Editing Watergate complex (section)

===Watergate steps performance stage===
[[File:Watergate stairs.jpg|thumb|Watergate steps]]
In 2004, ''[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]'' writer John Kelly argued that the name was most directly linked to the "Water Steps" or "Water Gate", a set of ceremonial stairs west of the [[Lincoln Memorial]] that led down to the Potomac.<ref name="Kelly">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60120-2004Dec12.html |last=Kelly |first=John |title=Answer Man: A Gate to Summers Past |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=December 13, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604164401/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60120-2004Dec12.html |archive-date=June 4, 2011 }}</ref><ref name="AIAGuide" /><ref name="steps">{{cite book |title=Washington DC |first1=Becca |last1=Blond |first2=Aaron |last2=Anderson |publisher=Lonely Planet |edition=3rd |date=April 1, 2007 |page=80 |isbn=9781740597999 |quote=Its curious name derives from an unrealized 1930s plan to build a ceremonial water gate in the Potomac, a stairway onto which visiting dignitaries could disembark. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HQjvYlY-wzYC&pg=PA80 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131213337/https://books.google.com/books?id=HQjvYlY-wzYC&pg=PA80 |archive-date=January 31, 2017}}</ref> The steps had been originally planned as a ceremonial gateway to the city and an official reception area for dignitaries arriving in Washington, D.C., via [[water taxi]] from Virginia, though they never served this function.<ref name="Kelly" /> Instead, beginning in 1935, a floating performance stage on the Potomac River was anchored to the base of the steps. It was the site for open-air concerts and the audience could sit on the stairs.<ref name="Kelly" /><ref name="AIAGuide" /> Up to 12,000 people would sit on the steps and surrounding grass to listen to symphonies, military bands, and operas. The barge concerts ended in 1965 when jet airliner service began at [[Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport|National Airport]] and the noise impaired the venue's viability.<ref name="Spot" /><ref name="Kelly" /><ref name="AIAGuide" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Taps for Watergate Barge |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=August 1, 1965}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Port of No Return for Watergate Barge |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=August 12, 1965}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Hume |first=Paul |title=The Jets Played The Finale |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=June 27, 1971}}</ref>

The music venue was depicted in scenes in the motion pictures ''[[Houseboat (film)|Houseboat]]'' (1958)<ref name="Spot" /> and ''[[Born Yesterday (1950 film)|Born Yesterday]]'' (1950).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042276/locations |title=Born Yesterday (1950) Filming Locations |website=[[IMDb]] |access-date=September 1, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180220081019/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042276/locations |archive-date=February 20, 2018 }}</ref>