It would be fair to say that media interest in the National Security Agency has never been higher, thanks to Edward Snowden, the IT administrator who leaked thousands of NSA documents to journalists.

There have been Congressional hearings. There have been magazine profiles of the NSA's head, General Keith Alexander. There have been front page stories and endless cable news speculation.

The public has little direct access to the agency, except in one small regard: the National Security Agency runs the National Cryptologic Museum, adjacent to NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland.

"The National Cryptologic Museum is the National Security Agency's principal gateway to the public," the NSA itself puts it.

So one might imagine, in this year, that the National Cryptologic Museum is now overrun with interested citizens and looky-loos.

But that is not the case.

After weeks of haranguing, the museum disclosed their attendance figures to me. They look like this:

NSA

Last year, 62,388 people went to the museum. This year, they're estimating attendance at 63,000. In other words, despite all the hubbub about the NSA's activities, few people are making the trek to the agency "principal gateway to the public."