Our first proper day in Washington DC.
Through a Fairview contact we had tours of the Library of Congress, the Capital and the Supreme Court arranged. This busy day meant an early start and we were on the Metro just after 8am to head off to Capitol Hill.
Very impressed with the Metro. Nowhere near as busy as the London Underground and cheap; $3.00 for a peak time ticket. We had a 10 minute walk from the hotel to the nearest station – Foggy Bottom – and a 15 minute journey to Capital South the station that brought us right to our destination.
The Library of Congress is very impressive. The building itself is striking.
But on hearing about all that is housed there (and at various storage sites) and hearing about the huge ongoing digitisation process, we could not fail to be impressed. Among the millions of books, documents, audio and films, the LOC has other things in the collection such as the contents of Abraham Lincoln’s coat on the night he died!
As its name suggests, the Library of Congress was set up to be the Library of Congress! And it was originally housed in the Congressional building – The Capital. But at the end of the 19th century it was moved into its current, purpose built home. However, a team of LOC employees are on call day and night to provide information and research for members of Congress.
Our guide round LOC told us that when a proposal was made to build the LOC, the politicians moaned about the cost. However, the building opened under budget and ahead of schedule.
It was fitting therefore that our next stop was The Capital home of Congress. The LOC is linked to The Capital by an underground walkway. This brings you to an impressive Visitor Centre. (We learned later that it had cost $300 million, it had opened late and over budget.) This houses some of the wonderful statues each state gives to The Capital. (Each state can give 2 statues of people from the State no longer living.) These were my favourites:
King Kamehameha of Hawaii
Jack Swiggert
(Swiggert was one of the Apollo 13 crew. He was elected as a member of the House of Representatives but died of cancer before he could take office.)
Visitors enter a large lecture theatre and are shown a film about Congress and its history before being taken on a tour.
The tour was interesting but also disappointing as in essence we were not shown much more than the large circular hall under the dome. (We’d hoped to see inside the chambers.) That said, the Capital is an impressive building.
After lunch (in the Capital’s restaurant – it wold rate 3 to 4 on Tripadvisor!) we headed for the Supreme Court.
In essence our half hour there was sitting in the chamber of the court staring at the nine empty seats of the justices. And a court room is a court room. But the gentleman telling us all about it made everything come alive. He pointed out that the building had opened in the early 1930s at the time of the Great Depression. It was under budget and ahead of time. “Unlike the $300 million Capitol Visitor Center” he said. An unexpectedly very interesting visit indeed.
So with these three done what next? A walk down the Mall towards the Washington Memorial and then to see the White House. (Note to self – the Washington Memorial is very large, so when you think it is near it isn’t, far it is!) Quite a long walk on a hot day but well worth it. Thank goodness the hotel is only about a 20 minute walk from the White House.
While we’d been doing tourist stuff Cousin Tom had been catching up with friends from George Town University. So we met Tom B for dinner and his local knowledge came to the fore once again. He took us down to a riverside bar on the Potomac and then for dinner in the M Street area. Places we might not have found ourselves.
Tom B also regaled us with a few hilarious tales of his various foreign postings with the USAF over the years. Though not for public consumption.
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