The canal begins at its zero mile marker (accessible only via Thompson's Boat House), directly on the Potomac, opposite the Watergate complex. Author John Kelly, writing for "The Washington Post" in 2004, suggested that the name of the Watergate complex may derive from its location directly adjacent to the canal's zero milepost, where to this day, the canal's large "wooden gate" sits directly on the Potomac and adjacent to the complex. Kelly wrote, a canal lock is "quite literally, a water gate."