January 5, 2012
NEW YORK (AFP) - For sale: one idyllic wooden cottage -- with nuclear missile silo attached.
The upstate New York property, listed by Sotheby's for $1.76 million, looks like a typical weekend chalet in the forested Adirondack Mountains.
At least, that's what's above ground. But punch in a keypad code to open the door, head down some steep stairs and you enter another world.
First comes the old underground missile control center, refitted as luxury housing. From there, you enter a tunnel, passing several massive blast doors, into the now empty silo descending seven floors down.
For the James Bond wannabe, the property, which can be viewed on http://www.coldwarmissilesilo.com/index.htm, also has its own airstrip.
The Atlas-F missile site, part of the first generation of "super-hardened" silos, was activated in 1961 and closed in 1965, then later bought by businessman Bruce Francisco. A black and white picture on the property's web ad shows an intercontinental missile protruding from the silo's open doors.
