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111-773: The campus sits on an approximately 30-acre parcel standing atop a 150-foot bluff overlooking the Potomac River . The land was taken in 1945 by the government from a development firm in a condemnation action as an expansion of the Army Map Service 's facilities adjacent to the Dalecarlia Reservoir . The facility served as headquarters of a succession of agencies: Army Map Service, U.S. Army Topographic Command, Defense Mapping Agency Hydrographic/Topographic Command, and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). Erskine Hall, named for Robert Erskine ,

222-476: A cryptography job at the National Security Agency following his college graduation but was turned down due to budget constraints. He enrolled in dental school at Northwestern University , but he switched his focus to business after three years. Hanssen received an MBA in accounting and information systems in 1971 and took a job with an accounting firm. He quit after one year and joined

333-417: A "do-nothing job ... outside of regular access to information" and that "Something has aroused the sleeping tiger". However, Hanssen's suspicions did not stop him from making one more dead drop . After leaving a friend at an airport on February 18, 2001, Hanssen drove to Virginia's Foxstone Park . He placed a white piece of tape on a park sign to signal his Russian contacts that there was information at

444-615: A 6:30 a.m. daily Mass for over a decade. Opus Dei member C. John McCloskey said he also occasionally attended the daily noontime Mass at the Catholic Information Center in downtown Washington, D.C.. After being imprisoned, Hanssen claimed he periodically admitted his espionage to priests in confession . He urged fellow Catholics in the FBI to attend Mass more often and denounced the Russians as "godless", even as he

555-689: A European spelling of Patawomeck , the Algonquian name of a Native American village on its southern bank. Native Americans had different names for different parts of the river, calling the river above Great Falls Cohongarooton , meaning "honking geese" and "Patawomke" below the Falls, meaning "river of swans". In 1608, Captain John Smith explored the river now known as the Potomac and made drawings of his observations which were later compiled into

666-412: A GRU officer in the parking garage. Hanssen, carrying a package of documents, identified himself by his Soviet code name , "Ramon Garcia", and described himself as a "disaffected FBI agent" who was offering his services as a spy. The Russian officer, who evidently did not recognize the code name, drove away. The Russians then filed an official protest with the U.S State Department , believing Hanssen to be

777-428: A man with a foreign accent come to Kelley's door, warn him that the FBI knew he was a spy, and tell him to show up at a Metro station the next day to escape. Kelley instead reported the incident to the FBI. In 1999, the FBI even interrogated Kelley, his ex-wife, two sisters, and three children. All denied everything. He was eventually placed on administrative leave, where he remained, falsely accused until after Hanssen

888-489: A map and published in London in 1612. This detail from that map shows his rendition of the river that the local tribes had told him was called the "Patawomeck". The spelling of the name has taken many forms over the years from " Patawomeck " (as on Captain John Smith 's map) to "Patomake", "Patowmack", and numerous other variations in the 18th century and now "Potomac". The river's name was officially decided upon as "Potomac" by

999-463: A new Centrum building that connected and integrated the remaining three buildings, and replacing the facades of the existing buildings with a modern design of glass and red-hued metal panels. The interiors were remodeled into open, light-filled workspaces. Additionally, 20 acres of paved surface parking lot were removed and replaced with a new six-story garage. The renovation cost 60% less than completely new construction would have. The architect for

1110-630: A series of large islands while it heads northeast to Moorefield . At Moorefield, the South Branch is joined by the South Fork South Branch Potomac River and runs north to Old Fields where it is fed by Anderson Run and Stony Run. At McNeill , the South Branch flows into the Trough where it is bound to its west by Mill Creek Mountain (2,119 ft) and to its east by Sawmill Ridge (1,644 ft). This area

1221-665: A serpentine path through the eastern Allegheny Mountains. First, it flows northeast by the communities of Bloomington , Luke , and Westernport in Maryland and then on by Keyser , West Virginia to Cumberland , Maryland. At Cumberland, the river turns southeast. 103 miles (166 km) downstream from its source, the North Branch is joined by the South Branch between Green Spring and South Branch Depot , West Virginia from whence it flows past Hancock , Maryland and turns southeast once more on its way toward Washington, D.C. , and

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1332-487: A special agent on January 12, 1976, Hanssen was transferred to the FBI's field office in Gary, Indiana . In 1978, he and his growing family of three (eventually six) children relocated to New York City when the bureau transferred him to its field office there. The next year, Hanssen was transferred to counterintelligence and given the task of compiling a database of Soviet intelligence for the FBI. In 1979, Hanssen approached

1443-567: A transfer to the new National Counterintelligence Center , which coordinated counterintelligence activities. When told that he would have to take a lie detector test to join, Hanssen changed his mind. Three years later, convicted FBI mole Earl Edwin Pitts told the FBI that he suspected Hanssen due to the Mislock incident. Pitts was the second FBI agent to mention Hanssen by name as a possible mole, but superiors were still unconvinced, and no action

1554-434: A triple agent. Despite having shown his face, disclosing his code name, and revealing his FBI affiliation, Hanssen escaped arrest when the FBI's investigation into the incident did not advance. Hanssen continued to take risks in 1993 when he hacked into the computer of a fellow FBI agent, Ray Mislock, printed out a classified document from Mislock's computer and took the document to Mislock, saying, "You didn't believe me that

1665-528: A tunnel beneath their decoding room. The FBI planned to use it for eavesdropping but never did for fear of being caught. Hanssen disclosed this information to the Soviets in September 1989 and received a $ 55,000 payment the next month, equivalent to $ 140,000 in 2023. On two occasions, Hanssen gave the Soviets a complete list of American double agents . In 1990, Hanssen's brother-in-law, Mark Wauck, who

1776-724: A water intake 725 feet (220 m) offshore, citing potential harm to Maryland's interests by an increase in Virginia sprawl caused by the project. After years of failed appeals within the Maryland government's appeal processes, in 2000 Virginia took the case to the Supreme Court of the United States , which exercises original jurisdiction in cases between two states. Maryland claimed Virginia lost its riparian rights by acquiescing to MDE's permit process for 63 years (MDE began its permit process in 1933). A Special Master appointed by

1887-795: Is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States that flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland . It is 405 miles (652 km) long, with a drainage area of 14,700 square miles (38,000 km ), and is the fourth-largest river along the East Coast of the United States . More than 6 million people live within its watershed . The river forms part of

1998-463: Is at least 3.5 million years old, likely extending back ten to twenty million years before the present when the Atlantic Ocean lowered and exposed coastal sediments along the fall line. This included the area at Great Falls, which eroded into its present form during recent glaciation periods. The stream gradient of the entire river is 0.14%, a drop of 930 m over 652 km. "Potomac" is

2109-857: Is currently re-bounding as a result of the ICPRB 's successful "American Shad Restoration Project" that was begun in 1995. In addition to stocking the river with more than 22 million shad fry, the Project supervised the construction of a fishway that was built to facilitate the passage of adults around the Little Falls Dam on the way to their traditional spawning grounds upstream.   *denotes naturalized species; Sources: Striped mullet Mugil cephalus Spot Leiostomus xanthurus Spotted seatrout Cynoscion nebulosus Atlantic Croaker Micropogonias undulatus Robert Hanssen Robert Philip Hanssen (April 18, 1944 – June 5, 2023)

2220-762: Is located on its banks, as is Mount Vernon , the home of "Father of his Country" George Washington . During the American Civil War, the river became the boundary between the Union and the Confederacy , and the Union's largest army, the Army of the Potomac , was named after the river. The Potomac River runs 405 mi (652 km) from Fairfax Stone Historical Monument State Park in West Virginia on

2331-402: Is said that President Abraham Lincoln used to escape to the highlands on summer nights to escape the river's stench. In the 1960s, with dense green algal blooms covering the river's surface, President Lyndon Johnson declared the river "a national disgrace" and set in motion a long-term effort to reduce pollution from sewage and restore the beauty and ecology of this historic river. One of

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2442-443: Is the habitat to bald eagles . The Trough passes into Hampshire County and ends at its confluence with Sawmill Run south of Glebe and Sector . The South Branch continues north parallel to South Branch River Road ( County Route 8) toward Romney with a number of historic plantation farms adjoining it. En route to Romney, the river is fed by Buffalo Run, Mill Run , McDowell Run, and Mill Creek at Vanderlip . The South Branch

2553-526: Is traversed by the Northwestern Turnpike ( U.S. Route 50 ) and joined by Sulphur Spring Run where it forms Valley View Island to the west of town. Flowing north of Romney, the river still follows the eastern side of Mill Creek Mountain until it creates a horseshoe bend at Wappocomo 's Hanging Rocks around the George W. Washington plantation, Ridgedale . To the west of Three Churches on

2664-545: The Allegheny Plateau to Point Lookout , Maryland, and drains 14,679 sq mi (38,020 km ). The length of the river from the junction of its North and South Branches to Point Lookout is 302 mi (486 km). The river has two sources. The source of the North Branch is at the Fairfax Stone located at the junction of Grant , Tucker , and Preston counties in West Virginia . The source of

2775-807: The Atlantic coastal plain . Once the Potomac drops from the Piedmont to the Coastal Plain at the Atlantic Seaboard fall line at Little Falls , tides further influence the river as it passes through Washington, D.C., and beyond. Salinity in the Potomac River Estuary increases thereafter with distance downstream. The estuary also widens, reaching 11 statute miles (17 km) wide at its mouth, between Point Lookout, Maryland, and Smith Point , Virginia, before flowing into

2886-522: The Board on Geographic Names in 1931. The similarity of the name to the Ancient Greek word for river, potamos , has been noted for more than two centuries but it appears to be due to chance. The Potomac River brings together a variety of cultures throughout the watershed from the coal miners of upstream West Virginia to the urban residents of the nation's capital and, along the lower Potomac,

2997-516: The Chesapeake Bay . The exact location of the South Branch's source is northwest of Hightown along U.S. Route 250 on the eastern side of Lantz Mountain (3,934 ft) in Highland County. From Hightown, the South Branch is a small meandering stream that flows northeast along Blue Grass Valley Road through the communities of New Hampden and Blue Grass . At Forks of Waters , the South Branch joins with Strait Creek and flows north across

3108-567: The Design-Build Institute of America and the U.S. Green Building Council National Capital Area. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on October 8, 2015. As of 2015, the campus contained offices for about 3,000 employees of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center , National Intelligence University , and Defense Intelligence Agency . In October 2019, a Wall of Spies Experience museum

3219-1545: The Fall Line . This 108-mile (174-km) stretch encompasses the Potomac from a short distance below the Washington, DC - Montgomery County line, just downstream of the Little Falls of the Potomac River , to the Chesapeake Bay . Along the way the following tributaries drain into the Potomac: Pimmit Run , Gulf Branch , Donaldson Run , Windy Run , Spout Run , Maddox Branch , Foundry Branch , Rock Creek , Rocky Run, Tiber Creek , Roaches Run, Washington Channel , Anacostia River , Four Mile Run , Oxon Creek , Hunting Creek , Broad Creek , Henson Creek, Swan Creek, Piscataway Creek , Little Hunting Creek , Dogue Creek , Accotink Creek , Pohick Creek , Pomonkey Creek , Occoquan River , Neabsco Creek , Powell's Creek , Mattawoman Creek , Chicamuxen Creek , Quantico Creek , Little Creek , Chopawamsic Creek , Tank Creek , Aquia Creek , Potomac Creek , Nanjemoy Creek , Chotank Creek , Port Tobacco River , Popes Creek , Gambo Creek , Clifton Creek , Piccowaxen Creek , Upper Machodoc Creek , Wicomico River , Cobb Island , Monroe Creek , Mattox Creek , Popes Creek , Breton Bay, Leonardtown , St. Marys River , Yeocomico River , Coan River , and Hull Creek . The river itself

3330-563: The Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin . The compact was amended in 1970 to include coordination of water supply issues and land use issues related to water quality. Beginning in the 19th century, with increasing mining and agriculture upstream and urban sewage and runoff downstream, the water quality of the Potomac River deteriorated. This created conditions of severe eutrophication . It

3441-874: The National Register of Historic Places . As a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission process, NGA moved to a new facility in Fort Belvoir North Area near Springfield, Virginia . Originally, the General Services Administration and then the Navy planned to relocate functions there, but the campus was transferred to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in 2012. The renovation involved demolishing Abert Hall and Emory Hall, constructing

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3552-481: The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia . On May 10, 2002, Hanssen was sentenced to 15 consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole. "I apologize for my behavior. I am shamed by it," Hanssen told U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton . "I have opened the door for calumny against my totally innocent wife and children. I have hurt so many deeply." Hanssen

3663-619: The US Geological Survey and the Fish and Wildlife Service , began to identify fish in the Potomac and tributaries that exhibited "intersex" characteristics, as a result of endocrine disruption caused by some form of pollution. On November 13, 2007, the Potomac Conservancy, an environmental group, issued the river a grade of "D-plus", citing high levels of pollution and the reports of " intersex " fish. Since then,

3774-724: The USSR disbanded in December 1991, Hanssen, possibly worried that he could be exposed during the ensuing political upheaval, ended communications with his handlers for a time. The following year, after the Russian Federation assumed control of the defunct Soviet spy agencies, Hanssen made a risky approach to the GRU , with whom he had not been in contact for ten months. He went to the Russian embassy in person and physically approached

3885-499: The United States Justice Department announced Hanssen's arrest on February 20. Represented by Washington, D.C., lawyer Plato Cacheris , Hanssen negotiated a plea bargain that enabled him to avoid the death penalty in exchange for cooperating with authorities. On July 6, 2001, he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of espionage, one count of attempted espionage, and one of conspiracy to commit espionage in

3996-549: The collapse of the Soviet Union , fearing he would be exposed. Hanssen restarted communications the next year and continued until his arrest. Throughout his spying, he remained anonymous to the Russians. Hanssen sold about six thousand classified documents to the KGB that detailed U.S. strategies in the event of nuclear war , developments in military weapons technologies, and aspects of the U.S. counterintelligence program. He

4107-547: The 1980s, through sewage plant upgrades and restrictions on phosphorus in detergents. By the end of the 20th century, notable success had been achieved, as massive algal blooms vanished and recreational fishing and boating rebounded. Still, the aquatic habitat of the Potomac River and its tributaries remain vulnerable to eutrophication, heavy metals , pesticides and other toxic chemicals, over-fishing, alien species , and pathogens associated with fecal coliform bacteria and shellfish diseases. In 2005 two federal agencies,

4218-702: The Chesapeake Bay. The source of the North Branch Potomac River is at the Fairfax Stone located at the junction of Grant , Tucker and Preston counties in West Virginia. From the Fairfax Stone, the North Branch Potomac River flows 27 mi (43 km) to the man-made Jennings Randolph Lake , an impoundment designed for flood control and emergency water supply. Below the dam, the North Branch cuts

4329-623: The Chicago Police Department as an internal affairs investigator, specializing in forensic accounting . In January 1976, Hanssen left the Chicago police to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Hanssen met Bernadette "Bonnie" Wauck, a staunch Roman Catholic , while attending dental school at Northwestern. The couple married in 1968, and Hanssen converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism. Upon becoming

4440-527: The FBI CART Unit, Sullivan filed a report with the Office of Professional Responsibility requesting the further investigation of Hanssen's attempted hack. Hanssen claimed he was trying to connect a color printer to his computer but needed the password cracker to bypass the administrative password. The FBI believed his story, and Hanssen was merely given a warning. During the same period, Hanssen searched

4551-465: The FBI about FBI moles—to the KGB in 1988. That same year, Hanssen, according to a government report, committed a "serious security breach" by revealing secret information to a Soviet defector during a debriefing. The agents working for him reported this breach to a supervisor, but no action was taken. In 1989, Hanssen compromised the FBI investigation of Felix Bloch , a Department of State official who

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4662-474: The FBI training facility in Quantico, Virginia . Hanssen gave her money, jewels, and a used Mercedes-Benz but ended contact with her before his arrest when she began abusing drugs and engaging in prostitution. Galey claims that although she offered to have sex with him, Hanssen declined, saying he was trying to convert her to Catholicism. On June 5, 2023, Hanssen was found unresponsive in his prison cell and

4773-496: The FBI's Soviet analytical unit, responsible for studying, identifying, and capturing Soviet spies and intelligence operatives in the United States. Hanssen's section evaluated Soviet agents who volunteered to give intelligence to determine whether they were genuine or re-doubled agents . In 1985, Hanssen was again transferred to the FBI's field office in New York City, where he continued to work in counterintelligence against

4884-602: The FBI's internal computer case record to see if he was being investigated. He was indiscreet enough to type his name into FBI search engines. Finding nothing, Hanssen decided to resume his spy career after eight years without contact with the Russians. He established contact with the SVR (a successor to the Soviet-era KGB) during the autumn of 1999. He continued to perform incriminating searches of FBI files for his name and address. The existence of two Russian moles working in

4995-447: The FBI, Hanssen began to suspect something was wrong. In early February 2001, he asked his friend at a computer technology company for a job. He also believed he heard noises on his car radio that indicated it was bugged, although the FBI was later unable to reproduce the noises Hanssen claimed to have heard. In the last letter he wrote to the Russians, which was found by the FBI when he was arrested, Hanssen said that he had been promoted to

5106-511: The Hanssens from the Hanssens' guest bedroom. He also explicitly described the sexual details of his marriage in Internet chat rooms, giving information sufficient for those who knew them to recognize the couple. Hanssen frequently visited D.C. strip clubs and spent a great deal of time with a Washington stripper named Priscilla Sue Galey. She went with Hanssen on visits to Hong Kong and

5217-437: The Potomac and its North Branch since both states' original colonial charters grant the entire river rather than half of it as is normally the case with boundary rivers. In its first state constitution adopted in 1776, Virginia ceded its claim to the entire river but reserved free use of it, an act disputed by Maryland. Both states acceded to the 1785 Mount Vernon Compact and the 1877 Black-Jenkins Award which granted Maryland

5328-571: The Potomac as its principal source of drinking water with the opening of the Washington Aqueduct in 1864, using a water intake constructed at Great Falls. An average of approximately 486 million US gallons (1,840,000 m ) of water is withdrawn daily from the Potomac in the Washington area for water supply , providing about 78 percent of the region's total water usage, this amount includes approximately 80 percent of

5439-986: The Potomac from just above Harpers Ferry in West Virginia down to Little Falls, Maryland on the border between Maryland and Washington, DC. Along the way the following tributaries drain into the Potomac: Antietam Creek , Shenandoah River , Catoctin Creek (Virginia) , Catoctin Creek (Maryland) , Tuscarora Creek , Monocacy River , Little Monocacy River , Broad Run , Goose Creek , Broad Run , Horsepen Branch, Little Seneca Creek , Tenmile Creek , Great Seneca Creek , Old Sugarland Run, Muddy Branch , Nichols Run, Watts Branch , Limekiln Branch, Carroll Branch, Pond Run, Clarks Branch, Mine Run Branch, Difficult Run , Bullneck Run, Rock Run , Scott Run, Dead Run, Turkey Run, Cabin John Creek , Minnehaha Branch, and Little Falls Branch . The Tidal Potomac River lies below

5550-411: The Potomac, including bass , muskellunge , pike , walleye . The northern snakehead , an invasive species resembling the native bowfin , lamprey , and American eel , was first seen in 2004. Many species of sunfish are also present in the Potomac and its headwaters. Although rare, bull sharks can be found. After having been depressed for many decades, the river's population of American shad

5661-440: The Robert Hanssen case titled "Robert Hanssen – Hanssen and the KGB". Ronald Kessler 's book The Secrets of the FBI, briefly covers the case in chapter 15, "Catching Hanssen", chapter 16, "Breach", and chapter 17, "Unexplained Cash", based in part on interviews with Michael Rochford, who directed the FBI team that located the former KGB source that pointed to Hanssen after Rochford initially wrongly assumed CIA officer Brian Kelley

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5772-444: The Russians never knew the name of their source. Going by the alias "Ramon" or "Ramon Garcia", Hanssen exchanged intelligence and payments through an old-fashioned dead drop system in which he and his KGB handlers left packages in public, unobtrusive places. He refused to use the dead drop sites that his handler, Victor Cherkashin , suggested and instead chose his own. He also designated a code to be used when dates were exchanged. Six

5883-406: The South Branch continues north through the Monongahela National Forest to Upper Tract where it joins with three sizeable streams: Reeds Creek, Mill Run, and Deer Run. Between Big Mountain (2,582 ft) and Cave Mountain (2,821 ft), the South Branch bends around the Eagle Rock (1,483 ft) outcrop and continues its flow northward into Grant County . Into Grant, the South Branch follows

5994-413: The South Branch is located near Hightown in northern Highland County , Virginia. The river's two branches converge just east of Green Spring in Hampshire County , West Virginia, to form the Potomac. As it flows from its headwaters down to the Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac traverses five geological provinces: the Appalachian Plateau , the Ridge and Valley , the Blue Ridge , the Piedmont Plateau , and

6105-447: The Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and offered his services. He never indicated any political or ideological motive for his actions, telling the FBI after he was caught that his only motivation was financial. During his first espionage cycle, Hanssen provided a significant amount of information to the GRU, including details of the FBI's bugging activities and lists of suspected Soviet intelligence agents. His most important leak

6216-419: The Soviet government. Martynov and Motorin were executed via gunshot to the back of the head; Yuzhin was imprisoned for six years before he was released by a general amnesty granted political prisoners and he subsequently immigrated to the U.S. Because the FBI blamed Ames for the leak, Hanssen was neither suspected nor investigated. The October 1 letter began a long, active espionage period for Hanssen. Hanssen

6327-428: The Soviets. After the transfer, while on a business visit back to Washington, he resumed his espionage career. On October 1, 1985, Hanssen sent an anonymous letter to the KGB offering his services and asking for $ 100,000 in cash, equivalent to $ 280,000 in 2023. In the letter, he gave the names of three KGB agents secretly working for the FBI: Boris Yuzhin , Valery Martynov , and Sergei Motorin. Although Hanssen

6438-399: The Supreme Court to investigate recommended the case be settled in favor of Virginia, citing the language in the 1785 Compact and the 1877 Award. On December 9, 2003, the Court agreed in a 7–2 decision. The original charters are silent as to which branch from the upper Potomac serves as the boundary, but this was settled by the 1785 Compact. When West Virginia seceded from Virginia in 1863,

6549-462: The U.S. security and intelligence establishment simultaneously—Ames at the CIA and Hanssen at the FBI—complicated counterintelligence efforts during the 1990s. Ames was arrested in 1994. His exposure explained many of the asset losses U.S. intelligence suffered during the 1980s, including the arrest and execution of Martynov and Motorin. However, two cases—the Bloch investigation and the embassy tunnel—remained unsolved. Ames had been stationed in Rome at

6660-459: The Virginia side of the river, it was not completed until 1802. Financial troubles led to the closure of the canal in 1830. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal operated along the banks of the Potomac in Maryland from 1831 to 1924 and also connected Cumberland to Washington, D.C. This allowed freight to be transported around the rapids known as the Great Falls of the Potomac River , as well as many other, smaller rapids. Washington, D.C. began using

6771-432: The Virginia/West Virginia border into Pendleton County . The river then travels on a northeastern course along the western side of Jack Mountain (4,045 ft), followed by Sandy Ridge (2,297 ft) along U.S. Route 220 . North of the confluence of the South Branch with Smith Creek, the river flows along Town Mountain (2,848 ft) around Franklin at the junction of U.S. Route 220 and U.S. Route 33 . After Franklin,

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6882-484: The battles of Antietam (September 17, 1862) and Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863). Confederate General Jubal Early crossed the river in July 1864 on his attempted raid on the nation's capital. The river not only divided the Union from the Confederacy, but also gave name to the Union's largest army, the Army of the Potomac . The Patowmack Canal was intended by George Washington to connect the Tidewater region near Georgetown with Cumberland , Maryland. Started in 1785 on

6993-473: The borders between Maryland and Washington, D.C. , on the left descending bank, and West Virginia and Virginia on the right descending bank. Except for a small portion of its headwaters in West Virginia, the North Branch Potomac River is considered part of Maryland to the low-water mark on the opposite bank. The South Branch Potomac River lies completely within the state of West Virginia except for its headwaters , which lie in Virginia. All navigable parts of

7104-416: The catching near Fletcher's Boat House of a Striped Bass estimated to weigh 35 lb (16 kg) was seen as a further indicator of the continuing improvement in the health of the river. The average daily flow during the water years 1931–2018 was 11,498 cubic feet (325.6 m ) /s. The highest average daily flow ever recorded on the Potomac at Little Falls, Maryland (near Washington, D.C.),

7215-450: The dead drop site. He then followed his usual routine, taking a sealed garbage bag of classified material and taping it to the bottom side of a wooden footbridge over a creek. When FBI agents observed this incriminating act, they rushed in to arrest Hanssen. Upon being arrested, Hanssen asked, "What took you so long?" The FBI waited two more days to see if any of Hanssen's SVR handlers would show up at Foxstone Park. When they failed to appear,

7326-445: The drinking water consumed by the region's estimated 6.1 million residents. As a result of damaging floods in 1936 and 1937, the Army Corps of Engineers proposed the Potomac River basin reservoir projects , a series of dams that were intended to regulate the river and to provide a more reliable water supply. One dam was to be built at Little Falls, just north of Washington, backing its pool up to Great Falls. Just above Great Falls,

7437-534: The mole hunt found other penetrations, such as CIA officer Harold James Nicholson , who was arrested in 1996. However, Hanssen escaped notice, likely because these efforts concentrated on CIA agents rather than FBI agents. By 1998, using FBI criminal profiling techniques, the pursuers suspected an innocent man: Brian Kelley , a CIA operative involved in the Bloch investigation. The CIA and FBI searched his house, tapped his telephone, and surveilled him, following him and his family everywhere. In November 1998, they had

7548-407: The mole hunt that eventually resulted in Hanssen's arrest. Later that year, Hanssen gave the KGB extensive information about U.S. planning for measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT), a general term for intelligence collected by a variety of electronic means, such as radar , spy satellites, and signal intercepts. When the Soviets began construction on a new embassy in 1977, the FBI dug

7659-454: The much larger Seneca Dam was proposed whose reservoir would extend to Harpers Ferry. Several other dams were proposed for the Potomac and its tributaries. Operational Non-Operational Planned, but never built When detailed studies were issued by the Corps in the 1950s, they met sustained opposition, led by U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas , resulting in the plans' abandonment. The only dam project that did get built

7770-473: The nation's capital was to be located on the river. The 1859 siege of Harper's Ferry at the river's confluence with the Shenandoah was a precursor to numerous epic battles of the American Civil War in and around the Potomac and its tributaries, such as the 1861 Battle of Ball's Bluff and the 1862 Battle of Shepherdstown . General Robert E. Lee crossed the river, thereby invading the North and threatening Washington, D.C., twice in campaigns climaxing in

7881-434: The period. Two fingerprints collected from a trash bag in the file were analyzed and proved to be Hanssen's. The FBI surveilled Hanssen and soon discovered he was again in contact with the Russians. To bring him back to FBI headquarters, where he could be closely monitored and kept away from sensitive data, they promoted him in December 2000. They gave him a new job supervising FBI computer security. In January 2001, Hanssen

7992-541: The question of West Virginia's succession in title to the lands between the branches of the river was raised, as well as title to the river itself. Claims by Maryland to West Virginia land north of the South Branch (all of Mineral and Grant Counties and parts of Hampshire , Hardy , Tucker and Pendleton Counties) and by West Virginia to the Potomac's high-water mark were rejected by the Supreme Court in two separate decisions in 1910. A variety of fish inhabit

8103-676: The renovation was Leo A Daly . The goal of the renovation was to create a shared space between all 17 agencies of the United States Intelligence Community , reflecting a call for increased collaboration between them by the 9/11 Commission . The campus was built to the LEED Silver certification, with attention given to energy efficiency including the use of LED lighting and solar panels; the renovated campus used 31% less energy than before. The new campus won awards from Building Design+Construction , as well as

8214-916: The risk of recommending to his handlers that they try to recruit his closest friend, a colonel in the United States Army . According to USA Today , those who knew the Hanssens described them as a close family. They attended Mass weekly and were very active in Opus Dei . Hanssen's three sons attended The Heights School in Potomac , Maryland, an all-boys preparatory school . His three daughters attended Oakcrest School for Girls in Vienna, Virginia, an independent Roman Catholic school. Both schools are associated with Opus Dei. Hanssen's wife, Bonnie, retired from teaching theology at Oakcrest in 2020. A priest at Oakcrest said Hanssen had regularly attended

8325-677: The river bank-to-bank from the low-water mark on the Virginia side while permitting Virginia full riparian rights short of obstructing navigation. From 1957 to 1996, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) routinely issued permits applied for by Virginia entities concerning the use of the Potomac. However, in 1996 the MDE denied a permit submitted by the Fairfax County Water Authority to build

8436-502: The river has improved with a reduction in nutrient runoff, return of fish populations, and land protection along the river. As a result, the same group issued a grade of "B" for 2017 and 2018. In March 2019, the Potomac Riverkeeper Network launched a laboratory boat dubbed the "Sea Dog", which will be monitoring water quality in the Potomac and providing reports to the public on a weekly basis; in that same month,

8547-625: The river were designated as a National Recreation Trail in 2006, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration designated an 18-square-mile (47 km ) portion of the river in Charles County , Maryland, as the Mallows Bay–Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary in 2019. The river has significant historical and political significance, as the nation's capital of Washington, D.C.

8658-507: The role of Hanssen and Ryan Phillippe played O'Neill. The 2007 documentary Superspy: The Man Who Betrayed the West describes the hunt to trap Hanssen. Hanssen was mentioned in chapter 5 of Dan Brown 's book The Da Vinci Code as the most noted Opus Dei member to non-members. His sexual deviancy and espionage conviction hurt the organization's reputation. The U.S. Court TV (now TruTV ) television series Mugshots released an episode on

8769-414: The search for another spy continued. The FBI paid $ 7   million to a KGB agent to obtain a file on an anonymous mole , whom the FBI later identified as Hanssen through fingerprint and voice analysis. Hanssen was arrested on February 18, 2001, at Foxstone Park , near his home in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Vienna, Virginia , after leaving a package of classified materials at a dead drop site. He

8880-628: The section of the Potomac River from the confluence of its North and South Branches through Opequon Creek near Shepherdstown, West Virginia . Along the way the following tributaries drain into the Potomac: North Branch Potomac River , South Branch Potomac River , Town Creek , Little Cacapon River , Sideling Hill Creek , Cacapon River , Sir Johns Run , Warm Spring Run , Tonoloway Creek , Fifteenmile Creek , Sleepy Creek , Cherry Run , Back Creek , Conococheague Creek , and Opequon Creek . This section covers

8991-537: The significant pollution control projects at the time was the expansion of the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant , which serves Washington and several surrounding communities. Enactment of the 1972 Clean Water Act led to construction or expansion of additional sewage treatment plants in the Potomac watershed. Controls on phosphorus , one of the principal contributors to eutrophication, were implemented in

9102-426: The spring of 2019. Hanssen was the subject of a 2002 made-for-television movie, Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story , with a teleplay by Norman Mailer and starring William Hurt as Hanssen. Hanssen's jailers allowed him to watch the movie, but he was so angered by it that he turned it off. O'Neill's role in the capture of Robert Hanssen was dramatized in the 2007 movie Breach , in which Chris Cooper played

9213-428: The system was insecure." Hanssen's superiors were not amused and began an investigation. In the end, officials believed his claim that he was merely demonstrating flaws in the FBI's security system. Mislock has since theorized that Hanssen probably went onto his computer to see if his superiors were investigating him for espionage and invented the document story to cover his tracks. In 1994, Hanssen expressed interest in

9324-488: The time of the Bloch investigation and could not have known about that case or the tunnel under the embassy, as he did not work for the FBI. The FBI and CIA formed a joint mole-hunting team in 1994 to find the suspected second intelligence leak. They created a list of all agents known to have access to cases that were compromised. The FBI's codename for the suspected spy was "Graysuit". Some promising suspects were cleared, and

9435-536: The voice was familiar, but could not remember who it was. Rifling through the rest of the files, they found notes of the mole using a quote from George S. Patton's speech to the Third Army about "the purple-pissing Japanese". FBI analyst Bob King remembered Hanssen using that same quote. Waguespack listened to the tape again and recognized the voice as Hanssen's. With the mole finally identified, locations, dates, and cases were matched with Hanssen's activities during

9546-590: The watermen of Virginia's Northern Neck. Being situated in an area rich in American history and American heritage has led to the Potomac being nicknamed "the Nation's River". George Washington , the first President of the United States , was born in, surveyed, and spent most of his life within, the Potomac basin. All of Washington, D.C., the nation's capital city , also lies within the watershed. The First United States Congress by act of July 16, 1790 stated that

9657-421: The western side of South Branch Mountain , 3,028 feet (923 m), the South Branch creates a series of bends and flows to the northeast by Springfield through Blue's Ford. After two additional horseshoe bends (meanders), the South Branch flows under the old Baltimore and Ohio Railroad mainline between Green Spring and South Branch Depot , and joins the North Branch to form the Potomac. This stretch encompasses

9768-621: The western side of Cave Mountain through the 20-mile (32 km) long Smoke Hole Canyon , until its confluence with the North Fork at Cabins , where it flows east to Petersburg . At Petersburg, the South Branch Valley Railroad begins, which parallels the river until its mouth at Green Spring . In its eastern course from Petersburg into Hardy County , the South Branch becomes more navigable allowing for canoes and smaller river vessels. The river splits and forms

9879-483: Was Federal Bureau of Prisons prisoner #48551-083. From July 17, 2002, until his death, he served his sentence at the ADX Florence , a federal supermax prison near Florence , Colorado, in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. Hanssen never told the KGB or GRU his identity and refused to meet them personally, except for the abortive 1993 contact in the Russian embassy parking garage. The FBI believes that

9990-534: Was Jennings Randolph Lake on the North Branch. The Corps built a supplementary water intake for the Washington Aqueduct at Little Falls in 1959. In 1940 Congress passed a law authorizing the creation of an interstate compact to coordinate water quality management among states in the Potomac basin. Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the District of Columbia agreed to establish

10101-578: Was also an FBI employee, recommended to the FBI that Hanssen be investigated for espionage because his sister, Hanssen's wife, told him that her sister, Jeanne Beglis, had found a pile of cash on a dresser in the Hanssens' house. Bonnie had previously told her brother that Hanssen once talked about retiring in Poland, then part of the Eastern Bloc . Wauck also knew that the FBI was hunting for a mole and spoke with his supervisor, who took no action. When

10212-801: Was an American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States from 1979 to 2001. His espionage was described by the Department of Justice as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history". In 1979, three years after joining the FBI, Hanssen approached the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) to offer his services, beginning his first espionage cycle, lasting until 1981. He restarted his espionage activities in 1985 and continued until 1991, when he ended communications during

10323-507: Was arrested. FBI investigators later made progress during an operation where they paid disaffected Russian intelligence officers to deliver information on moles. They paid $ 7 million to KGB agent Alexandr Shcherbakov who had access to a file on "B". While it did not contain Hanssen's name, among the information was an audiotape of a July 21, 1986, conversation between "B" and KGB agent Aleksander Fefelov. FBI agent Michael Waguespack thought

10434-552: Was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Lutheran family that lived in the Norwood Park neighborhood. His father, Howard (died 1993), a Chicago police officer , was allegedly emotionally abusive to Hanssen during his childhood. Hanssen graduated from William Howard Taft High School in 1962 and attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois , where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1966. Hanssen applied for

10545-463: Was charged with selling U.S. intelligence documents to the Soviet Union and subsequently Russia for more than $ 1.4 million in cash, diamonds and Rolex watches over twenty-two years. To avoid the death penalty, Hanssen pleaded guilty to fourteen counts of espionage and one of conspiracy to commit espionage. He was sentenced to fifteen life terms without the possibility of parole, and was incarcerated at ADX Florence until his death in 2023. Hanssen

10656-457: Was completed in 1946 as a five-story brick building with an array of three flagpoles on a semicircular lawn to the east. Abert Hall, named for John James Abert , was constructed in 1962. It was a five-story concrete and brick building with no windows on the upper three floors to aid in classified work. The Emory Building, a two-story brick building named after William H. Emory , was constructed in 1963. Roberdeau Hall, named after Isaac Roberdeau ,

10767-513: Was constructed in 1966 as two-story brick building with no windows. Maury Hall, named for Matthew Fontaine Maury , was constructed in 1988 as a three-story building with no windows. In 2004 the land was administratively part of Fort Myer . In 2004, Erskine Hall and the flagpoles were named as part of the Army Map Service Historic District by Maryland Historical Trust and determined to be eligible for listing in

10878-424: Was given an office and an assistant, Eric O'Neill , who was actually a young FBI surveillance specialist who had been assigned to watch Hanssen. O'Neill ascertained that Hanssen was using a Palm III PDA to store his information. When O'Neill was able to briefly obtain Hanssen's PDA and have agents download and decode its encrypted contents, the FBI acquired their conclusive evidence. During his final days with

10989-539: Was in March 1936 when it reached 426,000 cubic feet (12,100 m ) /s. The lowest average daily flow ever recorded at the same location was 601.0 cubic feet (17.02 m ) /s in September 1966 The highest crest of the Potomac ever registered at Little Falls was 28.10 ft, on March 19, 1936; however, the most damaging flood to affect Washington, DC and its metropolitan area was that of October 1942. For 400 years Maryland and Virginia have disputed control of

11100-509: Was opened within the facility, depicting 135 spies such as Benedict Arnold , Aldrich Ames , Robert Hanssen , and Edward Snowden , as well as historical artifacts related to spying. Although the physical museum is not open to the public, a website version was developed for public consumption. 38°57′00″N 77°07′21″W  /  38.95000°N 77.12250°W  / 38.95000; -77.12250 Potomac River The Potomac River ( / p ə ˈ t oʊ m ə k / )

11211-631: Was pronounced dead after unsuccessful efforts to revive him. His autopsy listed the cause of death as colon cancer . The Hanssen spy case was told in David Wise 's book Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America , published by Random House in 2002. The investigation was further covered in Eric O'Neill 's memoir Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy , published by Penguin Random House in

11322-409: Was recalled yet again to Washington, D.C., in 1987. He was tasked with studying all known and rumored penetrations of the FBI to find the man who had betrayed Martynov and Motorin; this meant, in effect, that he was charged with searching for himself. Hanssen ensured that he did not reveal himself with his study, but in addition, he gave the entire study—including the list of all Soviets who had contacted

11433-568: Was spying at the same time as Aldrich Ames in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Both Ames and Hanssen compromised the names of KGB agents working secretly for the U.S., some of whom were executed for their betrayal. Hanssen also revealed a multimillion-dollar eavesdropping tunnel built by the FBI under the Soviet Embassy . After Ames's arrest in 1994, some of these intelligence breaches remained unsolved, and

11544-441: Was spying for them. At Hanssen's suggestion, and without his wife's knowledge, a friend named Jack Hoschouer, a retired Army officer, would sometimes watch the Hanssens having sex through a bedroom window. Hanssen then began to videotape his sexual encounters secretly and shared the videotapes with Hoschouer. Later, he hid a video camera in the bedroom connected via a closed-circuit television line so that Hoschouer could observe

11655-520: Was suspected of espionage. Hanssen warned the KGB that Bloch was being investigated, causing the KGB to end contact with him abruptly. The FBI could not produce any good evidence, and as a result, Bloch was never charged with a crime, although the State Department later terminated his employment and denied his pension. The failure of the Bloch investigation and the FBI's investigation of how the KGB learned that they were investigating Bloch caused

11766-524: Was taken. IT personnel from the National Security Division's IIS Unit were sent to investigate Hanssen's desktop computer after a reported failure. NSD chief Johnnie Sullivan ordered the computer impounded after it seemed to have been tampered with. A digital investigation found that an attempted hacking had occurred using a password cracking program installed by Hanssen, which caused a security alert and lockup. After confirmation by

11877-516: Was the betrayal of Dmitri Polyakov , a CIA informant who passed enormous amounts of information to U.S. intelligence while rising to the rank of general in the Soviet Army . Following a second betrayal by CIA mole Aldrich Ames in 1985, Polyakov was arrested in 1986 and executed in 1988. Ames was officially blamed for giving Polyakov's name to the Soviets, while Hanssen's attempt was not revealed until after his 2001 capture. In 1981, Hanssen

11988-422: Was the master spy. Hanssen's story was featured in episode 4, under the name of "Perfect Traitor", of Smithsonian Channel 's series Spy Wars , which aired at the end of 2019 and was narrated by Damian Lewis , and features Eric O'Neill as well as being mentioned in the seventh episode of The History Channel series America's Book of Secrets , as well as in the fifth episode of Netflix series Spycraft and

12099-488: Was to be added to the month, day, and time of a designated drop, so that, for example, a drop scheduled for January 6 at 1:00   p.m. would be written as July 12 at 7:00   p.m. Despite these efforts at caution and security, Hanssen was sometimes reckless. He once said in a letter to the KGB that it should emulate the management style of Mayor of Chicago Richard J. Daley —a comment that easily could have led an investigator to look at people from Chicago. Hanssen took

12210-460: Was transferred to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., and relocated his family to the suburb of Vienna, Virginia . His new job in the FBI's budget office gave him access to information involving many different FBI operations. This included all the FBI activities related to wiretapping and electronic surveillance , which were Hanssen's responsibility. He became known in the FBI as an expert on computers. Three years later, Hanssen transferred to

12321-560: Was unaware of it, Ames had already exposed all three agents earlier that year. Yuzhin had returned to Moscow in 1982 and had been subject to an intensive investigation by the KGB because he had lost a concealed camera in the Soviet consulate in San Francisco, but he was not arrested until exposed by Ames and Hanssen. Martynov and Motorin were recalled to Moscow, where they were arrested, charged, tried, and convicted of espionage against

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