Embrace your inner codebreaker at Maryland’s National Cryptologic Museum

Embrace your inner codebreaker at Maryland’s National Cryptologic Museum

It’s an off-the-beaten-path D.C.-area museum that you have to crack the code to get to.

In today’s edition of “Matt About Town,” WTOP’s Matt Kaufax goes top-secret to check out the National Cryptologic Museum, right next to the National Security Agency headquarters in Maryland.

Whether it’s the machine that generated the nuclear codes for U.S. warheads until very recently, a cipher wheel Thomas Jefferson used to send coded messages during the American Revolution, or a machine that FDR used to communicate secretly with Winston Churchill during World War II, this museum is filled with machines you can’t find anywhere else on planet earth. Some of them have only recently been declassified by the NSA.

One of the museum’s most hands-on attractions even allows you to try and create and decipher your own secret messages on an authentic World War II machine that inspired the 2014 movie The Imitation Game.

The National Cryptologic Museum has been around for years, but it’s recently reopened with all new exhibits.

Check out Matt’s video of the museum, and his own code-breaking experience!

If you’ve got an idea for a feature story Matt should cover, reach out via the WTOP “contact us” page to submit your idea.

You can also contact Matt directly. His contact information is listed below.

Check out more of “Matt About Town” on WTOP.

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Matt Kaufax

If there's an off-the-beaten-path type of attraction, person, or phenomenon in the DC area that you think more people should know about, Matt is your guy. As the features reporter for WTOP, he's always on the hunt for stories that provide a unique local flavor—a slice of life if you will.

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