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Did you know that for more than 50 years, NIST called D.C. home?
NIST’s campus was located in the northwest part of D.C. near the intersection of Van Ness Street and Connecticut Avenue. But in 1955, NIST leadership decided to make a big move, relocating the campus to Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Why? When NIST was first established, D.C. was less populated than it is today. But as the city grew, so did the noise, vibrations from cars, and electrical interference from power lines and radio waves.
Scientists needed fewer disturbances from these external factors when conducting their sensitive measurements. Gaithersburg was mostly rural farmland at the time, which eliminated some of the external disturbances that researchers were faced with in the city. The new lab buildings were designed to minimize most of the noise and electrical disturbances, and the campus also offered more space to expand.
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