A Virginia county board has voted to demolish one of the most historic U.S. journalism sites to make way for residential and commercial buildings, Reuters reported.
The famous parking garage where Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward met his secret Watergate source, known as Deep Throat, 40 years ago has unanimously been voted to be demolished by the Arlington County Board during the weekend.
The two 1960s-era buildings at the site in Northern Virginia's Rosslyn community, which surrounded the Watergate political scandal of the 1970s, will be replaced with a 28-story residential tower and a 24-story commercial building, USA Today reported.
The secret meeting in the Rosslyn garage between FBI official Mark Felt and Woodward led to an investigation, which resulted in the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.
Felt was known for decades as Woodward's source "Deep Throat."
"The buildings, located just over the Potomac River from Washington, sat atop the parking garage where Woodward met Mark Felt, then the second-highest official in the FBI, who provided important tips and key information on the unfolding scandal that brought down President Nixon in 1974," USA Today reported.
"The reporter, who shared a Pulitzer prize with colleague Carl Bernstein for their Watergate coverage, met Felt at parking spot 32D inside the ground-level garage."
"Felt selected the spot where the pair met six times between October 1972 and November 1973, the Post reports."
A three-decade old mystery and journalistic guessing game was ended by Felt in 2005 after he revealed that he had been Woodward's source.
With the county saving the historical marker it erected in 2011 at the garage, the landowner has pledged to create a commemorative memorial to the Watergate events.
Tuesday will mark the 42nd anniversary of the June 17, 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex, which sparked the whole scandal, Reuters reported.
