Everyone knows about our National Terror Warning System that uses different colors to indicate danger levels.
If the terror level is raised high enough, there is one part of the trail that is shut down, requiring a 2-3 mile detour around it.
What/where is it?
jaws
Look at the top of your screen - it should say: “Trail Forums >> Appalachian Trail”. Does the AT go through California?
jaws
Hey, way to go Cindy!
They have actually re-routed the trail at least once before to avoid the Dam. At a high terror level, vehicles cannot drive across, but hikers can still walk over. At a higher level, no one can cross.
There were some posted signs explaining this in the past. The detour goes around the dam and continues into the Smokies.
jaws
Fontana Dam, a terrorist target? Out in the middle of nowhere? :lol Bunk.
I’m telling you, some people have a real inflated opinion of themselves to imagine themselves or their bumpkin dam being a terrorist target.
T-Bond
Nonetheless, Jaws is correct.
In 2003, we were warned we might have to detour the dam due to the start of the Iraq war and the possible terrorist threat.
Jan LiteShoe
Tallest dam east of Missisissippi river. 480 feet tall, 1.443 acre feet of water contained, 2.818 million cubic yards of concrete, And 241 megawatts of generated electricity.
Check the TVA web site for more details.
Hardly a “bumpkin dam.”
K4KAM
fontana dam is in a long chain of lakes that generate electricity for the TVA. the loss of electricity is one thing, and it would efect any number of million people, but the real danger would be the folks who are down stream…aka knoxville TN and chattanooga. the TN valley would never be the same, and it could possibly wreck the economy for the south east region…potential threat…yeh
in the event of national security, the nation has always protected bridges and dams since pearl harbor
burn
Wasn’t the area around Camp David also temporarily closed under a terror alert?
tha wookie
I don’t think they have ever closed the trail near Camp David, or at least I haven’t seen or heard of it. There is also a public campground (Catoctin Park) just as close and it hasn’t been closed.
Also, don’t forget Erick Rudolph and the FBI hunt in western North Carolina. Back in 98 and 99 they had FBI agents dressed as hikers. I’m not sure they fit in very well. Didn’t shut the trail down but their presence was felt.
jaws
I started a section hike back in 2001 with my buddy on sept 12th, we were supposed to leave on the 11th but didn’t for obvious reasons. When we reached Fontana Dam it was just closed, the trail was open but the store shut. The sign in the window told us it was closed due to security reasons but we didn’t see a single other soul the whole time we were there.
How about that Ranger camp near Hawk Mountain? I hear that’s pretty close by the AT. Do you think they cinch that one down as well?
Cheers
Cheers
It’s not just the dam they can shut down.
I don’t recall the date, but back when Clinton was in office, there was a “government shutdown” of some sort.
The WHOLE SMOKY MTN PARK was closed.
And I think the Shenandoahs - certainly Skyline Drive - was closed as well.
Kineo Kid
MOST FEDERAL EMPLOYEES FURLOUGHED IN STATE
Most federal employees in North Carolina who were furloughed the last time got it again Monday because of the budget impasse between Congress and President Clinton.
The sign on the door at a visitors center in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park said it all: ``This facility is closed due to the lack of appropriated funds.’
The 520,000-acre park on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, the most-visited park in the land, closed visitor centers, furloughed 170 workers and shuttered all but main roads. Furloughs of all but 54 emergency workers began Monday.
Only back-country trails and a few restrooms remained open in the face of the second shutdown in a month because of the budget impasse in Washington.
Because we've been through this before as sort of a rehearsal, visitors know what to expect,' spokeswoman Nancy Gray said Monday.I think anger was the immediate reaction before (among visitors), but it is frustration this time.’
To the east, nonemergency federal operations shut down, too.
``It’s very discouraging,’ said Debbie James, spokeswoman for the Environmental Protection Agency air quality lab in Research Triangle Park.
About 1,400 employees and 1,400 more contract workers at the EPA lab were notified of the furlough. A handful of employees will remain behind to watch over essential lab experiments and secure the buildings.
``We don’t think Congress should be allowed to go home for Christmas if they don’t do their work,’ one EPA employee said.
``The sense of uncertainty bothers a lot of people,’ said John O’Neil, a senior researcher at EPA.
Another 600 employees at the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences at RTP were furloughed. Spokesman Tom Hawkins said the approach of Christmas made it harder.
This isn't being done or caused by the season but people are sensitive to that,' Hawkins said.It causes some anxiety.’
The institute conducts biomedical research, and a small cadre will remain behind to continue experiments that can’t be stopped, watch over animals and make sure equipment such as freezers don’t shut down, Hawkins said.
A much smaller group of federal employees - two - waited for their formal furlough notices at Raleigh Federal Cemetery.
It makes me feel like I'm not wanted,' said caretaker Anthony Williams.I feel like I’ll be thrown out the door any time.’
Williams said he felt he had a secure job when he began working for the government in 1989.
I've been trying to take care of bills,' he said,making it from week to week.’
Blue Ridge Parkway headquarters in Asheville ran this message on its automated telephone answering system: ``The Blue Ridge Parkway headquarters office is closed indefinitely due to a federal government shutdown. We are sorry for the inconvenience.’
But civilian workers at military installations around the state stayed at work this time. They were furloughed last time, but were spared because the defense budget was approved. Military personnel were unaffected by either shutdown.
``We’re still open,’ said Joan Malloy, a civilian employee in the 18th Airborne Corps’ public information office at Fort Bragg.
Kineo Kid
Here is another temporary trail closing - couple of years ago one of the hurricanes came roaring up from down south and went into the Shenandoahs. Authorities closed down portions of the trail for several days due to heavy rains and damage from blowdowns.
Also, there have been forest fires in Virginia that got out of control on the trail. At some of the road crossings park service employees and state police set up roadblocks. For a period of time they were keeping hikers from going further north on the trail. Some of the thru-hikers got pretty upset that they had to bypass part of the trail. But at least they didn’t burn up. I guess being a purist can cause problems at times.
The Army base near the trail in Georgia is Camp Merrill. It’s a training school for Rangers.
jaws
They closed Cunningham Falls state park and the nearby area near Camp David but the AT which is on the other side of Catoctin Mountain remained opened.
Dave Blizzard
was revealed around 1996 or so. In WWII the dam was built to provide electricity to the Aluminum plants in the knoxville area to provide sheets of aircraft grade aluminum to build fighters and bombers for the war effort, or so they told us. Many government secrets have 50 year life spans at the end of which they can be released unless there is a specific need to reclassify them. In the late ninties, it was released that the above was a cover story, and fontana was actually constructed to provide electricity to the Oak Ridge TN based Manhattan project to create the first Atomic Bombs. This was very interesting to me as my late grandfather worked for TVA as a powder-monkey in the quarry at fontana (which can be seen just downstream of the dam) while they were building it, and the fruits of his labor saved my dads life (possibly) as my dad was in the army in 1945 training for the invasion of japan (which had a casualty estimation of 100,000 dead and 1,000,000 wounded) when curtis lemay dropped the bigones on hiroshima and nagasaki… all debate about atomic weapons aside, my dad didn’t have to jump out of a landing craft in tokyo bay, and i am here today. my guess is that Fontana is probably still commected to OakRidge, which makes it a prime target.
hope you like the history lesson.
Big DEE
Big Dee