EXCLUSIVE: TSA's Secret Security Center

Dec. 21, 2007— -- As travel time for the Christmas holiday begins to reach its peak, there is a secret army of people working behind the scenes to keep travelers safe.

ABC News got an exclusive look inside the Transportation Security Operations Center -- the nerve center of the government's efforts to protect people who are criss-crossing the country, especially those who fly.

The location of the facility is top secret, and it's so sensitive, cameras had never been allowed in before.

The Transportation Security Administration-run center is where the government attempts to achieve what's called situational awareness -- an effort to know what's happening in on the ground and in the sky -- all aimed at stopping a catastrophic terrorist attack.

"It's all about connecting the dots," TSA Deputy Assistant Director Don Zimmerman told ABC News.

A bank of huge monitors allows the government to track air traffic, everything in the sky from commercial to cargo to general aviation.

"I can discern within seconds which aircraft have federal air marshals onboard, which have the federal flight deck officers, the armed pilots on board," Zimmerman explained.

With 459 airports to monitor, there is always something going on. And the center's staff is always trying to keep track of the action.

"It ranges the full gamut," Zimmerman said. "Even today in a post 9/11 world, we still have people showing up with firearms."

Incident reports pour in from around the country, 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- each one tracked by computer. Bomb threats. Suspicious passengers. Airport evacuations.

During ABC News' visit to the center, security personnel at an airport in Colorado Springs, Colo., stopped an elderly woman with a cane. It might have seemed innocuous enough, but hidden inside the cane was a large knife.

"This is what we consider an artfully concealed weapon," Zimmerman said.

Often, the center deals with matters of life and death.