Finally I get to the capital of this place
I got a bit
of a strange relationship with capitals around the world. In Europe I have
never been to a country without going to the capital - and in many countries in
Europe I have actually been nowhere but the capital. But when it comes to
countries outside Europe I frequently have never been to the capital. The same
is true for the USA on my previous visit to the states I have never been to
Washington - and even on this visit I am postponing the visit to the capital to
the very in of the visit. But today is the day - I will finally go to the
illustrious capital of USA.
The capital
is not like any other American city I have ever been to.
I start the
day by taking the metro to the first stop the south capitol metro station - the
closest stop to the Capitol Hill - home of the US congress. I book a ticket for
a free tour of the capitol but unfortunately it is not for another 1½ hour or
so - hence I need to find something to do in the mean time. I start by walking
around the Capitol which is a bit of a walk around the hill even though it
seems pretty short. Walking around the hill I get my first real idea of the
design of the city when I walk down and look along the National Mall with its
massive grassy lane and all the big buildings along it housing many museums
which for the min part is absolutely free for the visitor - even though they
are the home to some of the best collections in the world.
I keep
walking around the capitol and next to the capitol there is several big office
buildings which seems to be build in sort of the same still as the original
design of the city - but all these buildings is a lot younger than the capitol
building which used to house all of the members of congress and their staff.
The housing of the staff in the old days was quite easy - given the ordinary
members of the house and the senate did not have any staffers at all. Not like
today where even an ordinary member of the house in an unknown district in
Michigan will have a big personal staff.
Behind the
capitol on the side away from the National Mall there is some pretty impressive
buildings - the US Supreme Court which also seems like a pretty old building
but it is actually not even a hundred years old yet.
Time pass
and it is about time for my tour of the capitol building where I get in and
have a tour around the big building having a bit of a look around on the arts
in side and listening to the guide telling a bit of the history of the
building. After the tour of the building I start a bit of a walk down the
National Mall there is a lot of place I could go in but I figure the most
interesting of the museums would be the Air and Space Museum with the old
famous planes and space vehicles. I actually only wants to spend a short time
in there but the place is pretty interesting hence I end up spending a lot more
time in the place than expected to see a few of the famous planes like the
Spirit of St Louis and Glamorous Glennis.
After the
visit to the Air and Space museum I continue my walk down the National Mall and
on the road down I see how you do lawn improvement in Washington - you drive a
small truck around the place distributing a bit of dirt to make it more level -
it looks highly unlikely for this process to have the desired effect. Somewhat
puzzled by what he was trying to achieve I walk on and get to the central point
of the National Mall - the Washington Monument - it is far from the most
significant monument in the City and considering the impressive monument to
Lincoln and Jefferson you can wonder why the first of the presidents have not
gotten a more impressive monument - but then again the whole city is named in
his honour. Just like the Soviet Union used to name their cities after their
leaders Lenin and Stalin.
Well
considering how little I have been walking during the day I am a bit surprised
what time it is by now.
The area
between the reflection pool and the street is actually a surprisingly peaceful
area with a bit of nature appearing to have gotten a foothold in the middle of
the city.
Down at the
end of the reflection pool is the giant Lincoln Monument with the huge statue
of Lincoln at this site it you will get a great view down the reflection pool
towards the Washington Monument. And the reflection pool does create a lot of
reflections of the Washington Monument creating a special double column.
After
Lincoln Monument I sort of need to go down and see one final monument even
though it is starting to get dark - The Thomas Jefferson Monument.
Just before
I get to the Jefferson memorial I see a tiny memorial and have a look - there
is a little monument for Mason nice little spot that I never heard about before
and would never have taken the walk around the lake just to visit this little
place - but hey now I am here so I might as well take a short look at it.
It is
getting late now - and I have to get some dinner but it got to be a fairly
quick dinner because I wanna see this city in the dark with the lights coming
out on the monuments so I can get a quick look at them in the dark. And a tour
of Washington by night is quite interesting with some advantages - like no
traffic and lots of parking spaces.
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The building is a limestone and marble structure with 36 huge columns - which is the number of states in the union at the time of Lincoln's death including the 11 southern states which had seceded. In the middle of the big hall is a giant statue of Lincoln sitting down facing out towards the National Mall. On the two walls on each side of Lincoln is the two of his most important speeches - The Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address.
The first stone to the monument were laid down on Lincoln's birthday February 12 1914 and the monument were finish in 1922. After the monument was finished it has been the scene of different public gatherings most famous of them all is probably Martin Luther King I have a dream speech.
Today Lincoln is mainly remembered as the president who freed the slaves and saved the union. But this came at a cost - when he were elected he was clearly the president which divided the country more than any other president before or after. He was elected with less than 40 percent of the popular vote and he was not even on the ballot in 9 of the southern states - not that it mattered much given he only got just over 1 percent of the votes in Virginia where he actually were on the ballot.
The Civil War which followed his victory in the presidential election ended up costing more American lives than World War I and World War II put together. And the slaves were freed but they did not get anything resembling normal civil rights for another 100 years.
Since it is a part of the Smithsonian the entrance fee is set at a very reasonable zero dollars. And you can just walk in from the street to enjoy the place. When you go to explore you got the option just to see the main highlights or spend a long time exploring the different exhibitions.
One great thing about the museum is - it has gathered all the main highlights - and put them in the same spot. This incidentally is the room you will enter if you go into the museum from the National Mall. In this room is the Spirit of Saint Louis (the first plane to cross the Atlantic non-stop), Glamourous Glennis - the first supersonic aircraft in the world, X-15 the fastest plane ever and the Apollo 11 space capsule. If you only interested in these things you don't have to spend more than a few minutes in the museum and you have seen them all.
If you want to learn more about the Wright brother's first flight, the exploration of space or what exactly a V1-rocket look like you can spend hours learning more about these things.
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It is not on the National Mall but on the axis that cross the National Mall at the Washington Monument and got the White House on the one end and the Jefferson Memorial on the other just at the shore of the Tidal Pool.
The monument itself is a big building with a massive dome shape after the dome at Monticello - the home of Thomas Jefferson. In the centre of the building is a huge bronze statue of Jefferson. On the walls of the building is different quotations from the writings of Thomas Jefferson including the Declaration of Independence.
It is free to go and visit the memorial but you will have to walk around the Tidal Pool to actually get to the monument.
When you walk in the door you will go and see an amazing building - but there are not many books around you. The only books you are likely to see is a few old bibles - one of them the Guttenberg bible the oldest printed book in the world. It is a bit strange being in the biggest library in the world and not being surrounded by books - but if you go and have a look around you will see a room which is a designated study area for people using the collection of books.
The oldest part of the library's collection is Thomas Jefferson's old personal library which he sold to the library of congress. He did this because in the war of 1812 to 1814 the British burned the original collection of books belonging to the library of congress. Hence after the war it was basically a library without any books and Jefferson had a huge collection which he could sell. Of course Jefferson being Jefferson just started a new collection in his home of Monticello.
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The most notable feature of the building is the dome - it is the designated centre of Washington DC and all streets are number according to this point of the city. Originally there were talks about burying George Washington under the dome but he had insisted on getting buried on his own estate Mount Vernon. Hence nobody is resting under the dome of the capitol building. The present day dome is never than the building itself and were constructed during the civil war to replace an older wood structure.
The two wings were also later additions to accommodate an ever increasing number of people working in the building.
You can only visit the building if you got an invitation from a member - or if you go on a guided tour. I did not have a personal invitation hence I had to join the guided tour. The tours are free but you need to go and pick up a slot for a tour and then probably come back a couple of hours later to actually join the tour. And you will need to come fairly early in the day otherwise all the tours will be booked out for the rest of the day.
The tour will take you into the building where the guide will tell about the building. The first stop is the dome area where the big paintings are on all the walls with important scenes from North American history. Other stops on the tour are the room where the House of Representatives used to meet before they were moved to a bigger room. Today the room is full of statues of ordinary Americans who had a big impact of the life of the people in their home state. Most of these people are pretty unknown to the general public because they actually did something in the 19th century and are long forgotten - if it was not for the statue in this room. On the flour of the room are 7 small plagues with the names of the members of the house which also served as presidents of the USA. The most noticeable is probably the names of John Adams and Abraham Lincoln. Adams did actually serve in the House after he retired as president becoming the only former president to serve as a representative.
A couple of other rooms you will visit on a tour include the former home of the US Supreme Court and the old Senate room. The old senate room is only accessible if the congress is not in session.
After the tour you will be able to explore the halls on the main level of the building where you can have a look at the decorations of the walls. Some of the walls contains paintings of important historic events and is updated from time to time with later important event like the first flight to the moon.
