Guest Writer Alec Feldman discusses the structures built to withstand just about anything.

Where in your life do you feel the safest? For many of us, it’s behind the dead bolted front door of our own home. Some offices, especially government buildings, take extensive security measures. And then you have the buildings on this list.

Managing risk on a personal, business, or industrial level comes down to having the right security. If important assets and people are safe and sound, then you have much less to worry about. Of course, some particular locations take their protection measures to the next level. We all know that many military facilities come with extra defense standards, but there are also a number of quirkier, less conventional institutions that work to ensure their property and people are secure from both natural and manmade threats.

So where in the world could you be the safest? Following are some of the buildings considered to be the most secure on the planet.


 1. Fort Knox

Starting with a somewhat well-known location – Fort Knox is the bullion depository for the United States, located to the south of Louisville, Kentucky. This is the place where the U.S. stores most of its gold—5,000 tons at last count—and that precious metal sits behind a 22-ton door. The vault door locks using a combination entered by at least ten different staff members, none knowing any more than their own part of the code, is the heart of this practically impregnable fortress. However, it’s unlikely that anyone could get close to the inside of the building in the first place with the apache helicopters, tanks, fences, guards, concrete-lined granite walls, and alarms all surrounding the facilities.

It’s easy to see why Fort Knox was the primary storage option during World War II for the gold reserves of various European nations, the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom, and the U.S. Constitution.


2. ADX Florence Prison

Known as the toughest federal prison in America, the Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence (ADX for short), is a men-only supermax prison intended to house only the most dangerous of criminals. The individuals incarcerated within are some of the worst in the US, earning the prison the nickname “Alcatraz of the Rockies.” A former warden of the ADX described the place to be a “cleaner version of hell” and it’s not too difficult to understand why. The security measures include 12 ft. high fences laced with razor wire, attack dogs that guard the prison walls, 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors, pressure pads, cameras, and motion-detecting lasers.

Residents currently within the prison include Richard Reid, the infamous shoe bomber, the mastermind terrorist behind 9/11, Zacarias Moussaoui, and many others.