I visited the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. If you contact your Congressional Member in advance, you can skip the long public lines and get a personalized tour of the U.S. Capitol from one of the congressional staffers. They also take you to corners of the Capitol where the public tours often don’t go. All it takes is an e-mail to your Rep.
The U.S. Capitol, as seen from the west side.
This young lady, Lisa, works for U.S. Representative John Garamendi, who represents Yuba City and other portions of the north state. She’s a poly sci major at one of the San Francisco universities. Lisa is aiming at law school and then a career in the Judge Advocate Corps of the U.S. Navy. I was her guinea pig, her first constituent tour.
The Goddess of Freedom. This is a plaster replica of the bronze statue on top of the Capitol dome. She stands 19′ high. No statues in Washington DC are supposed to be taller, they said, for nothing should top freedom.
The Rayburn Room, where some committee meetings are held. That’s a copy of the famous Landsdowne portrait of George Washington on the wall. The original is in the National Portrait Gallery. For you young’uns out there, Representative Sam Rayburn of Texas still holds the record as the longest-serving Speaker of the House, having held that position for over 17 years until his death in 1961.
The original Senate chambers. After the Senate exceeded 64 members, they outgrew this room and needed to build the current Senate chambers. It is still used for closed sessions and other meetings.
Americans can contact their U.S. Representative (typically by e-mailing a request through their website) and arrange a personal tour. Since this can take some time in advance to arrange, you can also arrange tours through the U.S. Capitol Visitors’ Center website. Non-U.S. citizens can also arrange a tour through a U.S. Representative, but they may set you up with a tour through the Visitors’ Center rather than a personal tour (I’m not entirely clear on the rules for foreign visitors). You can also show up on the day you wish to visit and stand in line for a tour, but the lines are usually lengthy and you may not get in. I highly recommend booking a tour in advance through a U.S. Representative or through the Visitors’ Center.
The U.S. Capitol is kinda hard to miss, since it anchors the east end of the National Mall, but it’s located at the intersection of E Capitol St and First St NW in Washington DC. The Visitors’ Center operates from 8:30am to 4:30pm Monday through Saturday.