D.C. '11: The U.S. Capitol Building

On the same day we toured the White House, we also got a tour of the Capitol Building.  Because it was a Saturday, the House & Senate galleries were not open, but apparently it was all our congressperson could get us (tours of the Capitol building are free and open to the public, but through your congressperson you can get a set time and circumvent the line, which we did, and also get passes to see the galleries where the House and Senate meet, if they are in session, which was not available to us on the day we got the tour).

The tour consists of shoving a large (a couple hundred by my estimate) group of people into an introductory movie explaining a little about the history and workings of Congress in a very overly dramatically epic and patriotic way, then bringing the group upstairs and corralling everyone into four or five tour groups with earpieces to hear the tour guides speak through their microphones.  Once you get out of that entrance hall things are a little better, more spread out through the building rather than in that giant group in the echoing hall.  Our first stop was the Rotunda (aka the dome).

We were shown the Rotunda in detail, then also taken over to the House side and saw the old chamber, now called the National Statuary Hall.  This is where Congress used to meet, and there are plaques showing where notable peoples' desks stood, like Lincoln's.

In the main visitor's entrance, open to anyone who walks in off the street, is Emancipation Hall.  It is lined with statues given by different states (each state is entitled to 2 statues of people they feel represent their state, distributed throughout the entire Capitol building).  Behind Emancipation Hall is an exhibit containing many historical artifacts, including the spade and mallet used by George Washington to lay the cornerstone of the building in a Masonic ritual as well as Lincoln's table from his 2nd inaugural address, along with many other really neat items throughout our country's history.

Next time, we will do our best to secure gallery passes - it would be cool to experience all the drama and excitement that is CSPAN (no, I'm not being wry, why would you say that?) in real life.  In all seriousness, it is really cool to see these places that in essence run our country.

(Unlike the White House entry, these are all my own photos).