Chicago Really Does Have an Enormous Underground World

Chicago is one of the best examples of why this conversation becomes confusing.

The city has a public underground Pedway system connecting more than 40 blocks of the downtown business district over roughly five miles.

Far below that is something much larger.

The Chicago area's Tunnel and Reservoir Plan, commonly called the Deep Tunnel, consists of approximately 110 miles of tunnels, some between 150 and 300 feet underground. Those tunnels can be as large as 33 feet in diameter. The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District says their purpose is controlling flooding and carrying combined sewage and stormwater into massive reservoirs for later treatment.

That is a tremendous underground engineering system.

But I want to be accurate: those facts do not prove that Chicago has a hidden underground city built to protect politicians or wealthy people during a war.

If somebody makes that claim, I want to see the evidence.

What Chicago does demonstrate is that governments are fully capable of constructing gigantic underground projects beneath major population centers when they decide those projects are necessary.

And that brings me to the facilities we do know exist.

Mount Weather — Virginia

The federal government openly acknowledges the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center as part of its national continuity infrastructure.

FEMA's Office of National Continuity Programs is responsible for continuity planning intended to allow governments to keep essential functions operating during emergencies, and Mount Weather is part of that system.

Think about what “continuity of government” means.

Government planners have spent decades preparing for situations in which normal government buildings might not be usable.

That could mean nuclear war.

A terrorist attack.

A catastrophic natural disaster.

A massive attack against infrastructure.

Or another national emergency.

I understand the reason for preserving government. America cannot simply become leaderless in the middle of an attack.

But I have another question:

Where is the continuity plan for the family living in an apartment building?

Where is the hardened facility for the schoolteacher?

The truck driver?

The waitress?

The construction worker?

The mother with three children?

The retired veteran?

The elderly couple living on Social Security?

Government officials need protection so government can continue functioning.

Fine.

But the citizens are the country too.

Raven Rock — Pennsylvania

Then there is the Raven Rock Mountain Complex in Pennsylvania.

The U.S. Army publicly identifies Raven Rock as a facility connected to government continuity operations. The Army's 114th Signal Battalion operates there as part of a brigade whose mission includes communications support connected to national leadership and continuity of government.

Federal law has also specifically referenced Raven Rock in connection with Department of Defense continuity-of-operations and continuity-of-government requirements.

So when Americans hear about government bunkers, everything they hear is not necessarily a conspiracy theory.

Some hardened government facilities are real.

My argument is that Americans should understand why they exist, who they are intended to protect, what functions they preserve and what plans exist for everybody outside those facilities.

Cheyenne Mountain — Colorado

Then we have Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado.

This isn't rumor.

NORAD publicly describes the Cheyenne Mountain Complex as its alternate joint operations center. The facility contains multiple buildings constructed inside the mountain and was designed around the military requirement to preserve command capability during an attack.

An official NORAD description has even characterized the complex as functioning like a “city within a city,” with facilities including police and fire services, medical and dental services, food service and other support infrastructure.

Again, I understand the military logic.

If America is attacked, somebody needs to monitor our airspace.

Somebody needs communications.

Somebody needs to maintain military command.

Somebody needs the capability to defend the country.

I'm not arguing that we should shut these facilities down.

I'm asking why our national survival conversation seems so much more developed for maintaining institutions than for protecting millions of ordinary Americans.

The Greenbrier Bunker — West Virginia

History gives us an even clearer example.

For decades, the federal government secretly maintained a bunker beneath the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia intended to house members of Congress during a national emergency.

According to the National Park Service, the bunker was completed in 1962 and remained secret until its existence was publicly exposed in 1992. The government eventually ended its lease, and the former bunker is now known publicly and has been opened for tours.

Think about that.

For approximately three decades, most Americans didn't even know it existed.

Congress had an emergency relocation facility prepared for catastrophic circumstances.

That historical fact is exactly why I understand why some Americans become suspicious when they hear about underground government facilities today.

The answer shouldn't be to call everybody crazy for asking questions.

The answer should be transparency.

My Question Is Not Whether America Needs Continuity of Government

We do.

Every serious country needs plans for surviving catastrophic attacks.

The president cannot be standing around trying to figure out where the military command structure will operate after an attack has already happened.

Congress cannot wait until Washington has been incapacitated before considering how constitutional government continues.

Emergency planners are supposed to think about terrible scenarios before they happen.

I understand all of that.

But that does not end the conversation.

It begins it.

Because when officials prepare for the possibility of nuclear war, conventional war or a catastrophic attack, ordinary Americans are part of that same emergency.

If missiles hit American cities, the blast isn't going to ask who voted Republican.

Radiation isn't going to ask who voted Democrat.

A collapsing power grid doesn't care what political party you belong to.

The people will suffer together.

And that is where I start questioning our priorities.

If We Go to War, Who Pays the Highest Price?

When politicians talk about war, they often talk about military strategy, alliances, national interests and geopolitical objectives.

But ordinary Americans experience war differently.

Our sons and daughters serve.

Families lose loved ones.

Workers lose jobs when economies are disrupted.

Food and fuel prices can rise.

Infrastructure can become a target.

And in the worst possible scenario—an attack on American soil—it is ordinary neighborhoods that could be devastated.

Government leadership has contingency plans.

Military commands have hardened facilities.

Certain essential personnel have relocation procedures.

What does the average American family have?

A FEMA website?

An emergency alert?

Instructions telling them to have food, water and batteries ready?

Those things are useful, but they are not the same thing as a hardened command facility hundreds of feet underground.

That difference is worth discussing.

Do They Really Care About the American People?

That is the uncomfortable question I'm willing to ask.

Do our leaders care about the American people with the same urgency they show when planning to preserve the government itself?

I'm not claiming that every politician has a private luxury bunker waiting underneath their house.

I'm not going to tell Americans that every tunnel they see on the internet is secretly built for elites.

That would not be responsible.

What I am saying is that we know the government has invested significant resources in continuity facilities and hardened military command infrastructure.

So Americans have every right to ask:

What happens to us?

Where are the large-scale civilian protection plans?

How many Americans could actually be protected during a catastrophic attack?

How long could our food distribution system survive?

How would cities provide clean drinking water?

What happens when electricity is gone for weeks?

Where do millions of people evacuate?

How would hospitals continue operating?

What happens to children, elderly Americans and people with disabilities?

How much money are we spending preparing the government to survive compared with preparing communities to survive?

Those are questions a president should be asking before America enters another major war.

We Should Know More, Not Less

There are legitimate security reasons why certain details about national-defense facilities cannot be made public.

I understand that too.

We don't need our enemies receiving the blueprints to America's command facilities.

But national security cannot become an excuse to avoid every public question.

Congress can provide Americans with basic information about civilian survival planning without revealing classified military secrets.

Government can tell Americans whether adequate shelter strategies exist.

Government can explain emergency food, medical, communications and evacuation capabilities.

Government can tell taxpayers how much attention is being given to civilian resilience.

Because the people paying for the government deserve to know that somebody has considered whether they survive too.

This Is Why I Keep Telling Americans to Wake Up and Ask Questions

I want people researching these issues.

But research doesn't mean believing every video on social media.

It means separating what is documented from what is rumored.

Chicago has massive tunnels. That is documented.

Mount Weather exists as part of federal continuity infrastructure. That is documented.

Raven Rock exists and has a continuity mission. That is documented.

Cheyenne Mountain is a hardened military command facility. That is documented.

The Greenbrier congressional bunker existed secretly for decades. That is documented.

But a nationwide network of underground cities reserved for politicians and wealthy elites has not been established by the credible evidence I have reviewed.

I can still look at the documented facts and ask a serious question:

Why does the United States appear to have such sophisticated plans for preserving government leadership while ordinary citizens are largely expected to prepare individually for catastrophe?

That's the conversation I want America having.

If I Send Americans Into Danger, I Better Be Willing to Face That Danger Too

As a candidate for president, this issue goes directly to how I think about war.

A president should never look at military action like pieces moving across a board.

Those pieces have mothers.

Fathers.

Children.

Husbands.

Wives.

Families.

And if another country retaliates against the United States, Washington politicians will not necessarily experience that danger the same way a family living in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Houston, San Antonio or another American city will.

That's why war should always be an extraordinary decision.

And before government leaders tell the American people that a conflict is necessary, I believe the public deserves to know something else:

What have you done to protect us if that conflict reaches our shores?

Don't just tell me how you're protecting Washington.

Tell me how you're protecting America.

Because America is not the Capitol building.

America is not the White House.

America is not Congress.

America is not a bunker inside a mountain.

America is the people.

And if the government has a plan to survive the worst day in our history, then I want to know what the plan is for the citizens who built this country, pay for this government and send their children to defend it.

That's a question I believe every American has the right to ask.

— John Washington III Candidate for President of the United States, 2028