Protecting the National Archives – Pieces of History

When architect John Russell Pope was designing the National Archives Building, he included numerous symbolic elements to convey the ideas of protection. Around the building are swords, shields, and spear-topped gates to remind the public of the significance and importance of protecting the building’s contents. He also included a granite moat surrounding the building. 

Moats are best known as the trenches surrounding castles or other historic fortifications to provide a first line of defense from invasion. The National Archives Building is surrounded by a wide moat that descends 15 feet below ground. Next to the moat is a high granite wall that sits several feet back from the edge of the moat.

But practically speaking, a moat doesn’t do you a lot of good if no one is invading, so for most of our history, National Archives staff used it for parking their cars. 

In the early 2000s, when the building underwent a massive renovation, most of the parking spaces were removed, and the outdoor moat areas along the northeast and northwest corners of the building became office space.

The National Archives moat is a dry moat … usually. But the National Archives Building sits in a low-lying area of the city with the remnants of Tiber Creek flowing under it, and the area is prone to flooding. Several times during the building’s history, enough rain had fallen for water to enter the moat openings.

One notable occurrence was in June 2006, when the city saw record rainfall cause flooding in several buildings in the Federal Triangle, including the National Archives. Water entered the moat and continued to flood into the National Archives Building’s transformer vaults and sub-basement, causing power loss and significant damage. No original records were damaged by the flood, but the building was closed for nearly three weeks while crews made repairs.

As a consequence, the National Archives Building now has two self-rising flood gates that are recessed into the surface of the driveway. The gates automatically rise in flooding situations and do not require electricity. 

They work, too. In July 2019 another epic rainstorm caused the floodgates to be deployed. Unfortunately, some water got into the building from a broken seal opening in a wall where an outside electrical cable entered, but that was soon fixed.

Whether being protected from invasion—or heavy rain—staff at the National Archives can rest assured the building, and its precious contents, are safe.

Learn more about the historic National Archives Building on our Special Topics page.