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Tougher Than Fort Knox: 3 Places You'll Need More Than A Locksmith To Access

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Fort Knox is considered the epitome of security. Ask anyone to make an analogy that references a super secure place and you're bound to have the Kentucky establishment at the end preceded by "locked up tighter than…"

Unsurprisingly, the U.S. isn't the only country that has assets it needs securely guarded and stored. The world is full of them, and you'll need more than a locksmith — or a supercomputer — if you want to get into these places.

The Bank of England Gold Vault

The Brits have been a world power for a long time and, despite their island location providing an extra measure of security, they can never be too safe.

Throughout their reigns during history, the Brits have amassed an impressive amount of gold — second only to the Federal Reserve depository in the U.S.

The vault stores, among other things, wind dials, Roman mosaics, and mulberry trees. However, the bank is bombproof, and requires three-foot long keys to open — and that's after having to pass a high-security voice-recognition program.

Although the vault has never had anything stolen, it was broken into once by a city sewer worker. However, it only happened after the man discovered a weakness in the security, arranged a meeting with officials, and then demonstrated his evidence by popping up through floorboards to meet them.

Granite Mountain

When you first hear the term granite, you might think of New Hampshire or, at the least, the hard stone used to make beautiful countertops. Because of its robust nature, a mountain of it would present a formidable challenge to any would-be heists — even if the purpose was just to steal historical documents.

That's right, Granite Mountain maintains the security of 3.5 billion historical records, such as images, microfiche, and digital media. It's more commonly known as the Granite Mountain Records Vault, and it's been the secured storage place for ancestral records for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1965.

And, just in case 700-feet of granite weren't enough for protection, the Mormons have also armed it with guards, and a 14-ton blast door capable of resisting a nuclear blast. However, you can view most of the records online.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

If you think using a mountain to protect historical documents is over-the-top, try protecting seeds. That's what the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is designed to do.

Sitting just 620 miles south of the North Pole and 430 feet above sea level on the island of Spitsbergen, the Svalbard Global Seed vault was built to protect the world's food supply from catastrophic destruction.

The vault is not only atomic proof, it can also resist a nuclear holocaust. Earthquakes are not a concern, and neither are threats of global sea-rise. In the event that the world ever takes a dramatic turn for the worst, the 500,000 seeds in this vault will be used to help repopulate plant life on the planet — just as long as no one gets locked out.

Though you won't be able to keep your own valuables as secure as the places listed above, you can always contact a locksmith like Timberline Locksmith Service to help if you are locked out or need new keys.


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