For any avid bullion collector out there, it is common knowledge that Fort Knox holds the largest amount of the Nation's gold supply, but other than that, not much more is known about one of the most secure places in the world. We all know that Fort Knox is home to a lot of gold, approximately 5,051 tons of the shiny stuff, but haven’t you ever wondered how it all got there?
Starting in 1936, a year after the Gold Vault was built, gold started to be delivered to Fort Knox. Gold came in from all over the country, including the Philadelphia Mint. An article from TIME Magazine dated January 25, 1937 tells the journey of the first 200 tons of gold to be delivered from the Philadelphia Mint to the Fort Knox Gold Vault in Kentucky.
Back in 1935, Nellie Tayloe Ross was the Director of the U.S Mint and she was in charge of overseeing the first shipment of gold to Fort Knox. Employees from various government agencies worked throughout the night carting the canvas wrapped gold bricks to the four mail coaches of a special nine-car train that would travel 530 miles to the Gold Vault.
The shipment of gold arrived at Fort Knox the next morning met by Brigadier General Daniel Van Voorhis, Fort Knox commandant, and a motorized unit of the Seventh U. S. Cavalry brigade. The 400-troy-oz bricks were painstakingly removed from the train and loaded into waiting Army trucks and delivered a short distance to Fort Knox.
This long delivery procedure would be continued about 20 more times as gold shipments came to the Fort Knox Gold Vault from around the country. Today, the gold inside Fort Knox is valued at over $1 billion dollars and to this day there has never been an attempt to break into the Gold Vault at Fort Knox, making it one of the most secure facilities in the nation.
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