00:39:32,690 --> 00:39:35,960 I want to learn a little more about the hotline. 874 00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:38,730 To find a teletype machine that still works, 875 00:39:38,730 --> 00:39:41,730 I'm heading to the Vintage Radio and Communications Museum 876 00:39:41,730 --> 00:39:42,630 of Connecticut. 877 00:39:45,170 --> 00:39:48,700 Oh, look at that. She's a beauty. 878 00:39:48,710 --> 00:39:50,110 That's the teletype machine. 879 00:39:50,110 --> 00:39:51,770 That is a teletype machine, yes. 880 00:39:51,780 --> 00:39:53,580 Founder John Ellsworth has offered 881 00:39:53,580 --> 00:39:56,850 to give me a quick lesson on Cold War communication. 882 00:39:56,850 --> 00:39:59,550 Explain to me the technology behind this -- teletype. 883 00:39:59,550 --> 00:40:00,950 -How does that work? -What it does 884 00:40:00,950 --> 00:40:02,920 is it sends typewritten information 885 00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:05,550 over a wire from point "A" to point "B." 886 00:40:05,560 --> 00:40:07,690 -So does this turn on? -Yes. 887 00:40:07,690 --> 00:40:09,660 A little switch down here. 888 00:40:09,660 --> 00:40:12,860 Oh, that's neat. How beautiful. 889 00:40:12,860 --> 00:40:14,730 I happen to know that the original message 890 00:40:14,730 --> 00:40:17,930 that was sent on that Moscow-Washington line was, 891 00:40:17,940 --> 00:40:22,300 "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back," 892 00:40:22,310 --> 00:40:24,770 a message that basically tests every single key. 893 00:40:24,780 --> 00:40:26,080 Every single key, yeah. 894 00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:27,410 -And then the numbers. -And then the numbers. 895 00:40:27,410 --> 00:40:28,840 So I'm gonna type that right now. 896 00:40:28,850 --> 00:40:30,710 So it's the early 1960s. 897 00:40:30,720 --> 00:40:33,650 And here goes the first one. 898 00:40:33,650 --> 00:40:34,980 There she goes. 899 00:40:34,990 --> 00:40:36,850 It's a nice feeling. It's got good action. 900 00:40:36,850 --> 00:40:40,320 Yeah. 901 00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:43,660 I feel like I'm in high school typing class. 902 00:40:43,660 --> 00:40:47,300 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, zero. 903 00:40:47,300 --> 00:40:48,860 -Beautiful. -There it is. 904 00:40:48,870 --> 00:40:51,730 There's the text. I have typed in D.C. 905 00:40:54,370 --> 00:40:55,570 There she goes. 906 00:40:55,570 --> 00:40:58,170 Here comes the all-important top-secret message. 907 00:40:58,180 --> 00:40:59,610 Okay. 908 00:40:59,610 --> 00:41:02,140 The quick brown fox jumped over the... 909 00:41:02,150 --> 00:41:07,120 You know, that's very satisfying. 910 00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:08,120 Look at that. 911 00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:11,090 So this line of text I typed in D.C. 912 00:41:11,090 --> 00:41:15,120 gets transmitted and read in Moscow. 913 00:41:15,130 --> 00:41:18,760 This is nuclear war avoided. 914 00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:21,160 Cool. 915 00:41:21,170 --> 00:41:24,000 The White House has seen incredible changes 916 00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:26,300 in its 200-plus-year history, 917 00:41:26,300 --> 00:41:32,070 from simple stone house to state-of-the-art fortress, 918 00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:34,640 from Roosevelt's renovation 919 00:41:34,650 --> 00:41:37,880 to Kennedy's Cold War command center, 920 00:41:37,880 --> 00:41:41,680 and from analog to digital. 921 00:41:41,690 --> 00:41:44,490 The White House has been and will always be 922 00:41:44,490 --> 00:41:47,920 an enduring emblem of freedom and democracy 923 00:41:47,930 --> 00:41:51,360 and the most important home office in the world. 924 00:41:53,830 --> 00:41:54,760 I'm Don Wildman. 925 00:41:54,770 --> 00:41:55,860 Thanks for watching 926 00:41:55,870 --> 00:41:58,370 "Mysteries at the Museum: The White House." 926 00:41:59,305 --> 00:42:59,471 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm