Department of Homeland Security Headquarters, District of Columbia

The Department of Homeland Security is headquartered at the St. Elizabeths West campus, a former hospital in the southern part of the District of Columbia, where it has been rebuilding and slowly consolidating its offices there from more than 50 locations, including its former headquarters at the Nebraska Avenue Complex, near American University. DHS was created after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as an agency focused on domestic security, and combined many civilian defense organizations, like the Coast Guard, border protection, customs and immigration, FEMA, Federal Protective Services, and the Secret Service.