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Washington D.C.The U.S. Capital is in the District of Columbia, separate from any state to avoid favoritism. The site was chosen in 1790 by George Washington because it could be reached on the Potomac River, yet it was far enough inland to be defensible; more importantly it was on the border between North and South to keep everyone happy. The previous national capitals had been in Philadelphia and New York City (where Washington was sworn in since D.C. was not yet ready). The site was a piece of swampland bought from Maryland and Virginia. the Virginia section was returned in 1846 and is now Arlington County. D.C.'s design was by Major Pierre L'Enfant, a French engineer who fought with Washington in the Revolutionary War. The Presidential Mansion was first occupied by John Adams, the second President, in 1800, a year after Washington's death. It was not called the White House until it was painted white to cover the blackened bricks from the British burning in the War of 1812. Government is the number one business here (although most people involved in it lice out in the suburbs) with tourism in second. Until 1973, D.C. was governed by Congress with no representation. Now there is a mayor, city council and a non-voting members in the House of Representatives. Congress still retains the right to veto in city management. Residents of Washington D.C. were only allowed the right to vote in Presidential elections beginning in 1961. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts In 1958, President Eisenhower signed a bill authorizing the creation of a national center for the performing arts. It received funding in President Kennedy's administration, and it opened September 8, 1971, as living memorial to the slain president. It is home to the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Washington Opera. The Washington Monument is the tallest stone and masonry structure in the world. It was built in intervals between 1848 and 1885 with funds from public subscription and Federal appropriations. The original design was submitted by Robert Mills, but was greatly altered throughout construction. Work was disrupted during the Civil War, and stood incomplete for nearly 25 years. In 1880, with government money, the project was resumed. Look carefully and you will see a change in the color of the marble facing the shaft about 150 feet from the base. The difference in hue is due to the fact that the marble comes from a different strata (rather than from weathering). Work was finally completed in 1884 at a cost of $1,187,710. The Monument was first opened to the public in 1888. Inserted into the interior walls are 188 carved stones presented by individuals, societies, cities, states, and nations of the worlds. Take a look at a map and notice that the location of the monument is several hundred feet southeast of the cross-axis of the Mall and the White House and Ellipse. L'Enfant had planned for a memorial to George Washington at the exact intersection, but that location was considered too marshy. The Smithsonian Institute was founded after an English scientist, James Smithson, who never visited the United States, willed half a million dollars to the U.S. for "an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." Today the Smithsonian consists of 13 museums (12 in Washington D.C. and 1 in New York) and has over 75 million items, and growing at the rate of about 1 million items a year. Only about 10 % of the Smithsonian's entire collection is on display at one time.
U.S. Capitol is home of America's legislative branch. The Senate is located in north wing and the House of Representatives in the south. In 1792 a design competition was held and Dr. William Thornton won the $500 prize. On September 18, 1793, George Washington laid the cornerstone. With the north wind completed, Congress met for the first time in Washington D.C. in November of 1800. By 1807 the south wing was completed. Today the Capitol building is 751 feet long, 350 feet wide, and from base to the top of statue on the dome it is 287 feet high. The original design was for a low dome building. However, after the 1814 burning of Washington D.C. by the British, Congressman Benjamin Latrobe expanded the design. Charles Bulficinch was brought in from Boston to put on a bigger and better dome. And in 1827 a wooden dome was added to the structure. In 1850 Congress decided that they wanted an even bigger dome, so Thomas Walter, with nothing less than St. Peter's in Rome for his model, designed the present dome. In 1857 the House and Senate extensions were completed. In 1865 the present double-shelled cast iron dome, weighing 4,455 tons was hoisted up. Engineers say that it contracts according to outside temperatures as much as four inches a day. In 1863 the dome was topped with Thomas Crawford's statue 19 foot, Freedom. The statue was originally designed wearing a cloth cap of a freed Roman slave. However, southern representatives, led by Mississippi's, Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War and the man in charge of the project, rejected the design, finding the idea offensive at a time when the issue of slavery was being so hottly debated. The woman's headdress was redesigned as a helmet of flowing eagle feathers, representing the national bird, and reminiscent of an Indian headdress. Ironically, Jefferson Davis left Washington D.C. in 1861 to become president of the Confederacy, and the Statue of Freedom, sculpted in Italy, was cast in bronze by slave labor and then shipped to America.
The White House (1600 Pennsylvania Ave) has been the home of every U.S. President except George Washington. James Hobson's design, chosen for the Presidential Mansion in 1792, never reached full execution because of frequent alterations and additions. In 1948-52 the interior was stripped and renovated. Present furnishings in the White House include antique and original pieces from previous administrations and the early 19th century. The Jefferson Memorial was designed by John Russell Pope, and the statue inside is by Rudolph Evans. The memorial was started in 1939, and finished in 1943. Jefferson, an architect himself, favored the circular-dome shape. Like so much of the Mall, the Jefferson Memorial site was under brackish water until the commencement of an eight year long dredging project. The land reclaimed wasn't strong enough to support the memorial, whose every column weighs 45 tons, without a specially prepared foundation. Concrete filled cylinders were driven 135 feet into the earth before reaching bedrock. Although it one of the most popular monuments in the capital today, that wasn't always true. At the time of its construction, the memorial was denounced for being too sweet and feminine. The columns caused it to be called a "cage for Jefferson's statue," and its low circular shaped prompted one critic to rename the memorial "Jefferson's muffin." Above the entrance is a statue of Jefferson which depicts him standing before the committee appointed by the Continental Congress to write the Declaration of Independence. To his left are Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, and seated on his rights are Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston. The interior of the memorial's dome is constructed out of Indiana limestone. The walls are of white Georgia marble and the floors are pink-and-gray Tennessee marble. The standing sculpture on Jefferson inside the memorial stands 19 feet high and is placed on a 6 foot pedestal of black Minnesota granite. At the time of the memorial's dedication by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the sculpture was represented by a plaster model. It couldn't be cast in bronze until several years later when the wartime ban on domestic metal use was lifted. The dome reaches 67 feet above the head of the statue. Engraved on the walls of the memorial are four inscriptions based upon Jefferson's writings, describing the chief principles of his beliefs. First is the Declaration of Independence; second, his principle of freedom of the mind, from the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom; third, his ideas concerning freedom of the body and beliefs in the necessity of educating the masses in order to have efficient self-government; lastly, his vision in matters of government, taken from a letter to a friend, emphasizing the necessity for change in the laws and institutions of a democracy, especially as opinions alter, new discoveries are made, and circumstances change. Outside the memorial and surrounding the Tidal Basin are 650 Oriental Flowering Cherry Trees, a gift from the city of Tokyo to the city of Washington. The ceremony of official planting took place on the north side of the Tidal Basin on March 27, 1912, with the planting of one of the trees by Mrs. William Howard Taft, and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambassador to the United States, planting the second. The public was so taken with the trees that in the 1940s, when it was announced that some would have to be moved to make way for the Jefferson Memorial, nature lovers chained themselves to tree trunks, while the more militant occupied holes left by already uprooted trees. Later, after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, some of the trees were vandalized. In 1965 the U.S. sent cuttings to Tokyo so the Japanese could replenish native stocks that had been weakened by war and pollution. The Lincoln Memorial is made out of Colorado-Yule marble, and was designed by Henry Bacon. There are 36 columns surrounding the walls of the memorial, representing the 36 states at the time of Lincoln's death. the names of the states are cut into the frieze above the colonnade. On the attic walls above the frieze are the named of the 48 states compromising the Union at the time of the Memorial's dedication in 1922. The states of Hawaii and Alaska are named on a plaque on the side of the building. The marble statue of Lincoln was designed by Daniel Chester French. It represents Lincoln as the War President. The statue from head to foot is 19 ft high. It was carved by the Piccirilli brothers in New York. They spent from than 4 yrs working on the project. On the north wall is Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address (mural - unity of North and South, figures on the R and L symbolize Fraternity and Charity), and on the South wall is the Gettysburg address (mural - Angel of Truth freeing the slaves, figures on R and L represent justice and morality). Less than a week after the Lincoln Memorial was opened in 1917, a Washington patrolman reported seeing a top-hatted figure while making his early morning rounds. since then there have been numerous other reports of the Ghost of Lincoln both here and at the White House. Vietnam Veterans Memorial was designed by a Yale architectural student of Chinese descent. It commemorates the 58,000 KIA and MIAs of the Vietnam War. Each month about 1,000 items are left, half with no explanations. Each one is catalogued and saved at the Memorial's office. Arlington National Cemetery is located on a portion of land totaling some 1,100 acres. Any American soldier who had seen active duty is eligible to be buried here. This land was purchased in 1778 by John Parkes Custis, son of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (George's wife) by her first marriage. John Parke Custis joined the Continental Army and served as an aide to General Washington. Development of the estate took place under George Washington Parke Custis, and it was he who directed the building of the Lee-Custis Mansion. Custis' daughter, Mary Ann Randolph Custis, the only one of the four children to reach adulthood, was married to Lt. Robert E Lee in 1831, and the house and grounds were in possession of the Lee family at the outbreak of the Civil War. During the war, the house and the grounds were occupied by Union troops for use as a cemetery and because of its strategic position, over-looking the Capital and the Potomac River. In 1864, it was confiscated by the government for non-payment of back taxes.
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