Fort Knox is in the north of Elizabethtown and Kentucky south of Louisville, a United States Army post. The 109,000 acre base of Fort Knox covers parts of Hardin, Bullitt, and Meade counties. Fort Knox is believed to be a gold vault enveloped by granite walls and has a bombproof roof at the top.
Construction
The U.S. Army constructed this Fort Knox building in December 1936. The gold was shipped by train in January 1937 beginning to Fort Knox and a U.S. Cavalry Brigade protected it. Right from that time, Fort Knox is off limits to everyone.
Safety
As per the Federal Reserve, there are gold bricks of approximately 147.3 million ounces called bullion — sitting inside the secure vault of Fort Knox. It is also referred to the Bullion Depository of United States. Fort Knox is highly secure, besides the roof and granite walls, it is protected by multiple arms, surrounded by fences and Apache helicopter gunships on guard. The gold in Fort Knox is a backup to the currency system.
It is said to be the Federal Reserve asset and does not have any part in the monetary system. The Fort Knox also has other non-gold treasures, so Fort Knox is not meant only to store gold. It has nearly five items that also share the vault and is storage in safety.
1. The Magna Carta
The Magna Cartas, one of the four copies, is in Fort Knox. Though, it is believed that it has traveled the world right from the World War II period. However, now it is a long layover here in this fort. The destination of this book originally was at the 1939 British Pavilion New York World's Fair. Later World War II erupted, and the document was sent for safe keeping to the vault. Until 1947, for the Magna Carta, Fort Knox was life after it was returned to Lincoln Cathedral.
Magna Carta is the most prominent documents. It has a legacy of 800-year legacy and includes a distinct collection such as newly commissioned videos, articles of experts, animations and also an array of teaching resources. In fact, school groups may contribute to the digital age a clause towards this new Magna Carta.
2. The Constitution and 3. The Declaration of Independence
Magna Carta was not the alone historical document that was amidst the gold bars in the World War II. The original constitution and declaration of independence papers were also moved to Fort Knox from Washington D.C after the Pearl Harbor attack. However, there is no picture in the museum as a display. It is believed that the documents are safe with a gear of 150 pounds and the fact that it was in Fort Knox it is surely extra safe and the same was returned in 1944 to D.C.
4. The Holy Crown of Hungary
This crown is made of pearls, gold, and several other jewels. The holy crown of Hungary was considered divine. The Hungarian king reigned from 1095 to 1116 and he was King Coloman, a book lover who wrote the ruler was not the king, but the Holy crown. The real leader was the Holy Crown in the country.
The importance of the Holy Crown was apparent, right from the time it is found, lost and stolen throughout the history. At the World war II in 1945, the crown was recovered the U.S. 86th Infantry Division in Mattsee, Austria. It was later returned to the Hungarian Crown Guard. However, there was the Soviet Union threat and the Holy Crown during the cold war was sent to Fort Knox. It got the royal security treatment When it came to the Hungarian Crown Guard, the unit considered the threat of the Soviet Union. Therefore, the Holy Crown was sent to Fort Knox for the duration of the Cold War. It stayed until 1978 there and got the royal security treatment.
5. Tons of Morphine and Opium
The Fort Knox is well known for protecting gold but is also worth millions of morphine and opium. They were stored in 1955 in the aim of cold war preparation. The U.S. military was ready to have adequate emergency painkillers in case the foreign drug was cut off. Now, what will they do with these tons of drugs? However, they could not sell the morphine and so in 1993 transformed the old opium into morphine sulphate by spending million in refining it.
Fort Knox is prominent for the reason that it has gold in massive amounts. However, there are lots more inside such as the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Gutenberg Bible, Lincoln's Gettysburg address and the Magna Carta.
The stored gold is nearly 2.5% at Fort Knox representing all the gold refined over the period of history. With this, an interesting truth is that even with such a reservoir of gold, Fort Knox ranks the second largest position in the U.S. in the gold depository. In Manhattan, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York features an underground vault holding 224.1 million ounces of gold.
Fort Knox was opened in Kentucky in 1937 as a gold depository, and this was deemed to be the most secured places in the globe. Earlier it was a military training camp and the walls of this treasure cost around $560,000 for construction to complete. It is made of granite in 16,000 cubic feet, concrete was in 4,200 cubic yards, with reinforcing steel as 750 tons and structural steel of 670 tons. This fortress is impenetrable.
Fort Knox now houses approximately 147.3 million ounces of gold. In 1941, there were 649.6 million ounces of gold, and this was the highest amount ever held in the fort. This gold in Fort Knox is actually in a bar shape in 7 inches in length, and wide by 3 inches. Each bar is nearly 400 ounce that is 27.5 pounds.