Located more than 20 meters underground, this building is the largest "golden treasure house" in the world. BBC reporter Matthew Wells got permission to enter the world's largest underground vault and explore many secrets that are not known to the outside world! Under the guidance of security personnel, the reporter went to the place more than 20 meters underground of the Federal Reserve Bank in new york, which is already a hard underground bedrock on Manhattan Island, at least five stories above the ground-this is the location of the world's largest vault!
It is reported that this underground vault stores about 90 billion dollars (about 50 billion pounds) of gold, accounting for about a quarter of the world's official gold reserves. All the gold in the vault adds up to more than 7000 tons. The underground vault is divided into 122 warehouses, and the largest warehouse can store about 107 thousand gold ingots.
The extraction of gold from the underground vault must be supervised by a three-person team, which belong to the accounting, management and security departments respectively. Each warehouse has three locks, which must be opened by these three people respectively.
Little known is that this underground vault has no "gate" to the outside world. Even if the thief is impatient and wants to "vote for the world", he may not be able to find out where the "door" of the vault is.
In fact, the entrance to the vault is a 90-ton steel cylinder mechanism. When the mechanical device is started and the thick cylinder rotates, a narrow channel of two meters long will be exposed in the middle-this is the only entrance to the vault. Every night, the cylinder closes the entrance by rotating. This 90-ton cylinder looks like it is made of a whole piece of steel, and it may not even shake the bomb. It is reported that the whole vault is opened or closed by hand, and several people must turn several large disks side by side in front of a wall to open or close the vault organ.
In addition, the security system of the underground vault can be said to be the top level in the world. When there is a fault, the whole underground vault can be completely closed within 28 seconds, and the air inside can be used for one person to breathe for up to 72 hours; Inside and outside the vault, a number of armed guards armed with live ammunition guard in shifts 24 hours a day. They are all professional sharpshooters.
It is reported that of the US$ 90 billion gold reserves in the underground vault of the Federal Reserve Bank of new york, only about 5% belongs to the United States, and most of the rest belongs to foreign governments and banks. After the outbreak of World War II, many European countries transported gold here for storage, but did not transport it after the war.