Washington National Records Center

The Washington National Records Center (WNRC) in Suitland, Maryland, stores and references records of U.S. Federal agencies located in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.^[1]

Physical records are transferred to WNRC when they are no longer needed by the respective agencies but have not met their scheduled retention period, including the records of the Federal Courts in DC and the Armed Forces. Those records remain at the WNRC until acceptance as permanent records by the National Archives, or else they are destroyed and recycled. The records are tracked individually in a database from the time they arrive at the WNRC. While court records are freely available to the public, the majority of records are controlled by their respective originating agency, and all records are subject to the access restrictions specific to that agency and national security classification.

The WNRC encompasses approximately 789,000 square feet (73,300 m²) of space and has a capacity to hold over 3.9 million cubic feet (110,000 m³) of Federal records. Security systems, and fire suppression systems protect the records in the Center.^[2] Upon arrival, visitors to the Center must go through security, sign in, and present photo identification at the guard's station in the entrance lobby.

In 2007, the WNRC opened a new Electronic Records Vault. The 976 square-foot vault allows Federal Records Centers to store and service temporary electronic records for Federal agencies.^[3] This was after a major criminal fire on Tuesday, 29 February 2000, which destroyed 700,000 pages, as reported by archives officials.^[4]