Arlington Hall
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Arlington Hall was the headquarters of the US Army's Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) cryptography effort during World War II. It was named for its location in Arlington Hall Station, Arlington, Virginia—a private girls' school which was commandeered during the War. Arlington Hall was in many respects similar to Bletchley Park in England, though military and only one of two primary cryptography operations in Washington during the War (the other was the Naval Communications Annex, also housed in a commandeered private girls' school). Arlington concentrated its efforts on the Japanese systems (including PURPLE) while Bletchley Park concentrated on European combatants. Arlington Hall eventually became one of the organizations and facilities of the National Security Agency after it was created.
The Arlington Hall effort was comparable in influence to other Anglo-American WW II-era technological efforts, such as the cryptographic work at Bletchley Park, the Naval Communications Annex, development of sophisticated microwave radar at MIT's Radiation Lab, and the Manhattan Project's development of nuclear weapons.
External links
- NSA - Introductory History of VENONA (http://www.nsa.gov/docs/venona/monographs/monograph-1.html)
- Ground Truth: Arlington Hall Station, VA (http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/facility/arlhall.htm)