The U.S. Capitol, also known as the U.S. Capitol Building, is perhaps the most important place of business and official government gathering in the world. It houses the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and is the primary meeting place for the executive branch of government. It is also home to the U.S. President and the Cabinet. It is situated on Capitol Hill in the central part of Washington, D.C., just east of the National Mall. This article will discuss some interesting facts about this location.
Architectural History The structure of the U.S. Capitol was originally built under very specific circumstances. George Washington was the first U.S. president to construct a capitol hill. Washington intended the U.S. Capitol to be a very easy building to maneuver around in and a very resistant building to fire. In 1793 a particularly violent storm prevented the completion of this project and consequently all the U.S. Capitol Buildings was constructed after this storm.
Many of today’s visitors to the U.S. Capitol Building are unable to appreciate the complexity of its construction without detailed information about its construction. The building’s great success in the building of George Washington as the first president of the U.S. is at least partially attributable to the rainstorm that kept builders from completing the interior of the capitol hill. Without this rainstorm, it would have been impossible to build the capitol hill fortress. Most people understand this but do not realize just how difficult it was to erect the U.S. Capitol without an elevated structure that could support the weight of those who would sit in it. A series of controlled explosions conducted by volunteer workers lowered the weight of those who sat in the dome and made the building easier to erect.
A visit to the U.S. capitol hill indicates that Washington D.C. was established with very little guidance. Its construction proceeded haphazardly and the finished product is still disorganized and poorly documented. The House of Representatives was the first American government to use a capital building. The U.S. Senate used the U.S. Capitol until the passage of Constitutional Convention. In fact, the U.S. Capitol was never designed as a capitol; it was designed as a “Mansion of Congress.”
The House and Senate each had a separate building with their own elevators. The Speaker of the House and Majority Leader of the Senate were placed in the” Speaker’s Office,” and the Vice President and Minority Leader of the House were placed in the” Senate Office.” All other members of Congress were housed in the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate. The U.S. Capitol is divided into three main sections – the Old House, the Senate and the Presidential Office. The U.S. Capitol is surrounded by an arch. This arch was designed by Thomas Jefferson, and although it no longer bears the name of a living leader, it serves the purpose of reminding Americans who are in the House and the Senate where they are to meet and work every day.
Visitors to Washington D.C. will see the National Statuary Hall, which was built in accordance with the principles of Thomas Jefferson. It houses hundreds of great U.S. Capitol Statues representing every president since the U.S. Constitution was framed. Some of these historic statues include those of Jefferson, Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and many others. The National Statuary Hall was destroyed during World War II and replaced by a marble terrace.
