Few buildings on earth are as recognizable, or as contested, as the United States Capitol rising in front of you.
The Capitol sits on Jenkins' Hill, which L'Enfant called 'a pedestal waiting for a monument.' The cornerstone was laid by George Washington in 1793, the building was first occupied by Congress in 1800, and — like the White House — it was burned by British forces in 1814. A sudden thunderstorm helped save the exterior walls.
The distinctive cast-iron dome you see today was not part of the original design. It replaced a smaller wooden dome and was completed in 1863 — in the middle of the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln insisted that construction continue even as armies bled nearby. 'If people see the Capitol going on,' he said, 'it is a sign we intend the Union shall go on.' The dome was modeled on St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and the Panthéon in Paris. The Statue of Freedom on top stands nineteen and a half feet tall and weighs fifteen thousand pounds.
The Capitol's Rotunda houses eight enormous paintings depicting American history, and the Apotheosis of Washington fresco on the ceiling shows the first president ascending to godhood — painted by Italian artist Constantino Brumidi during the Civil War.
The building has two wings: the Senate on the north, the House of Representatives on the south. Congress has met here for over two hundred years, passing every law that has shaped American life. It was stormed by American citizens on January 6, 2021 — the first time it had been breached since the British burned it two centuries before.