5. The Gold Vault of The Federal Reserve Bank of New York Is Built Upon Manhattan Schist

As of 2015, the gold vault inside The Federal Reserve Bank of New York was home to approximately 508,000 gold bars, weighing a total of 6,350 tons. (Let us reiterate the fact that each gold bar weighs a whopping 27 pounds.) With that much weight to consider, it was important for the New York Fed to be built on an extremely sturdy foundation. Geological samples were taken to ascertain the best location to construct the vault, which was ultimately built on top of Manhattan bedrock.

The importance of this foundational support cannot be emphasized enough: as we learned on the tour, there’s a bank in London that doesn’t stack their gold higher than five feet, and routinely moves their stash to ensure that the gold doesn’t sink and create an indent in the floor.