Welcome to the Diefenbunker, Canada’s Cold War Museum. This audio tour will take you four stories below ground and lasts approximately 1 hour. Use this device to start, stop, skip, or go back. Listen for this chime [chime] to signal the end of a stop.

Central Emergency Government Headquarters—or the Diefenbunker, as it was nicknamed—was fully operational by the end of 1961 and stayed in service until 1994. The base was known as Canadian Forces Station Carp, or CFS Carp. It operated in total secrecy in an era when mutual nuclear annihilation between the West and the Soviet bloc seemed dangerously plausible.

Even in peacetime, working at CFS Carp could be stressful. Some of the people who worked here, civilian and military, have described their experiences working deep underground. You’ll hear some of their voices during this tour.

As the seat of the Canadian government, Ottawa was a logical target for attack. The Bunker was built to house the emergency government if the capital was bombed. This massive underground building was constructed to withstand the effects of a 5-megaton atomic bomb.

In the end, the Cold War ended peacefully thanks in part to careful diplomacy to navigate its crises. Nuclear war was avoided, and the Bunker never needed to function as a shelter for an emergency government. Instead, it served Canada as a top-secret communications base for more than 30 years.