While it's a national pastime to complain about Congress, few Americans will pass up the Capitol building during a visit to Washington D.C. Full of history and architectural beauty, visitors can sit in on live debates in the Senate and House of Representatives. Nearly five million people visit the seat of American democracy. Originally built in 1793, the Capitol houses the Legislative Branch of government with Senators and U.S. Representatives drafting and passing the nation's laws
This Hall is used to house some of the state statues (each state has contributed at least one statue that portrays someone of importance from that state.)
Quite a bit of arguing can go on as well. Visitors can view some of the most beautiful art work in the United States with the murals in the Capitol Rotunda. Large statues of famous Americans also grace the Capitol.
This is the location of Abraham Lincoln desk at capital hill. The Capitol is a building that has seen more than its share of strife since the American Revolution, and not just amongst its elected members. Designed with ancient Rome and Athens in mind, the neoclassical building was part of the design for the National Mall by Pierre Charles L'Enfant, a French engineer commissioned by Congress to design the new nation's capital city.
L'Enfant chose a natural rise in the terrain to site the Capitol but wasn't selected to draft the building's plans. Dr. William Thornton, physician from Scotland, won the design contest with a plan for a domed building flanked by both houses of the Congress. President George Washington approved of the plan and actually laid the Capitol's cornerstone himself.
Statute of Abraham Lincoln at Capital Hil The rotunda
The Rotunda:Is 96 feet in diameter and 180 feet high .
Connects the Senate and the House sides of the Capitol
Was constructed in 1824
The room is absolutely amazing. It is filled with beautiful portraits, each of which has a unique story, as well as statues of previous presidents
The dome itself is encircled by a frescoed frieze which was painted just below the 36 windows seen in the upper part of the dome. It was done by Constantino Brumidi and was intended to look like sculpture work.Above the frieze and at the top of the rotunda is the canopy over the eye of the inner dome, also painted by Constantino Brumidi. It is called the Apothesis of Washington and was painted in 1865. The canopy covers 4,664 sq. feet and the figures that you see are 15 feet tall. There are six groups of these figures representing war, science, marine, commerce, mechanics, and agriculture.
The Rotunda:Is 96 feet in diameter and 180 feet high .Connects the Senate and the House sides of the Capitol
Was constructed in 1824
The room is absolutely amazing. It is filled with beautiful portraits, each of which has a unique story, as well as statues of previous presidents
The dome itself is encircled by a frescoed frieze which was painted just below the 36 windows seen in the upper part of the dome. It was done by Constantino Brumidi and was intended to look like sculpture work.Above the frieze and at the top of the rotunda is the canopy over the eye of the inner dome, also painted by Constantino Brumidi. It is called the Apothesis of Washington and was painted in 1865. The canopy covers 4,664 sq. feet and the figures that you see are 15 feet tall. There are six groups of these figures representing war, science, marine, commerce, mechanics, and agriculture.
The Capitol looms high over the east end of the National Mall and is open daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Starting in March, the Capitol is open during the summer months from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Starting in September, the Capitol building is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. until February. Free 30-minute long guided tours are also available for tourists during the weekdays from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Saturdays from 9:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Visitors are free to walk around the building on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. as there is no guided tours offered that day. There are no tickets required for any of the Capitol guided tours. Visitors can easily walk to the National Archives to see the Constitution, the Lincoln and Washington Memorials or the Supreme Court.
Photos: Ayoub mzee
