Remember that ending scene out of Indiana Jones where the Ark of the Covenant is boxed up and wheeled through an endless government warehouse?
Did you know that that place actually exists? It is called the Center of Military History.
It is located 30 minutes outside Washington, D.C., at Fort Belvoir in Virginia.
The building itself is very nondescript.
...
but behind a series of highly alarmed doors.
...
and long, cement, camera-laden hallways...
is the highly sophisticated,...
climate-controlled treasure room where the Army keeps its most precious artifacts. The facility was built for $24 million in 2010.
The cavernous warehouse is typically shrouded in total darkness.
Motion lights illuminate only the areas in which someone is walking.
Behind these giant doors lie the Army's historic collection of weaponry.
The room consists of dozens of collapsible hallways filled with the richest American firearm collection on the planet stacked with priceless items.
One-of-a-kind boat gun that predates the Revolutionary War.
The entire collection can be moved at the press of a button...
...to create new endless hallways of historic firearms.
Every meaningful artifact that has been worn on a military battlefield is stored here.
Including Gen. Ulysses Grant's Civil War cap.
Famous general's uniforms...
Revolutionary War powder satchels...
Flags,...
canteens,...
and canons.
But the crown jewel of the collection is the 16,000 pieces of fine art the Army owns.
The art is kept on giant rolling metal frames. The massive collection consists of donated and commissioned pieces. Much of the art was painted by soldiers who experienced their subjects in real life.
During World War I, the Army began commissioning artists to deploy into the war zone and paint the scenes they observed. This practice has continued to this day. Much of the museum's collection consists of these commissioned wartime pieces. The collection also keeps hold of valuable donated military art and historical pieces dating back to the Mexican American War.
Some works are just beautiful beyond words.
"That 2,000-Yard Stare" by Tom Lea.
The collection also includes original Army propaganda art.
Including beautiful Norman Rockwell originals that the Army commissioned in the 1940s.
Vietnam.
Desert Storm.
Peace and war.
The war on terror.
The collection also has a controversial side that has never been displayed.
Unique art and artifacts that were seized from the Nazis after World War II are stored here. The painting above was filmed at the center for the 2006 documentary
The Rape of Europa.
Not a single piece in this massive collection is open to the public and is kept under lock and key in a blackened warehouse?
