Deep Throat Parking Garage

This quotidian underground parking garage bore no special significance until 2005, when Bob Woodward revealed that it was the location of secret meetings he had with Watergate source “Deep Throat.”

Six late-night covert meetings took place in 1972 and 1973 between Washington Post investigative reporter Bob Woodward and Deputy Director of the FBI Mark Felt, the confidential source known to the world only as Deep Throat for more than 30 years.

The men met in parking space D32, which sits beneath the Oakhill Office Building in Rosslyn, Va., in Arlington County. The location was ideal for such covert conversations with easy ingress and egress through stairs that led to the street from the subterranean garage.

The late night chats under a cloak of darkness were part of the investigation Woodward and fellow reporter Carl Bernstein launched into the 1972 break-in at Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel and the subsequent cover-up by the Nixon administration.

The information Woodward gathered from Felt would help lead to the uncovering of one of the largest scandals in American history and the first and only resignation of a U.S. president.  President Nixon resigned late in the summer of 1974 amid a firestorm of controversy.

Woodward kept the identity of his source and their meeting place secret for more than 30 years until Felt outed himself as Deep Throat in 2005, prompting Woodward to reveal the secret of the parking garage in Rosslyn, Va. Overnight, the location became a tourist destination and for days was overrun with media personnel.

In 2008, a historical marker was erected outside the garage, commemorating the meetings that changed the course of American history.

Update: The parking garage was slated to be demolished in 2017, but as of October 4, 2023, it still stands and is open for business. There is a temporary marker taped on the pillar next to the space.