From Hotel to NSA Museum

Bruce Schneier has an interesting post on his blog today about the National Cryptologic Museum, located next to NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Md.

One of the commenters on the post tells a story about how the museum came to be set up in its current location. The tale has many of the earmarks of an urban legend, but it's too good not to pass along:

I actually know the full story behind this!

As I was told by someone involved with this, one evening an employee was working late there on an interesting project, and when he left the building he was in, decided he was too tired to safely drive home. There was a little hotel nearby, so he went and got a room there to sleep. Next morning he got up, looked out, and realized he had a good line-of-sight to where his office was. He went, got a pair of binoculars, and checked if it was possible to see into any offices, which it indeed was.

Apperently the next day the owners of the hotel got an offer to buy the hotel they could not refuse, so it was purchased by the NSA. It sat unused for a while, and was used as storage, but eventually someone suggested turning it into a museum, blocking off access to the areas that previously (but no longer) had a view into the complex.