Where it's at
Whether or not you think that Washington is actually the capital
of the free world, the decisions taken in this city have enormous
influence worldwide. The Capitol building itself is the centre
of the centre; it literally sits on the four corners of the
four quadrants that make up DC, atop of Capitol Hill. For
two centuries it's been a powerful symbol of America's pride
in its democratic values; in 1812 Thomas Jefferson hailed
it as "the first temple dedicated to the sovereignty
of the people, embellishing with Athenian taste the course
of a nation looking far beyond the range of Athenian destinies".
The Capitol houses Congress, one of the three branches of
federal power. These branches are legislative (Congress)
- to write the laws, judicial (the Supreme Court) -
to interpret them and the executive (the presidency)
- to administer them. Congress is bicameral, with equal
representation of every state in the upper chamber, the Senate,
and proportional representation in the House of Representatives.
The House of Representatives has 435 members while the Senate
has 100 members.
Construction of The Capitol
The Capitol was placed in one of two of the most significant
locations in the city according to the plans drawn up by the
original French architect of the city, L'Enfant in
1791; the other is where the White House was built. He placed
it on what was then called Jenkins Hill, which he said
was like a "pedestal waiting for a monument". Construction
on the building started in 1793 with George Washington placing the cornerstone and anointing it with wine and
oil in Masonic style - it was immediately lost and its whereabouts
have never been determined. The designer William Thornton was chosen in a national search and when Thomas Jefferson added another architect (Benjamin Henry) to the team
at the turn of the century, squabbles abounded over the direction
of the building. This bickering was cut short in 1814 when
the British marched on the city, virtually destroying it and
burning down both the White House and the Capitol building.
Such was the destruction of a city that had never been particularly
popular that the DC project was almost aborted altogether
but by 1857, under the guidance of Charles Bullfinch,
the Capitol resembled the building we recognise today, replete
with its new nine-million-pound iron dome. Inside this magnificent
piece is Constantino Brumidi's Apotheosis of Washington fresco in which the president is welcomed to heaven by thirteen
angels representing the thirteen original states - some people
claim the painter used local prostitutes to model for the
angels!
The present day Capitol
These days the Capitol, with its 540 rooms, 658 windows (108
in the Dome alone) and 850 doorways, is a small city. It houses
535 elected lawmakers and around 20,000 workers in the six
buildings that surround the actual Capitol building. The complex
has a 1,200 police force, doctors, nurses, electricians, carpenters,
painters, day care assistants and much more. It has power
plants, libraries, shops, restaurants, newspaper offices,
pharmacies, gyms, tennis courts and maintenance workshops.
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