NIH unintended visit

Building 10, National Institutes of Health 

Today I got on the wrong shuttle and got a free tour of the National Institutes of Health in Betheseda, MD, a federal facility so secure they have their own police force, and if you do wander in, you will be forced to present your driver's license, run your purse through a scanner, and have your own personal badge created.  It is more secure than Fort Knox.  My hotel shuttle driver, who has been making the NIH loop for 19 years (yes, not a misprint!) said the drastic security measures were only imposed after 9/11.  Even after 19 years of driving through the campus, he takes it slow.  He is that nervous about the NIH police.  I am a tad surprised that a medical center requires such security, but the shuttle driver assured me that there were many dangerous viruses about, and pointed out the hospital where the U.S. ebola victim came to recover.  The NIH hospital is your last resort, it appears.  Still it is a lush green campus with sturdy brick buildings and many scientists bustling about.

My shuttle driver took pity on me, and he rounded the bend to the Metro station, where I had intended to go.  And then I was off to work in my firm's DC office.

The visitor badge I was issued to pass through
the super secure NIH facilities