Today Is The 60th Anniversary Of NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain Base

Some 2,000 feet below the surface of the Cheyenne Mountains lies American's most secure intelligence and data center. The massive underground fortress is a short distance from NORAD and UNSORTHCOM headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado

Daily Mail: The 'Most Secure Place on Earth': Top secret NORAD base buried deep inside Cheyenne Mountain opens its 23-ton blast doors as the Cold War relic reinvents itself for the 21st century

* The warren of tunnels blasted from mountain granite is known to some as the most secure place on earth
* Built in Cold War to monitor Soviet threats and ensure central command could not be wiped out by attack
* North American Aerospace Defense Command still uses site to keep track of states including North Korea
* Saturday is the 60th anniversary of the bi-national organization created by the US and Canada to protect the skies over both nations

A quarter-century has passed since the end of the Cold War, but a top secret NORAD base buried deep inside Cheyenne Mountain has offered a rare tour to show how it is still tracking nuclear threats from America's enemies.

Behind 23-ton blast doors lies what it known as the most secure place on earth - a warren of tunnels blasted out of Colorado granite in the 1960s teeming with high-tech surveillance and monitoring equipment.

NORAD, which is 60 years old on Saturday, called off its 'nuclear watch' in 1992 after the Soviet Union disintegrated, but the site's 300 staff are still monitoring threats to the US around the clock - including, despite the recent detente,Kim Jong-Un's North Korea.

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WNU Editor: Still busy as ever.

An Inside Look At The Cheyenne Mountain Complex

CBS News

CBS: America's fortress: Inside the base that defends U.S. in outer space

Deep inside a cave, a military base in Colorado's Cheyenne Mountain plays a critical role in the mission to protect America and its allies in outer space.

It is said the Colorado's Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station acts like the human brain stem, reports CBS News correspondent Bianna Golodryga. The survival bunker pulls in information, makes sense of it, and passes it along to the brain – or our country's decision-makers. There's also good reason Cheyenne Mountain is known as America's fortress.

"It is the nerve center for the blanket of defense for the U.S.," said Col. Robert Moose, who commands the 721st Mission Support Group at Cheyenne Mountain.

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WNU Editor: It is amazing that the complex is still operational after all of these years.

A Look Inside The NORAD Complex At Cheyenne

Some 2,000 feet below the surface of the Cheyenne Mountains lies American's most secure intelligence and data center. The massive underground fortress is a short distance from NORAD and UNSORTHCOM headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado

Daily Mail: Take a look inside Skynet's 50-year-old blast-proof bunker: New pictures give rare glimpse inside the real-life secret underground military complex made famous by the Terminator film

* Cost $142.4 million to build, opened February 6, 1967 and first started as the NORAD Combat Operations Center
* Has 350 employees from US and Canada military, in addition to contractors that oversee operations of structure
* Doors are hooked up to hydraulics that shut them in just 20 seconds during an attack – it takes 40 seconds by hand
* Bunker was featured in Terminator, WarGames and Interstellar and the sci-fi show Stargate SG-1

It has starred as the home of Skynet in the Terminator series, stopped a nuclear attack in the movie War Games, and even appears in everything from Interstellar to Stargate.

Now, new pictures reveal the interior of the secretive military complex and NORAD Combat Operations Center hidden 2,000 feet below the surface of the Cheyenne Mountains.

It's been 50 years since the facility opened its doors to the US Air Force facility, and now the 23-ton blast doors have been opened again.

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WNU Editor: Still operating after 50 years .... I will not be surprised if it is still in operation 50 years from now.

The Pentagon Is Returning To The Cheyenne Mountain Complex

The entrance to the Cheyenne Mountain base in Colorado. (Photo : Twitter Photo Section)

Daily Mail: Why is the military moving back into 'Stargate' base deep under the Rocky Mountains a decade after it was abandoned?

* Cheyenne Mountain Complex being refurbished by Pengaton
* High tech communications being installed that are impervious to electromagnetic pulses
* The bunker is build under 2,000 feet of the Rocky Mountains and is able to withstand a hit by a 30 megaton nuclear blast
* Decommissioned 10-years ago because 'the Russians were no longer a threat'

The Cheyenne Mountain Complex is one of the icons of the Cold War - a self-contained and sufficient town buried under the Rockies meant to be impervious to a Soviet nuclear barrage.

It was home to the North American Aerospace Command (NORAD), scanning the skies for Russian missiles and the military command and control center of the United States in the event of World War Three.

The high tech base entered popular culture with appearances in the 1983 Cold War thriller War Games and 1994's Stargate - which imagined the complex as a clandestine home for intergalactic travel.

More News On The Pentagon Returning To The Cheyenne Mountain Complex

US aerospace command moving comms gear back to Cold War bunker -- AFP
Pentagon Moves More Communications Gear into Cheyenne Mountain -- Defense One
Defense Moves More Communications Equipment into Cheyenne Mountain -- Government Executive
Cold War-Era Bunker To House Communications Gear From U.S. Aerospace Command -- HNGN
US Aerospace Command Communications to Move Back to Cold War-Era Bunker -- Sputnik
Stargate mountain: Pentagon moves comm gear back to Cold War-era bunker -- RT
Why Is The Pentagon Beefing Up A Mountain Stronghold? -- Daily Caller