Brooklyn Bridge houses '50s survival stash

AP via Comcast News ^ | 21 March 2006 | Unattributed

[Moose4]

NEW YORK - Workers inspecting the structural foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge uncovered a Cold War-era trove of basic provisions that were stockpiled amid fears of a nuclear attack.

The stash, discovered in a vault under an entrance ramp, includes water drums, canisters of calorie-packed crackers, paper blankets, medical supplies and drugs that were used to treat shock.

The estimated 352,000 Civil Defense All-Purpose Survival Crackers are apparently still intact, said Joseph Vaccaro, a supervisor at the city Transportation Department. The metal water drums, each labeled "reuse as a commode," did not fare as well _ they're now empty.

[Moose4]

}:-)4

[butternut_squash_bisque]

Duck and cover, kids!

[2banana]

Escape from New York!

[BureaucratusMaximus]

The stash, discovered in a vault under an entrance ramp, includes water drums, canisters of calorie-packed crackers, paper blankets, medical supplies and drugs that were used to treat shock.

Paper blankets? Sounds so comfy.

[Obadiah]

Nonsense. Everyone knows that if you just hid under your desk you'd be fine.

[battlegearboat]

Also found:

Davy Crockett hat, Howdy Doody wash cloth, Green Stamps, A stove with tail fins, wooden flip flops and a Remmington typewriter.

[Servant of the 9]

Doesn't say a lot for their maintainance program on the bridge that no one had even looked in there in 50 years.

So9

[Eric in the Ozarks]

There was a stash of crackers and water in the basement of our old office building in Sheboygan. Someone had also put away about 300 rolls of tp.

[ansel12]

"Nonsense. Everyone knows that if you just hid under your desk you'd be fine."



When you read accounts of the only nuclear war to date, you see basic training such as "duck and cover" would have produced fewer deaths, and injuries. We still teach "duck and cover" for earthquakes and tornado's. To not have food and blankets, plus much more, stored in advance for New York city in case of emergency sounds criminal to me. The natural impulse when seeing a nuke set off is to stand in the window and look at it, that isn't the best thing to do.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Y2K? [giggle]

[chadwimc]

My co-wokers and I fed off of hard candy(vintage 1963) found in a fallout shelter for several years. It was sealed in five gallon cans. The crackers were similar to matzo crackers in taste and texture. They were quickly discarded. The water was is old style beer cans(white label--"water"). A person had to have a can opener to use the water.

[jaydubya2]

In the basement of a steel mill I worked in (built in the '60s) there was a stash of Civil Defense supplies. ie. water, crackers, blankets, canned food... But I often thought, " If we get hit by the Big One, would I really want to spend my dying days in the basement of a steel mill with a bunch of rats and smelly male steelworkers?"

[TalonDJ]

It amuses me how many scoff at 'duck and cover' when it WORKS. Those people knew what nukes did, they had been testing them for a while. The only reason we stopped teaching duck and cover type drills probably was because some limp wrist bureaucrat thought it made kids fearful.

Unless you are really close to the blast, most of the damage done by the nuke is the shockwave. Since you don't have time to go any where else, ducking under a desk is a great way to not get decapitated by flying glass.

[Rebelbase]

"The estimated 352,000 Civil Defense All-Purpose Survival Crackers are apparently still intact"

EBay!

[sure_fine]

[Fintan]

Nonsense. Everyone knows that if you just hid under your desk you'd be fine.

 

I thought all we had to do was get off the playground. At least that's what Sister Mary Ignatius told us.

[Alouette]

The metal water drums, each labeled "reuse as a commode," did not fare as well _ they're now empty.

I'm really surprised they were not reused as commodes.

[Minutemen]

Break out the crackers and lets party!

[agere_contra]

Amen to that. The "Duck and cover" tactic - much decried by lefty know-nothings the world over - would have vastly reduced the incidence of human beings being shredded by glass and other fragments.

This would of course would only matter along the periphery of an atomic strike - but this works out as about 80% of the affected area due to the way area goes up by the square of the radius.

Of course a full nuclear exchange in the late H-bomb era would have killed pretty much everyone in Russia, Britain and North America - but single exchanges were certainly envisaged at the time. If crazed Islamics ever started lobbing bombs it would again be "a few" missiles rather than overlapping megadeath, so - for instance - the inhabitants of Tel-Aviv would find it useful to learn about duck-n-cover.

[Cliff Dweller]

"Unless you are really close to the blast, most of the damage done by the nuke is the shockwave."

Actually, the thermal effects extend beyond the shockwave for large yield weapons, with low yield weapons one could survive the thermal and blast effects, but the radiation could creep into the severe range.

I would venture that with a 1 Megaton blast the thermal effects can reach about 13 miles, whereas the blast effects decrease to tolerable at around 7-10 miles, but those brain cells haven't been exercised in a couple of years, so I could be off.