(1962) THE FALLOUT SHELTER SIGN AND SHELTER PROGRAM EXPLAINED IN TWO GREAT FILMS!!

THE FALLOUT SHELTER SIGN SOON TO BE EXTINCT AS MORE AND MORE BUILDING OWNERS ARE REMOVING THEM FROM OUTSIDE THEIR BUILDINGS. THEY WERE UNDER CONTRACT WITH THE US GOVERNMENT WHEN SURVEYED IN THE EARLY 1960 S  AS A PLACE WHERE THE PUBLIC COULD FIND REFUGE IN THE EVENT OF A NUCLEAR ATTACK, ALSO IT DENOTED THAT WITHIN WERE PROVISIONS AND SOME TYPE OF LEADERSHIP THAT WOULD ASSIST THE PUBLIC AS THEY CAME TO OCCUPY THE SHELTER AREA, MOST WERE JUST INTERIOR STAIRWAYS OR LOWER LEVELS IN A PARKING GARAGE OR A ALREADY FILLED SPACE IN A BASEMENT OF A RESIDENTIAL BUILDING OR COMMERCIAL STORE. THESE AREAS DID NOT PROVIDE ADEQUATe VENTILATION AND MOST SHELTERS WERE NOT STOCKED AND IF THEY WERE MOST LIKELY THE WATER BARRELS WERE EMPTY AND NOT FILLED AND MEDICAL KITS OR RADIOLOGICAL EQUIPMENT WERE ALREADY LOOTED. NYC IS FILLED WITH BUILDINGS IDENTIFYING THEM AS PUBLIC SHELTERS AND SOMETIMES YOU WILL SEE A BUILDING OWNER THROWING SANITATION AND CRACKER FILLED BARRELS AND TINS INTO A 30 YARD ROLL OFF DUMPSTER EVEN THOUGH THESE ITEMS ARE SOLD AS NOVELTIES ON E BAY THE INVENTORY WITHIN THESE SHELTERS WAS ABANDONED IN PLACE BY THE US GOVT. WHEN JIMMY CARTER CAME IN TO OFFICE AND THE OFFICE OF CIVIL DEFENSE BECAME THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY. THE FALLOUT SHELTER PROGRAM WAS DOOMED OR READY TO BE FORGOTTEN AS FEMA CAME UP WITH IDEAS LIKE SHELTER IN PLACE AND STOPPED PUBLISHING SURVIVING AN ATOMIC ATTACK AND STARTED PREPARING FOR NATURAL DISASTERS, FEMAS CIVILIAN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE DROPPED THE THIRD COURSE IN ITS SERIES OF EMI STUDIES. SURVIVAL IN A NUCLEAR ATTACK ONE DAY BECAME UNAVAILABLE AS A  COURSE TO GET CERTIFIED IN. RADIOLOGICAL EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS BECAME A NEW  COURSE AS IT COVERED IN PART OF THE COURSE NUCLEAR ATTACK. MOST CITIES WENT ROUGE AND JUST DROPPED THE COMMUNITY SHELTER PLAN AND THE MAINTAINING OF SHELTERS AROUND 1978 - 1983 1983 WAS THE LAST COMMUNITY SHELTER LIST THAT WAS SUPPOSE TO BE A LISTING OF SHELTERS STILL EXISTING ALTHOUGH IT STILL LISTED NIKE MISSILE SITES LONG DECOMMISSIONED AND CLOSED IN 1970-75 .NYC LOOKED AT SHELTERS LIKE BURIAL PILES AS PEOPLE OCCUPIED THESE SHELTERS UNDER 30 STORY HIGH OR HIGHER BUILDINGS THEY WOULD COME DOWN ON TOP OF THOSE SHELTERING IN THEM ENTOMBING THEM FOREVER AS RADIATION LEVELS IN A TARGET CITY LIKE NEW YORK WOULD NOT DISSIPATE FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS AND HOW WOULD CIVILIZATION EVEN GET THE MATERIAL OR MACHINES IN A POST WAR SOCIETY TO UNCOVER THOSE BURIED UNDER HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF SITES THAT POSSESSED SHELTER SITES UNDER LARGE SKYSCRAPERS.

FACT SHEET: NATIONAL FALLOUT SHELTER SIGN  In 1961 President John F. Kennedy announced an ambitious plan to identify, mark and stock existing public building space for fallout shelter protection for approximately 50 million U.S. citizens. In order to "mark" buildings offering this type of emergency refuge, the government had to design a sign. The following document explaining the National Fallout Shelter Sign was located at the National Archives. Because of the cross-outs and handwritten additions, it is almost certainly a draft document. Given the iconic status* of the Fallout Shelter Sign, this document is a fascinating one to read. *Aside from achieving universal recognition value during the Cold War, the sign received perhaps its most prestigious honor when the British rock band The Who appropriated it as an advertising symbol for their 1973 North American tour. The following is a transcription of the entire document: 1383-61 FACT SHEET (Hand written above the title) NATIONAL FALLOUT SHELTER SIGN The National Fallout Shelter Sign will be a familiar sight all over the United States next year. It will mark buildings and other facilities as areas where 50 or more persons can be sheltered from radioactive fallout resulting from a nuclear attack. The fallout sign will be used only to mark Federally approved buildings surveyed by architect-engineer firms under contract to the Department of Defense. In awarding the contract for design of the sign to graphic arts studios it was designated the services of a psychologist be obtained to recommend a visual symbol that could be easily identified and remembered. The sign had to meet the psychological requirements of simplicity, easy identification, retention, and arresting color combination. It had to be simple enough to be easily identified by children, non-English speaking persons or others who may not be able to read. The color combination, yellow and black, is considered as the most easily identified attention getter by psychologists in the graphic arts industry. The sign can be seen and recognized at distances up to 200 feet. The shelter symbol on the sign is a black circle set against a yellow rectangular background. Inside the circle, three yellow triangles are arranged in geometric pattern with apex of the triangle pointing down. Below the fallout symbol, lettered in yellow against black, are the words Fallout Shelter in plain block letters. Yellow directional arrows are located directly underneath the lettering which will indicate the location of the shelter.

(1951) NYC's FIRST ATOMIC AIR RAID DRILL A UNBELIEVABLE PIECE OF ATOMIC HISTORY!

A RARE LOOK AT NYC DURING ONE OF ITS "MANDATORY"ATOMIC AIR RAID DRILLS, FILMED WITH SOUND IN TIMES SQUARE THE SOUND OF SIRENS ECHOING THROUGH NYC's STREETS AS NEW YORKERS HURRY TO SHELTERS IS A VERY RARE SIGHT AND ONE PROBABLY NOT SEEN VERY OFTEN. THE FIRST VIDEO IS A NEWS REEL OF THE NYC CIVIL DEFENSE EXERCISE 

When nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, civilians had their first glimpse of the new reality: a world where one massive bomb could decimate an entire city. But it was not until the power balance shifted and another country—the Soviet Union—tested its first nuclear bomb on August 29, 1949 that the new world order became truly frightening to many Americans. The US government needed to find ways to keep civilians safe in the event of a nuclear attack and make citizens feel comfortable with the idea of the bomb and nuclear energy. Civil defense as practiced in the US after World War II was a domestic security policy that combined propaganda with theories about survival following a nuclear attack. The US never successfully implemented a civil defense plan, but New York City figures prominently in Civil Defense history.

(1954) OPERATION APPLEJACK NATIONWIDE ATOMIC ATTACK PREPAREDNESS DRILL NYC FOOTAGE

A LITTLE TASTE OF A NEW YORK CITY MOST OF US NEVER SAW AND PROBABLY CAN NOT IMAGINE. THE THOUGHT OF NEW YORKERS FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS TO CLEAR THE STREETS AND FIND SHELTER FROM A HYPOTHETICAL ATOMIC ATTACK IS MINDBLOWING BUT THE TRUTH IS THE AVERAGE GOTHAM RESIDENT WAS SCARED TO DEATH OF SOVIET BOMBERS ON THE HORIZON LADEN WITH ATOMIC BOMBS. THIS WAS ONLY NINE YEARS POST HIROSHIMA AND FALLOUT SHELTERS WERE YEARS AWAY "AIR RAID SHELTERS" WERE WHAT THEY WERE CALLED USUALLY A PARKING GARAGE OR A SUBWAY STATION. FINDING ONE WAS FAIRLY EASY NO YELLOW AND BLACK GOTHIC LOOKING FALLOUT SHELTER SIGN JUST A WHITE AND BLACK BOMB SHELTER SIGN A VERY VERY RARE FIND ON NEW YORK CITY STREETS TODAY, I ALMOST SNAGGED ONE 10 YEARS AGO IN MIDTOWN JUST HANGING OVER A FREIGHT ENTRANCE, I DID THE UNTHINKABLE AND ASKED THE BUILDING OWNER FOR THE SIGN AND UPON LEARNING OF IT HE PROMPTLY TOLD ME BUZZ OFF AND TOOK IT FOR HIMSELF WHILE A HANDYMAN SHOOK HIS HEAD AND SAID "YOU SHOULDA SLIPPED ME FIVE BUCKS AND IT WOULDA BEEN YOURS....."  SADLY.....I NEVER CAME ACROSS ANOTHER .

(1963) OPERATIONS IN PUBLIC SHELTERS - FALLOUT SHELTER LIFE POST ATTACK A FAIRY TALE

OPERATIONS IN PUBLIC SHELTERS

Office of Civil Defense

1963

Beginning in 1961, architects and engineers across the United States set out to inspect thousands of buildings which could potentially serve as public fallout shelter spaces.  This project, known as the National Fallout Shelter Survey, culminated with the marking and stocking of many suitable locations.  Once the signs and supplies were in place, however, the Office of Civil Defense often left subsequent administerial responsibilities to local officials.  Federal programs still sought to train local shelter managers by creating a body of films and literature designed to examine each phase of a shelter stay.  This “shelter living” material frequently stressed absolute reliance on bureaucratic procedures implemented long before any emergency.  Instinctive following of these procedures, it was expected, would allow for calm attitudes to suppress the chaos which would no doubt ensue after an enemy attack.  Few films demonstrate this principle better than the 1963 OCD production Operations in Public Shelters.

                              

Operations in Public Shelters follows an impromptu leader, Gary Bates, as he gradually gains control over the hectic situation unfolding in his local shelter.   Opening in the immediate aftermath of a nuclear exchange, citizens mill in panic, crowding the entrance of Public Shelter 126.  Those inside fare little better, as shelter manager Bill Floyd is among the dead and his deputy, Bates, must assume command.  This scenario is addressed briefly in the 1963 filmPlanning for Public Shelter Entry, which notes the existence of special paperwork to be completed should the shelter manager fail to survive.  Bates instead reacts with frustration, trying to shirk his duty while shouting with other occupants.  The opening minutes of the film are frantic, with infants crying, phones ringing, and refugees shuffling aimlessly.  Bates reluctantly accepts his role, pressing the fact he was out of town when the shelter protocols were designed.  Fortunately, however, his communications operator patiently explains the shelter was established in accordance with uniform federal guidelines.  "We set up by the book, you shouldn't have any problem!"

                              

Bates faces several immediate problems, rising temperatures, a lack of food for infants, and fallout quickly accumulating on the Western edge of town.  Examining the shelter operations 

plan, prepared by volunteers in peacetime, Bates is able to form a radiological monitoring team to retrieve infant formula and additional supplies.  Through a similar reliance on bureaucratic methods, a detailed shelter schedule is devised, along with a food service system, and  information/moral procedures.  The film also focuses on Bates' ability to assign shelter jobs in accordance with occupants' skill sets.  A handyman with a thick accent, for example, is able to use his plumbing skills to retrieve extra water, while those with craft skills fashion privacy curtains to surround a makeshift commode.  Also offering his assistance is Gil Thompson, Shelter 126's enthusiastic health and sanitation manager.  Gil is played by a young Anthony Zerbe, a prolific actor who would later appear in films such as The Omega Man and Rooster Cogburn.  As the days go by, reports filter in from a local command center urging local populations to remain sheltered.  Bates turns this potential demoralizing peice of news into a challenge he and the shelter occupants strive to meet.  "We'll do it!  We'll use training, recreation, useful work, and special activities to make shelter living more acceptable!"

"THANK YOU ATOMIC HOME CINEMA" A GREAT PLACE FOR ALL ATOMIC FILMS THAT YOU THOUGHT WERE GONE BUT HAVE BEEN FOUND! THIS PARTICULAR SITE IS A PERSONAL FAVORITE AND I RECCOMEND IT TO ALL SHELTER MOVIE BUFFS, YOU CAN FIND IT AT - ATOMICTHEATER.COM
THIS POST IS FROM ATOMIC THEATERS SITE AND ARE GIVEN FULL CREDIT.

(1969) THE LAST OF THE CIVIL DEFENSE FILMS "IN TIME OF EMERGENCY" AND MASS MAILED HANBOOK

In Time of Emergency

Office of Civil Defense

1969

One way to view American civil defense is as a series of informational campaigns, each lasting a few years and each having the same overall goal of preparedness.  The 1950's, for example, saw Alert America in the early part of the decade and Operation Alert in the latter years.  Both were nationwide efforts to enlist volunteers and were supported by films, posters, air raid drills, and traveling displays.  This pattern would continue into the 1970's with the Your Chance to Live program, which used everyday disasters to remind viewers of the importance of emergency planning.  Nestled in between was the In Time of Emergency campaign, principally embodied through lengthy pamphlets of the same name released in March of 1968.  From the outset, government officials sought to connect civil defense planning with preparation for natural disasters.  While 95% of the publication is devoted to fallout protection and planning for an atomic attack, the final pages explain how the same procedures will help in case of blizzard, conventional fire, earthquake, and hurricanes.  To supplement the pamphlet, an LP was released which highlighted the atomic aspect but neglected the conventional disasters.  Similarly, a film was created in 1969 which featured a prologue by the Office of Civil Defense director John E. Davis who briefly mentions natural disasters, though the rest of film focuses on home fallout protection and the responsibilities of living in the nuclear age.

CHECK OUT PRESIDENT NIXON ON THE WALL

                              

John Davis opens the film by stating its true purpose.  "Many thousands of disasters hit the United States each year, that's more than fifty disasters per day!  But even the greatest natural disaster we could imagine would be dwarfed in loss of life and property in the event of a nuclear attack.  Our purpose in civil defense is to protect you, so you can protect yourself in time of emergency."  The protection Davis speaks of is symbolized by the fallout shelter signs dotting America cities.  The National Fallout Shelter Program began with great fanfare during the Kennedy administration, though by the late 1960's its publicity had declined significantly.  Still, shelter spaces which had been surveyed and deemed appropriately secure, received federally funded supplies in 1969 and beyond.  Fallout protection was being encouraged in new buildings as well.  This is important, the narrator explains, because while only 5% of the United States would likely fall victim to the blast and heat of a bomb, the entire landmass could be covered with fallout.  Is fallout protection a priority for most people?  "There are of course those that give up, that feel there is no hope for surviving a nuclear attack, that speak of it as an absolute end.  As the Cuban crisis showed us, however, this kind of talk is . . . just talk.  Most people will seek some sort of protection."  

"Well, this protection is here now."  Ample shelter space developed across the nation in apartment buildings, businesses, office spaces, and shopping centers, however, civil defense planners were ever weary of a shelter shortage in the suburbs, where much of the population retired each night. The solution to this problem began with a homeowners' survey.  Delivered in the mail, the survey provided a questionnaire, asking Americans to consider home construction details believed to benefit the occupants in time of nuclear emergency.  If the homes themselves were found to offer suitable fallout protection, then further reading was recommended to instruct families on how to turn sturdy corners of their basements into personal shelter spaces.  If caught unprepared, the average family could improvise a shelter out of bookshelves, heavy furniture and even dirt from the garden if necessary.  While these improvised measures of home protection would reduce the danger of fallout, In Time of Emergency emphasizes they should only be utilized as last moment solutions.  As the film explains, an average family's best chance for survival lay in finding the nearest public shelter, marked and stocked by the government across the country.  Supplied with vital water, medical, and food supplies, the shelters were also to have trained management staffs. "Even so, shelter life would be spartan.  None of the comforts of home!"

COURTESY OF ATOMIC HOME CINEMA

 THE BOOKLET AND FILM WAS ONE OR THE LAST GASP FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL DEFENSE ONLY TO BE FOLLOWED BY CARTOON LIKE SHORT FILMS OR MARIONETTES ACTING OUT DISASTERS AND THE HIDDEN MESSAGE NUCLEAR WAR. THE NEXT BATTER UP FOR THE JOB OF CIVIL DEFENSE CAME WITH "FEMA" FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, GONE WAS THE CD INSIGNIA  AND IN WAS A FEDERAL EAGLE TYPE INSIGNIA WITH A TINY CD TRIANGLE HIDDEN WITHIN THIS LOGO THIS BLOG WILL NOT GO IN TO THIS PERIOD OF NATIONAL CIVIL DEFENSE SINCE IT WAS A PAPER PUBLISHING AFFAIR NOT LOOKING FOR CIVILIANS TO JOIN BUT USING AGENCIES LIKE LOCAL FIRE DEPARTMENTS AND OTHER EMERGENCY SERVICES AND OFFERED CIVILIAN INVOLVEMENT THROUGH  HOME STUDY COURSES THAT BASICALLY NEVER GOT MORE INVOLVED THAN THAT ,GONE WERE THE NATIONAL SHELTER PLAN AND EMERGENCY SUPPLIES STOCKED AROUND THE COUNTRY THE SHELTER SYSTEM WAS BASICALLY ABANDONED IN PLACE AND LEFT TO ROT. FEMA HAD ITS SHINING MOMENT AND SHOWED THE NATION AND WORLD HOW PREPARED OUR GOVERNMENT WAS  AND  WHAT MODERN CIVIL DEFENSE LOOKED LIKE AND WHAT A NATIONAL SIZE EMERGENCY WOULD LOOK AND BE HANDLED LIKE DURING "HURRICANE KATRINA" PERHAPS THE WORST MOMENT IN CIVIL DEFENSE  AND PREPAREDNESS AND STILL THE AGENCY IS LOST TAKING ON THE ROLE OF HOMELAND SECURITY PREPARING FOR LARGE CIVILIAN DISTURBANCES HOW TO QUELL THEM AND DETAIN AMERICANS.  IN THE YEAR "2014" CIVIL DEFENSE IS NON EXISTENT IN A EMERGENCY PEOPLE ARE TOLD TO SHELTER AT HOME NOTHING MORE NOTHING LESS, ALTHOUGH A VERY BRIEF PREPAREDNESS PUSH IS RESURFACING IN NYC , SINCE WE HAD NO MORE AIR DEFENSE CENTERS IN 2001 4 JET AIRCRAFT WERFE HIJACKED TWO CRASHED INTO THE WORLD TRADE CENTERS ONE HIT THE PENTAGON ONE WAS CRASHED IN A FIELD IN SHANKSVILLE PA INROUTE TO POSSIBLY THE WHITE HOUSE,THIS WAS THE DEADLIEST EVENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY CONCERNING ATTACKS WITHIN OUR BORDERS AND BOY DID THEY CATCH US UNAWARE! OUR NATIONAL DEFENSE BELIEVES THAT TERRORISTS ARE PLANNING TO SMUGGLE A NUCLEAR WEAPON AND DETONATE IT WITHIN A LARGE CITY , NUCLEAR SEARCH TEAMS ARE A CURRENT SITE IN MANHATTAN NYC, EVERY PRESIDENT SINCE REAGAN HAS SAID " THEIR NIGHTMARE IS WHEN  OUR NATIONS ENEMIES DETONATE A NUCLEAR WEAPON WITHIN A AMERICAN CITY  AND THIS KEEPS ME UP AT NIGHT BECAUSE ITS NOT IF THEY DO IT ,ITS WHEN WILL THEY DO IT. " THIS  NOT WORD FOR WORD QUOTE CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO ONE OF MANY OF PRESIDENTS BUT I BELIEVE PRESIDENT WILLIAM CLINTON HAD SAID THIS AND SO HAS EACH OF THE BUSHES AND YES OBAMA,

(1951) PROPAGANDA CHILDREN TRADING CARDS "THE RED MENACE" No.23/No.47

NYC BOMBED OUT AT 23rd and BROADWAY WITH THE GRIM REAPER HOVERING ABOVE NYC. THESE CARDS  DONE AFTER THE SOVIETS TESTED JOE 1 THEIR FIRST ATOMIC WEAPON SO ACROSS AMERICA THE RED SCARE WAS ON THE ROSENBERG ESPIONAGE TRIAL AND DEATH SENTENCE  THE RED HUNT AND BLACKLISTING OF MANY OF HOLLYWOODS STARS A LOT OF PERCIEVED SOVIET THREATS WERE IMAGINED NON STOP. COMMUNISM WAS BEHIND EVERY THREAT AGAINST AMERICA AND THE BEST WAY WAS TO ENSURE THIS WAS TAKEN CARE OF CARDS LIKE THE"RED MENACE" WERE MADE SO KIDS COULD SEE AND READ ABOUT THESE ENEMIES THAT WOULD ATTACK US AND KILL US FOR NO REASON AND DROP ATOMIC BOMBS ON OUR COUNTRY. THE SAME KIDS WHO GOT THE PATRIOTIC MESSAGE WERE MOST LIKELY THE FIRST TO ENLIST TO FIGHT COMMUNISM IN VIETNAM .

Red Menace

Bowman Gum Inc. released their Red Menace card set in 1951. There are 48 cards in the set, each measuring 2-1/2" by 3-1/8". 

The meaning behind Bowman's grim & gritty Red Menace card set is clear: Communists are lurking just around the corner, ready to spread death and destruction and totalitarianism if they ever get the chance. This is heavy stuff, but for kids of the immediate postwar period, it was just part & parcel of the time. 

The Red Menace cards depict various horrific and terrible scenes: mushroom clouds over bombed-out cities, not to mention giant hovering wraiths; citizens being harassed or even shot by grim-faced military officers; homes being searched for anti-Communist propaganda; and more. The obviously jingoistic and sensationalist images (not to mention the text on the backs of the cards!) was heavy stuff, but it wasn't that much worse than much Cold War propaganda being fed to Americans - even kids - during the 1950's. And, who's to say it wasn't accurate: after all, Communist takeovers around the world were indeed brutal. 

The card fronts offer a piece of color artwork surrounded by a white border. The card backs (in dark blue and red ink against a white background, no less) give the words CHILDREN'S CRUSADE AGAINST COMMUNISM along the top, followed by the card number and title, then a block of (lurid) text. At the bottom was the phrase FIGHT THE RED MENACE between two stars, and the Bowman copyright matter at the bottom. 

Additional cards in the set offered American generals and even personages such as Chairman Mao in portraits; but most of the photos were downright pandering in their depiction of violence

1960 CIVIL DEFENSE CONELRAD TELEVISION COMMERCIAL

CONELRAD

1950s CONELRAD GUARDING NORTH AMERICA EARLY TELEVISION COMMERCIAL

(1951) NYS DECLARES WAR AND TELLS HER CITIZENS TO BRACE FOR THE COMING ATOMIC ATTACK!

NEW YORK STATE EMERGENCY DEFENSE ACT

NYC BEING NUKED ONCE AGAIN, WHY DOESN'T ALBANY THE STATES CAPITAL USED? I AM SURE NYC RESIDENTS WOULD LIKE TO SEE THAT PICTURE. ThE EMERGENCY DEFENSE ACT Mentions AND REFERS TO NYC QUITE A BIT.

THE FOLLOWING WAS DRAFTED AND PASSED BY NEW YORK STATE IN 1951.THIS LEGISLATION NEVER MENTIONS AN ENEMY, ALTHOUGH KOREA IS DISCUSSED AND THE VARIOUS ACTS OF AGGRESSION BY COMMUNISTS IN EUROPE AND ASIA, FUNNY THEY SAY THE WORD ENEMY BUT NEVER MENTION ONE, SO I WILL SAY IT......THE SOVIET UNION! JOSEPH "IRON JOE" STALIN AND HIS CRONIES IN THE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE THE SOVIET UNION GOING TIT FOR TAT WITH THE UNITED STATES, THIS SCARED NYS AND NYC (which is mentioned as part of the coming attack possibly to throw off the soviet union into thinking Albany is not the capital so don't point any bombers our way send them to nyc,,,joking)SO BADLY THEY DREW UP THIS LEGISLATION AND PASSED IT. NYS WAS PROBABLY THE MOST CIVIL DEFENSE DEVOUT WHEN GOV. ROCKEFELLER WAS IN OFFICE AS WELL AS NYC MAYOR LAGUARDIA WHO WAS KNOWN TO JUMP ON A FIRE ENGINE OR TWO ON ITS WAY TO A FIRE. THIS EMERGENCY ACT WAS A VERY DETAILED PIECE OF WORK AND BESIDE SHOWING HOW SCARED THEY OF BEING ATTACKED THEY HATED COMMUNIST'S THAT WALKED QUIETLY AMONG US AND WANTED EACH AND EVERY ONE IDENTIFIED AND DEALT WITH. THE WHOLE COUNTRY WAS BLACKLISTING ANY SUSPECTED COMMIE MANY ARTISTS,ACTORS,WRITERS WERE RUINED BY THIS BUT THAT WAS THE COLD WAR.

THIS WHOLE NEW YORK STATE DEFENSE EMERGENCY ACT OF 1951 IS LONG BUT VERY INTERESTING TO BE ABLE TO SEE INTO THE WHAT PEOPLE WERE THINKING AFTER THE SOVIETS DETONATED A ATOMIC WEAPON  AND ALSO BEING ABLE TO PUT A BEEPING SATELLITE CALLED SPUTNICK INTO ORBIT RIGHT OVER AMERICA'S HEADS!!A FEW YEARS AFTER MOST OF THEIR COUNTRY WAS DESTROYED BY THE NAZIS AND MOST OF THE COUNTRYS ESSENTIAL MATERIAL FOR BUILDING DEPLETED.BUT AMERICA SAW THE MUSHROOM CLOUD ON TINY TV SCREENS OR NEWS REELS BEFORE MOVIES. I NEVER KNEW WHAT THIS LEGISLATION WAS BUT I SAW IT ON SIGNS AROUND AIRPORTS AND OLD DEFENSE PLANTS I EXPLORED. "NO TRESPASSING ALLOWED BY ORDER OF THE NYS EMERGENCY DEFENSE ACT" THESE SIGNS AND OTHERS ARE A RARE FIND IN THE 21st CENTURY

I HAVE INCLUDED ONLY THE FIRST PART OF THIS LEGISLATION SINCE THE SIZE OF IT IS QUITE LARGE IT CAN BE READ IN ITS ENTIRETY AT -law.onecle.com JUST TYPE IN THE TITLE OF THE NYS DEFENSE ACT.

              CHAPTER 784/51
                    NEW YORK STATE DEFENSE EMERGENCY ACT
 
  Article I. Short title; definitions.
        I-A. Succession to office of governor.
         II. State defense council.
        III. Civil defense.
       II-A. Shelter protection.
         IV. Powers of agencies.
          V. Power of dispensation from certain limitations of law.
         VI. Closing or restricting use of highways; posting of property.
        VII. Banking.
      VII-A. Insurance.
       VIII. Violations and penalties; peace officers.
         IX. Miscellaneous provisions; construction and duration of act.
                                   ARTICLE 1
                          Short Title; Definitions
 
  Section 1.   Short title.
          2.   Declaration of purpose and findings.
          2-a. Further declaration of purpose and findings relating to the
                 protection  of  the people in the event of nuclear attack
                 and recovery and rehabilitation after attack.
          3.   Definitions.
    Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be  cited  and
  referred to as the "New York state defense emergency act."
    § 2. Declaration of purpose and findings. The legislature hereby finds
  that  there exists a serious danger that this state will be subjected to
  enemy attack, including attack by atomic  bombs  or  other  radiological
  weapons.
    On  December  sixteenth,  nineteen hundred fifty, because of the grave
  threat to national security, the president of the United States declared
  a state of national emergency, summoning all state and local leaders and
  officials to  cooperate  fully  with  the  military  and  civil  defense
  agencies of the United States.
    The  federal  civil  defense  act  of nineteen hundred fifty passed by
  congress on January second, nineteen hundred fifty-one and signed by the
  president on January twelfth, nineteen hundred fifty-one, as amended  by
  public  law eighty-five-six hundred six declares it to be the policy and
  intent of the congress that the responsibility for civil  defense  shall
  be  vested  jointly  in  the federal government and the states and their
  political subdivisions.
    Nations with communist governments presently dominate one-third of the
  population of the world. Some of these nations have aided  and  assisted
  the  nations  which  have  perpetrated  aggression  in  Korea.  Acts  of
  communist aggression have occurred in other parts of Asia and in Europe.
    These  communist  governments  have  conducted  incessant   propaganda
  attacks   upon   the   United   States  and  have  engaged  in  repeated
  demonstrations of hostility. The president  of  the  United  States  has
  stated  that  in  one  of  these  nations  there  has occurred an atomic
  explosion. Our military leaders have  informed  us  that  these  nations
  possess  bombers  capable  of  flying an atomic bomb to any point in the
  state of New York.
    The national security resources board has in its plan  for  organizing
  civil  defense  stated  that an atomic bomb exploded in a large city can
  destroy  virtually  all  property  and  lives   within   a   radius   of
  three-fourths  of  a  mile  from  the point of explosion and cause great
  damage at even greater distance. It is  estimated  that  a  single  such

  explosion  would kill nearly eighty thousand persons and severely injure
  many more.
    In view of the professed determination of the government of the United
  States  to  resist  further  communist  aggression,  and  because of the
  likelihood of resort to atomic and radiological weapons in the event  of
  further conflict between this nation and communist aggressors, the peril
  to  the  people of this state is sufficiently great that the precautions
  embodied in this act must be taken.
    The present inadequate  size  of  our  armed  forces,  their  lack  of
  equipment,  critical shortages in essential goods and certain production
  facilities make necessary intensified mobilization to the end  that  the
  defense  of  the  United States be strengthened as speedily as possible.
  Under all of the circumstances it is obvious that the  enormity  of  the
  defense  effort which must be made by the United States will cause great
  dislocation to its normal economy. One of the further purposes  of  this
  act  is  to minimize the hardship resulting from these dislocations, and
  to permit the fullest participation by the people of this state  in  the
  defense effort.
    It  is  the  purpose  of  this  legislation  to meet these dangers and
  problems with the least possible interference with the existing division
  of the powers of the government and the least possible  infringement  of
  the  liberties of the people, including the freedom of speech, press and
  assembly.
    § 2-a. Further declaration of purpose and  findings  relating  to  the
  protection of the people in the event of nuclear attack and recovery and
  rehabilitation  after  attack. The legislature hereby finds and declares
  that the aggressive forces of communism are employing threats of nuclear
  attack to achieve their plan and purpose  of  world  domination  and  to
  confound  the  aspirations of free people everywhere. It is increasingly
  apparent that effective fallout protection as  an  integral  part  of  a
  strong  civil  defense is essential to the nation's military defense, to
  our negotiating strength, to the deterrence of nuclear aggression and to
  our resistance to nuclear blackmail. In the  event  of  attack,  fallout
  protection  and  a  comprehensive civil defense program are essential to
  minimize injury and loss of life and to make possible  the  recovery  of
  the  people,  the  restoration and rehabilitation of the state's economy
  and the preservation of the spiritual, cultural and  political  heritage
  of our nation.
    The  entire  population  of the state is now exposed and vulnerable to
  death or disability from any  nuclear  attack  that  might  be  launched
  against us. While the radioactive fallout which follows the explosion of
  nuclear  weapons  would  create  the most widespread danger faced by our
  population in the event of a nuclear attack, the  means  for  protecting
  the state's population from such fallout are known and are feasible.
    In  furtherance  of the national goal declared by the president of the
  United States to reach for fallout  protection  for  every  American  as
  rapidly as possible and as an integral part of the state's comprehensive
  civil  defense  program,  a  major objective of the state is to have for
  each person in the state  of  New  York  fallout  protection  ready  and
  adequate   for   survival,   which   will  make  possible  recovery  and
  rehabilitation in the event of nuclear attack.
    This objective can be achieved only  by  a  cooperative  effort  which
  mobilizes the resources of individuals, business, labor, agriculture and
  other  private  groups and government at every level--federal, state and
  local. All levels of government must recognize and accept  their  mutual
  obligations  to  plan, encourage and assist the orderly establishment of
  adequate fallout shelters, readily accessible to all the people, but the
  effectiveness of the  joint  effort,  public  and  private,  to  protect

  against  the  dangers  of nuclear attack will depend in large measure on
  the success and vigor with which local communities and families organize
  for their survival.
    The state must give leadership and direction in this important task of
  establishing a strong civil defense and achieving fallout protection for
  each  person in the state. To this end the legislature has established a
  broad coordinated civil defense program.
    A primary consideration in this program for survival and  recovery  of
  our  state  following a nuclear attack is the necessity for preservation
  of our young people. Therefore, as an essential part of the  coordinated
  civil  defense  effort  in each community, the authorities of public and
  private  schools,  colleges  and  universities  should  provide  fallout
  protection in or near their buildings and the state should encourage and
  assist  financially  through  state civil defense aid the development of
  such fallout protection. The state, by fostering fallout  protection  at
  the  schools,  colleges  and  universities scattered over the length and
  breadth of the state in every community, will not only aid in  providing
  protection  for  our  young  people  but  will  also  thereby  provide a
  direction and an awareness of the need for public and private action  in
  support of the civil defense effort.
    In addition, as a part of this program, the state should
    --encourage and assist private individuals to provide adequate shelter
  protection for their families, either singly or in groups;
    --encourage   and   foster   the   construction  of  shelters  in  all
  publicly-assisted housing;
    --encourage and assist landlords  and  employers  to  provide  shelter
  protection for their tenants and employees;
    --encourage   local   offlcials  and  community  leaders,  within  the
  framework of a coordinated civil defense plan, to take positive steps to
  promote and assist the development of shelter protection by the citizens
  individually and collectively in each locality; and
    --construct and install shelters on state-owned  property  to  provide
  protection for state workers and other occupants.
    Furthermore, the state must cooperatively supplement the program being
  provided  and  developed  by  the  federal government and the state must
  share with the federal government the responsibility  of  insuring  that
  all  protective  measures  adopted  reflect  the  latest  techniques and
  developments available.
    At all times the objectives and planning of civil  defense  should  be
  directed  to  the  survival  not  only of the people of the state but of
  their way of life. Intensive efforts must be made to establish the means
  and methods which will, in the event of nuclear  attack,  make  possible
  the  recovery  of  the people and the rehabilitation of the economic and
  social life of the state following any such attack.
    § 3. Definitions. As used in this act the following terms  shall  mean
  and include:
    1.  "Agency."  An  office,  department,  division,  bureau,  board  or
  commission of the state or of a political subdivision thereof, including
  volunteer agencies.
    2. "Attack." Any attack, actual or imminent, or series of  attacks  by
  an  enemy  or  a foreign nation upon the United States causing, or which
  may cause, substantial damage or injury to civilian property or  persons
  in  the  United States in any manner by sabotage or by the use of bombs,
  shellfire,  or  nuclear,  radiological,  chemical,  bacteriological,  or
  biological means or other weapons or processes.
    3.  "City  director."  The  director  of  civil defense heading a city
  office.

    4. "City office." A city office of civil  defense  or  a  consolidated
  city office of civil defense.
    5.  "Civil  defense."  All  those  activities and measures designed or
  undertaken (l) to minimize the  effects  upon  the  civilian  population
  caused  or  which  would  be  caused  by an attack, (2) to deal with the
  immediate emergency conditions  which  would  be  created  by  any  such
  attack,  and  (3)  to  effectuate emergency repairs to, or the emergency
  restoration of, vital utilities and facilities destroyed or  damaged  by
  any  such  attack. Such term shall include, but shall not be limited to,
  (A)  measures  to  be  taken  in  preparation  for  anticipated   attack
  (including  the  establishment of appropriate organizations, operational
  plans, and the supporting agreements; the recruitment  and  training  of
  personnel;  the  conduct of research; the procurement and stockpiling of
  materials necessary to the survival, recovery and rehabilitation of  the
  state and of its inhabitants; the provision of suitable warning systems;
  the  construction  or  preparation  of  shelters  and  control  centers;
  provisions for the continuity of state and local governments; and,  when
  appropriate,  the  non-military  evacuation  of  civil  population); (B)
  measures to be taken during attack (including the enforcement of passive
  defense regulations prescribed by duly  established  military  or  civil
  authorities;  the  movement  of  personnel  to  shelters; the control of
  traffic and panic; and  the  control  and  use  of  lighting  and  civil
  communications);   and   (C)  measures  to  be  taken  following  attack
  (including but not limited to  activities  for  fire  fighting;  rescue,
  emergency  medical,  health  and  sanitation  services;  monitoring  for
  radiation and other specific hazards of special weapons; decontamination
  procedures; unexploded bomb reconnaissance; essential debris  clearance;
  emergency  welfare  measures;  immediately essential emergency repair or
  restoration of damaged vital facilities; the implementation of the means
  and methods for the recovery and rehabilitation of the state;  effective
  utilization  of  all  persons  and materials; care and shelter for those
  made homeless; distribution of stockpiled food, water, medical supplies,
  machinery and other equipment; the preservation of  raw  materials;  the
  restoration    of   essential   community   services,   industrial   and
  manufacturing capacity, and commercial and financial activities  in  the
  state; and the resumption of educational programs).
    6.  "Civil  defense forces." Agencies, public officers, employees, and
  enrolled   civil   defense   volunteers,   all   having    duties    and
  responsibilities  under or pursuant to this act in connection with civil
  defense.
    7. "Commission." The state civil defense commission created by article
  three of this act.
    8. "Communication facility" or "communication device" shall  not  mean
  or include a newspaper.
    9.  "Council."  The  New York state defense council created by article
  two of this act.
    10. "County director." The director of civil defense heading a  county
  office.
    11.   "County   office."  A  county  office  of  civil  defense  or  a
  consolidated county office of civil defense.
    l2. "Defense effort." The preparation of the United States  and  other
  nations  cooperating  with  it  for  defense  against attack and for the
  conduct of war.
    l3. "Defense emergency." The period beginning with the effective  date
  of this act and ending upon the termination of the national emergency as
  proclaimed  by the president of the United States on December sixteenth,
  nineteen hundred fifty.

    14. "Drill." Any duly authorized activity of the state  civil  defense
  commission  or  a local office of civil defense, or subdivision, service
  or unit thereof, with  or  without  the  participation  of  the  general
  public,  held  in  training  or  preparation  for  enemy  attack  or for
  rehabilitation  and  recovery  procedures  following an attack. Drill is
  synonymous with authorized  test,  training,  or  training  or  practice
  exercise. Drill includes assistance by civil defense forces in combating
  natural  or  peacetime  disasters upon the direction of a public officer
  authorized by law to call upon a civil defense director  for  assistance
  in protecting human life or property.
    15. "Facilities." Buildings, shelters, utilities, and land.
    16.  "Fallout  shelter." A building, structure or other real property,
  or an area or portion thereof, so constructed, altered or improved as to
  provide protection against harmful radiation resulting from  radioactive
  fallout  in  accordance  with  the  plan,  regulations  or orders of the
  commission  pertaining  thereto,  including  such   plumbing,   heating,
  electrical,  ventilating,  conditioning,  filtrating  and  refrigerating
  equipment and other mechanical additions or installations,  if  any,  as
  may be an integral part thereof.
    17. "Law." A general or special statute, law, city or village charter,
  local  law,  ordinance,  resolution,  rule, regulation, order or rule of
  common law.
    18. "Local director." A county director or a city director.
    19. "Local office." A county office or a city office.
    20. "Materials." Raw  materials,  food,  water,  supplies,  medicines,
  machinery,  equipment,  component  parts  and  technical information and
  processes necessary for civil defense.
    21.  "Municipal  agency."  An  agency  of  a   political   subdivision
  responsible  for  police, fire, sanitation, public works, street, sewer,
  water,  health,  emergency  or  other  services  involving  duties   and
  responsibilities in connection with civil defense.
    22.  "Political  subdivision."  A  county, town, city, village, school
  district or other  district,  district  corporation  or  public  benefit
  corporation.
    23.  "Shelter."  A  building,  structure or other real property, or an
  area or portion thereof, which is to  be  used  for  the  protection  of
  persons  during  or  after an attack, including such services, utilities
  and equipment, if any, as may be an integral part thereof.
    24. "State director." The New York state director of civil defense.
    25. "Volunteer agencies." Agencies  sponsored  or  authorized  by  the
  commission  or local offices of civil defense the personnel of which are
  in major part selected from  among  volunteer  persons  serving  without
  compensation   and   may  include  wardens,  shelter  captains,  warning
  services, auxiliary police, auxiliary firemen, bomb squads, radiological
  units and personnel, rescue squads, emergency medical  units  and  other
  medical   forces,   nurses'   aides,   repair   crews,   monitoring  and
  decontamination squads, demolition crews and all  other  similar  forces
  and services having duties and responsibilities in connection with civil
  defense.
                                  ARTICLE 1-A
    §  5.  Persons  eligible  to  succeed  governor. If, as a result of an
  attack or a natural  or  peacetime  disaster,  the  office  of  governor
  becomes  vacant  and  each  of  the  lieutenant  governor, the temporary
  president of the senate and the speaker of the  assembly  is  unable  to
  discharge  the  powers and duties of the office of governor or is absent
  from the state, then the officer of the state  who  is  (a)  highest  in
  order  of the following list, (b) not otherwise unable to discharge such
  powers and duties, and (c) not absent  from  the  state,  shall  act  as

  governor:        attorney    general,   comptroller,   commissioner   of
  transportation,  commissioner  of  health,  commissioner  of   commerce,
  industrial  commissioner,  chairman  of  the  public service commission,
  secertary of state.
    §  6. An individual who is acting as governor under this article shall
  continue to do so until the vacancy in the office of governor  shall  be
  filled  by  election or by the qualification of the lieutenant governor,
  the temporary president of the senate or the speaker  of  the  assembly.
  The  removal  of  a disability or the termination of an absence from the
  state of an officer higher on the list contained in section one of  this
  article  shall  not  terminate  the service in the office of governor of
  such individual who is acting as governor.
                                  
                       
 

NEW YORK FEMA TARGET LISTING 1990 FROM NUCLEAR WAR SURVIVAL SKILLS- C. KEARNY

THIS IS FROM THE BIBLE OF NUCLEAR WAR SURVIVAL AND WHAT TO EXPECT INFORMATION THERE IS NO BETTER, HIS BOOK "NUCLEAR WAR SURVIVAL SKILLS" SHOULD BE IN EVERY LIBRARY OF ANYONE REMOTELY INTERESTED IN CIVIL DEFENSE TO NUCLEAR WAR YOU CAN EVEN GET THE BOOK AS A APP ON THE IPHONE!
Nuclear Threats in
New York The purpose of this page (in a post-nuclear situation) will be to map out any targets in the state that were actually nuked.
At the bottom of this page is the 1990 FEMA nuclear target map for New York. It was just a conceptual map about the nuclear threat. Even an all-out nuclear war - did not by any means mean that every site would be hit. For some states VERY FEW and POSSIBLY / PROBABLY NONE of the sites will be hit but others may have some very significant targets. Because circumstances have changed since 1990 some of the targets in many of the maps should be removed and possibly there are others that should be added.
Besides nuclear weapons there can be various radiological and other weapon hazards within your state and radiological threats may come from outside your state.
1. Nuclear power plants (think Chernoybl) for one. When the power, technology and personnel may not be available to maintain the plants - there is no telling what may happen to / with them.

2. The same applies to the storage of used nuclear fuel which presently has to be kept cooled and maintained. 3. Then there might somewhere be a stockpile of nuclear weapons. 4. Storage concerns should not be with just nuclear weapons but also with biological and chemical weapons. 5. There may just be hazardous stores of industrial chemicals that are no longer being maintained and protected. 6. There can be armories and warehouses of weapons and explosives that could fall into dangerous hands. 7. Whatever may be added to this list - needs to be identified and dealt with.

The following is a conceptual map of how a nuclear event one place in the US can affect other localities. This map is based upon past prevailing wind patterns but in the expected catastrophic events they may be much different from this.

Fallout Pattern Map for US (FEMA 212/September 1990)
For the same reasons as fallout from power plants located elsewhere - fallout can come to your state from nuclear targets elsewhere. For this reason here is a map of all the targets that FEMA visualized in the US in 1990. In reality we should be showing nuclear targets throughout the world - because nuclear fallout can go anywhere in the world.

Nuclear Weapon Target Map for US (FEMA /September 1990)
And we haven't even mentioned EMP. Weapons exploded at high altitude for the sole purpose of creating EMP could turn off the lights in America. Permanently. Or in any case it could take a very long time to turn them back on - if you can imagine life without electricity.

EMP - Turning off the lights in America
Nuclear Weapon Target Map for New York (FEMA-196/September 1990)
Nuclear Power in New York (FEMA-196/September 1990)

---

(1963) DEPT. OF DEFENSE PUBLIC SHELTER LIVING - THE STORY OF SHELTER 104

SHELTER No.104

LIFE IN A COMMUNITY SHELTER DURING A ATOMIC ATTACK

A GREAT STORY ALMOST MADE FOR TELEVISION SHOWING THE POSSIBILITY THAT FALLOUT SHELTERS IN YOUR COMMUNITY AT ONE TIME WERE MAINTAINED AND READY TO OCCUPY. I CAN NOT IMAGINE THE LOCAL SHELTER NEARBY THAT WAS IN THE BANK VAULT HAD A GENERATOR AND A SUPPLY OF CANNED FOOD TO SUPPLEMENT THE CIVIL DEFENSE BISCUIT AND WATER DIET. THE STORY IS A GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA PIECE USING A YOUNG HIGH SCHOOL GIRL THAT KEEPS A JOURNAL AND ACTS AS THE SHELTERS DOCTOR. THE CAST OF CHARACTERS INCLUDES A TOKEN AFRICAN AMERICAN AND REALLY TRIES TO COME ACROSS AS HIP EVEN DOWN TO THE END WHERE THE DRUNK DRIFTER WHO IS A FOLK STAR PLAYS A HOMEMADE GUITAR AND ENTERTAINS THE SHELTER WITH A FOLK SONG ON THEIR SEVENTH DAY IN CAPTIVITY.THE SHELTER RESIDENTS ENDURE THE NEWS OF ENEMY ATOMIC BOMBS VAPORIZING THE LOCAL TOWN THAT SUPPLIED POWER AND THE TOWN WHERE THE YOUNG GIRLS FATHER A DOCTOR WORKED AT THE HOSPITAL THERE.WHILE THE BOMBS ARE DROPPING THE SHELTER RESIDENTS DRINK ALOT OF ORANGE DRINK AND WHEN NEWS COMES FROM THE GOVERNMENT IT COMES FROM THE STATE GOVENOR WHO GETS CUT OFF BEFORE HE CAN SAY ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE COUNTRY HAS BEEN ATTACKED WITH ATOMIC WEAPONS. ITS A GREAT PROPAGANDA PIECE AND A HALF HOUR IN LENGTH, KICK BACK AND ENJOY IT!

Public Shelter Living begins with shelter manager Bob and his assistant, a chirpy blonde, counting people coming into a public Fallout Shelter to avoid the off-camera atomic attack. The thirty-minute black and white movie concerns the challenges of living in a shelter "for as long as we have to." At one point Shelter Manager Bob tells everyone "That it won't be any picnic in here. There's going to be a certain amount of discomfort for all of us." He then urges his captive audience to "sit down, remain calm and continue filling out those forms that were handed to you."

Beatnik malcontent "Mr. McCann" is having none of it. The primary lesson of the film seems to be targeted at potential shelter managers: Don't let stoned beatniks wander into your shelter after the big one drops. You might live to regret it! 

(1957/1962) SECRET FALLOUT SHELTER FOUND IN ARCH OF BROOKLYN BRIDGE STOCKED FOR WAR

Inside the Brooklyn Bridge, a Whiff of the Cold War

For decades it waited in secret inside the masonry foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge, in a damp, dirty and darkened vault near the East River shoreline of Lower Manhattan: a stockpile of provisions that would allow for basic survival if New York City were devastated by a nuclear attack.

Enlarge This Image

John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times

Metal water drums that could be converted to commodes, found stockpiled last week at the Brooklyn Bridge

John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times

Watertight canisters of crackers.

Enlarge This Image

John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times

Judith E. Bergtraum, first deputy commissioner of the Department of Transportation, examines a room containing cold war artifacts.

City workers were conducting a regular structural inspection of the bridge last Wednesday when they came across the cold-war-era hoard of water drums, medical supplies, paper blankets, drugs and calorie-packed crackers — an estimated 352,000 of them, sealed in dozens of watertight metal canisters and, it seems, still edible.
To step inside the vault — a dank and lightless room where the walls are lined with dusty boxes — is to be vividly reminded of the anxieties that dominated American life during the military rivalry with the Soviet Union, an era when air-raid sirens and fallout shelters were standard elements of the grade-school curriculum.
Several historians said yesterday that the find was exceptional, in part because many of the cardboard boxes of supplies were ink-stamped with two especially significant years in cold-war history: 1957, when the Soviets launched the Sputnik satellite, and 1962, when the Cuban missile crisis seemed to bring the world to the precipice of nuclear destruction.
"Civil defense agencies were building fallout shelters all over the country during the 1950's and stocking them with supplies of food and water and whatnot," said John Lewis Gaddis, a historian atYale and a pre-eminent scholar of the cold war.
"Most of those have been dismantled; the crackers got moldy a very long time ago. It's kind of unusual to find one fully intact — one that is rediscovered, almost in an archaeological sense. I don't know of a recent example of that."
The Department of Transportation, which controls the bridge, has moved to secure the site while figuring out to do with the trove of supplies.
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has been contacted to handle the drugs, which include bottles of Dextran, used to treat or prevent shock.
City workers commonly find coins or bottles when repaving streets, fixing water mains or probing sewer drains, said the transportation commissioner, Iris Weinshall. "We find stuff all the time, but what's sort of eerie about this is that this is a bridge that thousands of people go over each day," she said. "They walk over it, cars go over it, and this stuff was just sitting there."
The room is within one of the arched masonry structures under the main entrance ramp to the bridge, not far from the Manhattan anchorage. Three city officials gave a brief tour of the room yesterday — taking care to step gingerly over broken glass and fallen wooden boards — on the condition that the precise location not be disclosed, for security reasons.
The most numerous items are the boxes of Civil Defense All-Purpose Survival Crackers. Printed in block letters, on each canister, was information about the number of pounds (6.75), the number of crackers per pound (62) and the minimum number of crackers per can (419).
Joseph M. Vaccaro, a carpentry supervisor at the Transportation Department, estimated that there were 140 boxes of crackers — each with six cans, for a total of some 352,000 crackers.
The officials would not open any of the supplies because of safety concerns over germs, but Mr. Vaccaro said that one of the canisters had broken open, and inside it, workers found the crackers intact in wax-paper wrapping.
Nearby were several dozen boxes with sealed bottles of Dextran, made by Wyeth Laboratories in Philadelphia. More mysterious were about 50 metal drums, made by United States Steel in Camden, N.J. According to the label, each was intended to hold 17.5 gallons and to be converted, if necessary, for "reuse as a commode." They are now empty.
For the officials who gave the tour, the discovery set off some strong memories. Judith E. Bergtraum, the department's first deputy commissioner, recalled air-raid drills — "first it was under the desk and then it was in the hall" — at Public School 165 in Queens. Russell Holcomb, a deputy chief bridge engineer, remembered watching Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe at the United Nations in 1960 on television.
Several of the boxes in the room have labels from the Office of Civil Defense, a unit of the Pentagon that coordinated domestic preparedness in the early 1960's. State and local governments often appointed their own civil-defense coordinators, said Graham T. Allison, a former assistant secretary of defense who teaches at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
Dr. Allison acknowledged that fallout shelters would probably have been ineffective in the event of nuclear war but that the precautions were comforting.
"At least people would think they were doing something, even if it didn't have any effect," he said.
In 1950, the city's Office of Civil Defense, the predecessor to today's Office of Emergency Management, was formed to prepare for a possible atomic attack. In 1951, during the Korean War, floodlights and barbed-wire barriers were set up on and around the city's bridges, and bridge operators were organized into defense batteries, as part of an overall civil-defense strategy aimed at deterring sabotage.
Mayor Robert F. Wagner, who served from 1954 to 1965, appointed several civil-defense advisers. In 1959, a federal report concluded that two hydrogen bombs dropped near the Brooklyn Bridge would kill at least 6.1 million people.

Kenneth T. Jackson, a historian at Columbia University and a former president of the New-York Historical Society, said he was curious about how the stockpile got there. "Is this a secret cache of supplies the city was trying to put together, without warning the community of a serious threat?" he asked.
"What surprises me," he added, "is that we have all these little nooks — that in this huge city with people crawling everywhere, we can find rooms still filled with stuff, 50 years after the fact."