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Must-see

U.S. Capitol

The home of Congress, under a cast-iron dome finished during the Civil War

Local name: United States Capitol

Collection: Washington, D.C. · USA · Open in OpenStreetMap

The Capitol’s East Front and dome
The Capitol’s East Front and dome · Beethoven, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The story

Before you is the Capitol, the home of the U.S. Congress: the Senate and the House of Representatives. It stands on a hill at the east end of the National Mall. William Thornton’s design was approved in 1793, and on the eighteenth of September George Washington laid the cornerstone. Among those who built it were enslaved people hired out by their owners. Congress first met here on the seventeenth of November 1800, when the capital moved from Philadelphia. In August 1814 British troops set the building on fire, and it took about five years to restore. The present cast-iron dome was built to Thomas U. Walter’s design from 1856 to 1866. On the second of December 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, the bronze Statue of Freedom, nineteen and a half feet tall, was raised to the top. Its last section, the head and shoulders, was greeted with a thirty-five-gun salute. Guns at twelve forts around Washington answered. An enslaved man, Philip Reid, helped cast the statue. Under the dome is the Rotunda, a round hall 180 feet high. On the canopy is Constantino Brumidi’s fresco The Apotheosis of Washington, painted in 1865. Around the walls hang four paintings by John Trumbull of the War of Independence. From the ground to the top of the Statue of Freedom is about 288 feet. The underground Visitor Center opened on the second of December 2008. It is the largest project in the Capitol’s history.

Visiting

You can go inside only on a tour, and tours are free. Pick a time in advance at tours.visitthecapitol.gov. Walk-ins are welcome too, but it is best to arrive by 2:30 p.m. Enter through the underground Visitor Center on the east side of the Capitol, with a security check; the list of prohibited items is on visitthecapitol.gov. The tour covers the Crypt, the Rotunda and National Statuary Hall; the Senate and House galleries are not included. Information: +1 202-226-8000.

Photos

Brumidi’s Apotheosis of Washington in the dome
Brumidi’s Apotheosis of Washington in the dome · USCapitol, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
The dome under construction, 1859
The dome under construction, 1859 · Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

Sources

This text was written by AI from open sources. An expert will still check it. Found a mistake? Write to us. Support

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