They called it
Project X. It was an unusually audacious, highly sensitive assignment:
to build a massive skyscraper, capable of withstanding an atomic blast,
in the middle of New York City. It would have no windows, 29 floors with
three basement levels, and enough food to last 1,500 people two weeks
in the event of a catastrophe.
But the building’s primary purpose would not be to protect humans
from toxic radiation amid nuclear war. Rather, the fortified skyscraper
would safeguard powerful computers, cables, and switchboards. It would
house one of the most important telecommunications hubs in the United
States — the world’s largest center for processing long-distance phone
calls, operated by the New York Telephone Company, a subsidiary of
AT&T.
The building was designed by the architectural firm John Carl
Warnecke & Associates, whose grand vision was to create a
communication nerve center like a “20th century fortress, with spears
and arrows replaced by protons and neutrons laying quiet siege to an
army of machines within.”
