All the President's Men|2601 Virginia Avenue — The Lookout's Balcony Directly Opposite

Pakula cuts from the burglars to a man on a motel balcony with a walkie-talkie and a clear line of sight. That was not invention. Alfred Baldwin sat in Room 723 of the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge at 2601 Virginia Avenue NW, directly across the street from the Watergate office building, and he was still there when the police cars arrived. The film puts the lookout where the lookout actually was.

The motel is the least glamorous address in the whole Watergate story and the most useful one for understanding it. It explains the distances. From that balcony to the sixth-floor DNC offices is a two-lane street and a short throw of open air — close enough to see lights come on, too far to warn anyone in time. Baldwin watched plainclothes officers move through the floor and could not make himself understood on the radio fast enough. Everything after that is history and a very long trial.

The Howard Johnson's is gone as a motel. The George Washington University bought the building and it now houses students, renamed and re-clad, its balconies still stacked in the same rows facing the same target. You cannot go inside, and there is no reason to try.

The reason to come is the sidewalk. Stand on the north side of Virginia Avenue, pick out the seventh floor, then turn a hundred and eighty degrees and look at the Watergate. Two ordinary buildings, one ordinary street between them. That is the entire stage.

Photo shows the Watergate office buildings — the view the lookout had from this side of the street.