7/6/05 Capitol, Supreme Court

We got a wonderful tour through our Congressman's office. One of his interns took us through the tunnels from his office building to the capitol building. We got to go into the rotunda and see the places I'd seen on TV of where the President walks on his way to make the State Of The Union speech. We saw the old chambers where the house and senate *used* to meet, as well as the place the Supreme Court used to meet. VERY fun! If you are going to DC definitely contact your congressman for a tour!

Today we ended up skipping out on the Library of Congress tour, because we were just too tired to get up and moving after the exertions of the last couple days. So we got a late start and took the subway into the city and found our way to our congressman’s office. We had contacted our congressman back in April and they were going to give us a tour of the Capitol building. We arrived and got to wait for the rest of the group in our Rep. Christopher Cox’s office, as he was out of town at the moment. An intern took us through the tunnels under the streets into the capitol building. Once we entered the Capitol building, the hallways had beautiful fresco paintings by famous artists, and there are many winding and confusing hallways and passages.


The first place we visited was the Rotunda. A few months earlier they had held the funeral for Ronald Reagan in this room. The Rotunda is directly underneath the dome, and there is a white sunburst about the size of a basketball in the direct center. This white spot is the exact center of the city and al of the buildings and streets radiate out from that spot. When the president comes to address congress for the state of the union address, he first stops n the Rotunda and steps on this spot on his way to the congressional chamber. Of course, we all had to step on the spot as well. *smiles* There are amazing paintings and relief sculptures all around the walls. The whole building is also full of sculptures of people who have been significant in US history. Everyone from Sacagawea to Daniel Webster, and then some.

Next we visited the chamber where congress met when there were not so many representatives. The intern showed us an amazing curiosity in the acoustics of the room…. In the exact place there John Quincy Adam’s desk sat when he was in congress, if you put your head down where the top of his desk was, you can hear everything any anything from around the entire room! Adams used to listen with his head down unbeknownst to the other congressmen and get the edge on their debating strategies! HAHAHAHA

Virtual Tour


Later in the day we walked around the area about the Capitol building. There are parks and beautiful fountains all around. Later on we walked over to the Supreme Court. Unfortunately because of our late start we were too late to go into the building but we spent some time just admiring the outside. It is HUGE! The columns on the front of the building must be 10 or 12 feet in diameter, and the golden doors are probably 25 feet tall.

We tiredly dragged ourselves back to the hotel. I must say my feel have never been as sore in my entire life as they were that day.