The Silver Spring Metro Center (SSMC), which houses more than
4,700 NOAA workers, is located on the northern edge of DC, about
10 miles from the downtown area.
Home of NOAA Headquarters since 1993, the NOAA Silver Spring
Metro Center consists of four buildings, a science center and
an auditorium.
The NOAATECH2002 conference will be held in the auditorium,
science center and the Building 4 conference center.
The address is: 1301 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
If you would like to know more about the local history of the
area, visit the
Silver
Spring Historical Society web site for a wealth of articles
and photos of the area.
AIRPORTS
There
are three airports that service the Washington, D.C.
area: National Airport, which is immediately south of and adjacent
to downtown Washington
(* NOTE: presently closed - status unknown at this time);
Baltimore-Washington International (BWI), 20-25 miles north
of Washington near Baltimore, Maryland; and Dulles Airport,
25-30 miles west of Washington in Reston, Virginia.
TRANSPORTATION
There
is taxi and limousine service at all three airports. National
Airport has a metro line (subway) that services all of DC, including
the Silver Spring station that is adjacent to the NOAA facility.
If you are renting a car, BWI and Dulles are the most convenient
as far as getting in and out (BWI is actually a little closer
to Silver Spring); National can be very congested and traffic
in the downtown area can be heavy. However, if your hotel is
in downtown Washington, then National may be the best choice.
