White House Security Breaches Fast Facts

Here's a selected list of White House intrusions and security breaches.

The White House grounds include 18 acres of land. That and the adjacent 52-acre Ellipse to the south belong to President's Park, a national park.

The Secret Service is in charge of White House security.

According to the White House Historical Society, US President Thomas Jefferson was the first to put a fence around the White House. Over the years, the fence has been updated and fortified, with the wrought-iron fences of the 19th century having been replaced in the 1930s by a steel fence with tall bronze spears atop it. Most of the fence is currently about six feet six inches tall, and is undergoing an eight-phase replacement with an approximately 13 foot tall fence which began in July 2019.

Security became especially tighter during World War II. After a truck-bomb attack on the US Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983, low concrete walls were put up around the White House. Bollards - sturdy, vertical posts that can stop vehicles - were added a few years later.

"Security incidents occur frequently," according to a 2015 House of Representatives report. Data from the Secret Service included in the report show that there were 104 security breaches or attempted breaches between April 2005 and April 15, 2015.

April 13, 1912 - On his second attempt to enter the White House to see President William Howard Taft, Michael Winter makes it several feet inside the front door before being noticed.