An old picture of St. Elizabeths Hospital, which was supposed to be converted into the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security. Wikimedia Commons
Could Ghosts or Ancient Hexes Be Stalling Construction on Homeland Security Headquarters?
Project is far behind schedule and way over budget.
According to The Washington Post, the planned headquarters for the Homeland Security Department is 11 years behind schedule and $1.5 billion over budget, and officials are increasingly considering just calling the whole project a mulligan.
Construction of the new facilities was formulated in the aftermath of 9/11 and the renovation of more than 50 buildings was planned.
Instead, with the exception of a Coast Guard building that opened last year, the grounds remain entirely undeveloped, with the occasional deer grazing amid the vacant Gothic Revival-style structures. The budget has ballooned to $4.5 billion, with completion pushed back to 2026.
Lack of funding is a key reason for the perpetual stall in the project. A spokesperson for the General Services Administration told the Post, “GSA and DHS haven’t received the appropriations that this project needs to keep it on its original schedule. Construction is a commodity market, and costs increase with delays.”
In addition to financial woes, there is also the history of St. Elizabeths, the psychiatric hospital grounds on which the renovations are planned. Consider:
Almost from the beginning, assassins and would-be assassins were confined at St. Elizabeths. The man who tried to shoot President Andrew Jackson, the man who did shoot President Theodore Roosevelt and, of course, the man who grievously wounded President Ronald Reagan all ended up there.
Could some sort of ancient evil buried directly below the site, coursing through the earth’s crust, be affecting construction?