Washington, D.C., United States

Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C. is the capital of the United States founded on July 16, 1790. Washington (the city) covers the same area as (i.e. is coterminous with) the District of Columbia and they are considered to be the same entity. The District of Columbia is located on the banks of the Potomac River and bordered by the states of Virginia to the southwest and Maryland to the northwest, northeast, and southeast. Washington has a resident population of 588,292; however, the city's population rises to over one million people during the workweek due to commuters from the surrounding suburbs. The Washington Metropolitan Area has a population of 5.3 million, the eighth-largest in the country.

The White House
The White House is the official home and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian style, it has been the executive residence of every U.S. President since John Adams. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the home in 1801, he, with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, expanded the building outward, creating two colonnades which were meant to conceal stables and storage.

Today, the White House Complex includes the Executive Residence (in which the First Family resides), the West Wing (the location of the Oval Office, Cabinet Room, and Roosevelt Room), and the East Wing (the location of the office of the First Lady and White House Social Secretary), as well as the Old Executive Office Building, which houses the executive offices of the President and Vice President.

The White House is made up of six stories—the Ground Floor, State Floor, Second Floor, and Third Floor, as well as a two-story basement. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. As the Executive Office of the President of the United States, the term White House is regularly used as a metonym for the Executive Office of the President of the United States and for the president's administration and advisors in general. The property is owned by the National Park Service and is part of the President's Park. In 2007, it was ranked second on the American Institute of Architects's "List of America's Favorite Architecture."

United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the capitol building that serves as the seat of government for the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government.

The Washington Monument
The Washington Monument is a large, tall, sand-colored obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D. C. It is a United States Presidential Memorial constructed to commemorate George Washington. The monument is the world's tallest stone structure, and is the world's tallest obelisk, standing 555 feet 5⅛ inches (169.294 m) in height and made of marble, granite, and sandstone. It is also the tallest structure in Washington D.C. It was designed by Robert Mills, an architect of the 1840s. The actual construction of the monument began in 1848 but was not completed until 1884, almost 30 years after the architect's death. This hiatus in construction was because of a lack of funds and the intervention of the American Civil War. A difference in shading of the marble, visible approximately 150 feet (45 m) up, clearly delineates the initial construction from its resumption in 1876.

Jefferson Memorial
The Thomas Jefferson Memorial is a presidential memorial in Washington, D. C. that is dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, an American Founding Father and the third president of the United States. The neoclassical building was designed by John Russell Pope. It was built by Philadelphia contractor John McShain and was completed during 1939-1943; the bronze statue of Jefferson was added inside in 1947. When completed, the memorial occupied one of the last significant sites left in the city.

Smithsonian Institution Building
The Smithsonian Institution Building, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., houses the Smithsonian Institution's administrative offices and information center. The Building is constructed of red sandstone in the faux Norman style (a 12th-century combination of late Romanesque and early Gothic motifs) and is appropriately nicknamed The Castle.