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The gold stored at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is secured in a most unusual vault. It rests on the bedrock of Manhattan Island—one of the few foundations considered adequate to support the weight of the vault, its door, and the gold inside—80 feet below street level and 50 feet below sea level.
In early 2008, the Fed’s vault contained roughly 216 million troy ounces of gold representing about 22 percent of the world’s official monetary gold reserves.
What happens if all this is underwater, literally?