The site that we saw most often while in D.C. was the U.S. Capitol Building. This was because we were staying so close to it, and walked by it each time we were going to and from the mall. It is an impressive building.
On our first day, we got an up close view of the building's back, or west side. We wandered around at the base of the building, taking pictures and admiring the architecture. Fences blocked the stairways leading up to the building, so we didn't get to climb them. The other tourists and people present were exceptionally nice and we had more than one person offer to take our picture. The photos turned out perfect -- just look at that brilliant blue sky!!!
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| This is the day we got sunburned. |
Even the back of Capitol is impressive. The President is sworn into office on one of those terraces.
The Capitol Building has an interesting history. It's construction began in September of 1793, when George Washington and eight other Freemasons laid the cornerstone. The north wing was finished in 1800, and the south wing was finished in 1811. The center section was yet to be finished, so a wooden walkway connected the two wings.
In 1814, during the War of 1812, the British set the Capitol's finished wings on fire. Their redesign and reconstruction was finished in 1819. By 1826 the center section had been added, including a small copper dome, but the building wasn't done yet.
In 1850, construction began on two new wings, one on either side of the existing wings, expanding the building to allow room for the number of senators and house members that continually increased as new states were added to the union. The north wing (that today houses the Senate) and the south wing (that today houses the House of Representatives) were added.
After this expansion, it was decided that the current dome wasn't large enough. The old one was torn down, and a new one (the one currently on the building today) was built in its place. The new dome was still under construction during the Civil War and Lincoln's time in office. We learned that President Lincoln kept the dome's construction moving forward during the war because he viewed it as a symbol that the Union would win and that the nation would remain united. The new cast iron dome is three stories taller than the previous dome, and weighs 8.9 million pounds. It was completed in 1863 when the statue was added to its top.
The building's east side, or front facade, was rebuilt in 1904, and its east portico was expanded in 1958. The Capitol Building was declared a national landmark in December of 1960. The underground visitors center was started in 2000 and finished in 2008.
Throughout all of this construction, there were multiple designers, architects, and plans. I'm glad they got it all sorted out.
On our second day in D.C., we walked up towards the Capitol again, but took a slightly different route. We walked straight towards the northern end, where there is a small park. We later found out that it is the Senate Park and includes a reflecting pool and fountain. The area was lined with blooming cherry trees and we had fun wandering around and snapping photos.
Brian took the majority of the photos on this trip. Usually I'm the one in charge of the camera, but he was having a lot of fun using the super-nice camera he borrowed from work. He even started taking pictures of the flowers! He said: "Give me a nice camera and apparently I turn into a photographer!" We kind of switched places: he was stopping to take pictures of everything, not wanting to miss anything, and I was wandering around looking at things, at times feeling not quite impatient but ready to move on. I had brought along our camera as well, so we both had fun taking pictures, although I didn't take very many. We came home with about 2,000 photos total. I think it's safe to say that we documented our trip very well.
We wandered around to the building's front, or east side. It was fairly early in the morning and not many people were out and about so we got some great pictures without a crowd of people in the way. The ladies who snapped this picture for us dropped their camera in the process. It made Brian very nervous because they were holding our borrowed one.
One flag flies on the west and east side of the Capitol Building. These flags have flown both day and night since WWI.
This is the south wing where the House of Representatives meetw. The flagpole on its roof only holds a flag when the house is in session.
This is the north wing, where the Senate meets. It's rooftop flagpole only bears a flag when it is in session. They were not in session when we took this picture, but we did see the flag flying above the building the day before, signalling that Senate was in session.
Here is a closer view at a different angle of the Senate's wing.
We took a tour of the Capitol on our second day. We got in line extra early to enter the visitor center. Brian and I were laughing at the prohibited items sign that clearly marked that no guns, knives, explosives, or bananas were allowed inside.
The main hall of the visitors center was so crowded. There were multiple middle school and high school tour groups visiting D.C. during the time we were there, and each group added to the crowded, noisy, chaotic conditions.
We had reserved a time for our tour beforehand, so we headed to the ticket desk to pick up our passes.
There was an hour wait before we needed to be in line for our tour, so we wandered around the hall a bit, looking at all the statues. Below is a picture of the King Kamehameha statue, donated by the state of Hawaii.
Other statues we saw included Helen Keller, Sacagawea, Frederick Douglas, and Philo T. Farnsworth.
They also had on display the plaster cast model of the Statue of Freedom that sits atop the Capitol's dome. The one on the dome is so far away that we couldn't see it in detail, so I'm glad we got to see the model. She is 19 1/2 feet tall and weighs 15,000 pounds. The dome's statue was treated with an acid to give it a permanent bronze-colored patina, preventing it from turning bright green like the Statue of Liberty.
According to Wikipedia, "She is a female allegorical figure whose right hand holds the hilt of a sheathed sword while a laurel wreath of victory and the Shield of the United States are clasped in her left hand. Her chiton is secured by a brooch inscribed "U.S." and is partially covered by a heavy, Native American–style fringed blanket thrown over her left shoulder. She faces east towards the main entrance of the building and the rising sun. She wears a military helmet adorned with stars and an eagle's head which is itself crowned by an umbrella-like crest of feathers. Freedom stands atop a cast-iron globe encircled with one of the national mottoes, E pluribus unum."
You can read more fascinating information about the statue here or here.
We explored the exhibition hall located behind the Statue of Freedom model. They had some really cool things in there, but we weren't allowed to take pictures. Along with providing an explanation of the origins and duties of the U.S. Congress, the exhibit had all sorts of historical artifacts from our government's history. We saw a model of the Capitol dome, the gavel used by George Washington in the ceremony to lay the Capitol's cornerstone in 1793, a table from President Lincoln's second inauguration (made from surplus ironwork cast for the Capitol dome), the catafalque (or support structure) on which rested the coffins' of various presidents (including Lincoln) during the lying-in-state ceremonies, along with other various items such as pens that presidents used to sign bills into laws, desks used in the house and senate chambers, etc.
We lined up for our tour and were led into a theater, where we watched a 10-minute video about the Capitol. We then got in another line (thankfully us regular tourists were grouped together and kept separate from the school groups) and were given headphones.
Our tour guide led us through a few hallways and into the Capitol's rotunda -- the room inside the dome. This was our view walking in. They were preparing to close the rotunda off for repairs the next day and had already begun to erect the scaffolding around the room's perimeter. We were glad there wasn't any scaffolding blocking the view of the ceiling.
As soon as we walked through the doors into the rotunda, our eyes lifted upward to the gorgeous ceiling. It was breathtakingly beautiful. We couldn't stop looking at it or taking pictures of it. The painting sits 180 feet above the floor.
The painting covers an area of 4,664 square feet, which seems astounding because it didn't look that big from where we were standing so far below it. It is entitled The Apotheosis of Washington and illustrates George Washington's ascending to the heavens and becoming a god. If you look closely you can find Washington in the center circle of figures with a purple robe on his lap. The figure to his left represents "victory and fame" while the figure sitting on his right represents "liberty." The thirteen additional figures that complete the inner circle represent the thirteen colonies and hold a banner that reads E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one). Those colony figures that have their backs turned to Washington represent the colonies that seceded from the Union during the Civil War. Each of the six scenes around the painting's perimeter depict a mythological God or Goddes: Freedom or Columbia (represents War), Minerva (represents Science), Neptune (represents Marine), Mercury (represents Commerce), Vulcan (represents Mechanics), and Ceres (represents Agriculture). It's a beautiful painting and full of symbolism. It was definitely the highlight of the tour.
I loved the detail and the colors of the portion of ceiling surrounding the painting. If you look closely at the white band running just above the columns, you can spot a couple of cracks. Apparently there are plenty more and that is why they are closing the rotunda for repairs. The tour guide said that somehow a bird had gotten in a week or two before.
Those figures are not carved, they are painted. It had us fooled, until our guide told us otherwise. The sketches for this panting were started in 1859, and the actual painting wasn't finished until 1951. One-third of this painting was completed by the same man who painted The Apotheosis of Washington, Constantino Brumidi. He was really old and one night while working he fell off the scaffolding. As he was falling he managed to grab hold of one of the ladders, and hung there for 15 to 20 minutes until a guard wandered through and noticed him. I guess that was too much for him, because he decided to stop working after the accident. One of Brumidi's students finished most of the work using the original designs. He completed all but three panels, which he left for a third artist.
There was a nice statue of George Washington in the rotunda right behind us.
Eight giant paintings hang on the wall curving around the rotunda's perimeter. We stood right in front of the original panting titled The Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull. It was cool to see the original (even though it was behind all the scaffolding) because we got to go to Independence Hall last year. We stood right in that room depicted in the painting!
In the rotunda was a statue of President Reagan. You'll notice in the base of the statue a thin line of black and white speckled stone just below the creamy-pink stone. This thin layer is made from stone from the Berlin Wall.
From the rotunda we went to the Statuary Hall. This room used to be be meeting place of the House of Representatives, but now holds 38 pieces from the National Statuary Hall Collection. The collection consists of 100 statues of notable American citizens, two from each state. The remaining statues are divided between the visitor center's main hall, the rotunda, and the crypt room.
This room was quite elaborate, what with its ornate ceiling, light fixtures, and red drapings edged with golden tassels.
One of Utah's statues was Brigham Young. He is the bearded one in the picture below.
There are plaques in the Statuary Hall's floor identifying where certain people's desks sat when it was used for the House's chambers. We stood around John Quincy Adams' plaque while our guide walked across the hall. We took off our headphones and she talked to us in her normal speaking voice. Because of the shape of the ceiling and room we could hear her as if she were standing in the middle of our group. She kept talking as she started to walk forward and her voice cut out, we couldn't hear her again until she was standing once again standing with the group. It was cool.
The crypt room sits below the rotunda and contains multiple sandstone pillars that support the full weight of the Capitol Building's dome. Below the floor in the room's center sits a space that was intended to hold the remains of George and Martha Washington. Martha gave the government her permission to have George moved there as long as she could be buried next to him. His remains were never moved, and after Martha died they asked the family for permission to move the Washingtons' bodies. The family refused because President Washington specified in his will that he wanted to be buried at Mount Vernon. The government hassled the family for 30 years after Martha's passing, trying to obtain permission, but the family never gave in. So they finally just closed the floor up over the space.
A white star is painted in the center of the crypt room's floor. This spot is not the geographic center of the city, but it is the exact point that the four quadrants of Washington D.C. are established from. It is the spot where the lady is standing in the above picture.
And just because I haven't included enough pictures, here are two more.
After our tour we ate lunch at the Capitol's Cafe. It was yummy, but way overpriced. We picked up an ornament and a magnet at the gift shop before heading out to our next adventure.
Whew! That was a lot. Thanks for reading to the end. We loved getting a chance to see the exterior and interior of our nation's capitol. It's a very impressive building and not one to miss visiting.
Very nice! Except for the overpriced food.
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