for the president and his family, to be used in the event an attack came prior to the bunker's completion. Unlike the White House, which was a fragile structure with what was then a shallow basement, the Treasury Building has a deep basement built into a foundation of granite and its vaults are nested into stone. The ten-room presidential suite sat two floors below the cash room behind a steel bank door and was described as "every bit as nice as a suite at the Mayflower Hotel". The tunnel, connecting the White House to the open areaway of the Treasury Building, was excavated to allow the evacuation of the president from one building to the other without the need to make the crossing outdoors. Efforts to protect the secrecy of both the East Wing bunker and the White House to Treasury Building tunnel were largely fruitless. Despite a censorship order against media reporting, the existence of the bunker project was revealed by Republican United States Congressman Clare Hoffman in a floor debate in the United States House of Representatives in late December 1941. Hoffman objected to the cost and suggested the Treasury Building had adequate space to house the president and "Mrs. Roosevelt, Mayor LaGuardia, and their friend Sidney Hillman" because "there's nothing in the treasury vaults except IOU's anyway". Tunnel of Love In later years, the tunnel has been used by persons who needed to exit or depart the White House without public or press attention. Tricia Nixon and her husband, Edward F. Cox, departed the White House via the tunnel after their 1972 Rose Garden wedding. According to Bill Gulley, longtime head of the White House Military Office, the tunnel was used by male White House aides to sneak their girlfriends and mistresses into the building to have sexual intercourse in the Lincoln Bedroom during the presidencies of Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter. Lyndon Johnson also used the tunnel to avoid Vietnam War protesters when departing the White House. An allegation that the White House to Treasury Building tunnel was used by Bill Clinton to facilitate extramarital liaisons has been discredited. A 1996 fire in the Treasury Building led the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) to investigate fire safety around the building. The investigation showed that there were no smoke detectors and fire barrier separation in the tunnel. Design The tunnel, which passes underneath the street, is tall