United States Capitol Building, View from top of Newseum

The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol Building, is the home of the United States Congress, and the seat of the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government. It is located on Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Though no longer at the geographic center of the Federal District, the Capitol forms the origin point for the District's street-numbering system and the District's four quadrants.

The original building was completed in 1800 and was subsequently expanded, particularly with the addition of the massive dome, and expanded chambers for the bicameral legislature, the House of Representatives in the south wing and the Senate in the north wing. Like the principal buildings of the executive and judicial branches, the Capitol is built in a distinctive neoclassical style and has a white exterior. Both its east and west elevations are formally referred to as fronts, though only the east front was intended for the reception of visitors and dignitaries.

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United States Capitol Building, View from top of Newseum

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United States Capitol Building

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United States Capitol Building

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United States Capitol Building

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United States Capitol Building

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United States Capitol Building

down PA Ave.

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United States Capitol Building

Capitol and reflecting pool

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United States Capitol Building

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United States Capitol Building

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United States Capitol Building

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United States Capitol Building

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United States Capitol Building

down the Mall

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United States Capitol Building

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United States Capitol Building

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Capitol Visitor Center

James Paul Clarke statue, a United States Senator and the 18th Governor of Arkansas.

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Capitol Visitor Center

Senator Ernest Gruening of Alaska

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Capitol Visitor Center

Replica of sculpture that is on top of Capitol dome.

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Capitol Visitor Center

Statue of Edward Douglass White, Sr. (1795-1847), Governor of Louisiana and U.S. Representative

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Capitol Visitor Center

Statue of Julius Sterling Morton (April 22, 1832 – April 27, 1902) was a Nebraska editor who served as President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture. He was a prominent Bourbon Democrat, taking the conservative position on political, economic and social issues, and opposing agrarianism. In 1897 he started a weekly magazine entitled The Conservative.

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Capitol Visitor Center

Statue of Crawford W. Long

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Capitol Visitor Center

Statue of Joseph Ward (SD)

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Capitol Visitor Center

Statue of Maria L Sanford

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Capitol Visitor Center

Statue of Jeanette Rankin

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Capitol Visitor Center

Statue of Po' Pay (NM)

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Capitol Visitor Center

Replica of sculpture that is on top of Capitol dome.

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Capitol Visitor Center

Statue of Helen Keller

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Capitol Visitor Center

Statue of Sakakawea (ND)

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Capitol Visitor Center

Statue of Kamehameha I

Kamehameha I also known as Kamehameha the Great, conquered the Hawaiian Islands and formally established the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi in 1810. By developing alliances with the major Pacific colonial powers, Kamehameha preserved Hawaiʻi's independence under his rule. Kamehameha is remembered for the Kanawai Mamalahoe, the "Law of the Splintered Paddle", which protects human rights of non-combatants in times of battle. Kamehameha's full Hawaiian name is Kalani Paiʻea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiʻikui Kamehameha o ʻIolani i Kaiwikapu kaui Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea.

Several Kamehameha Statues honor the monarch who founded the Kingdom of Hawaii. This is in the visitor's center of the Capitol.

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Capitol Visitor Center

Sister Joseph (RI)

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National Statuary Hall

National Statuary Hall is a chamber in the United States Capitol devoted to sculptures of prominent Americans. The hall, also known as the Old Hall of the House, is a large, two-story, semicircular room with a second story gallery along the curved perimeter. It is located immediately south of the Rotunda. The meeting place of the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly 50 years (1807-1857), it is now the main exhibition space for the National Statuary Hall Collection.

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The double-sunk coffered ceiling in National Statuary Hall

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National Statuary Hall

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National Statuary Hall

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National Statuary Hall

From the left, Lewis Cass, Zebulon Baird Vance, John M. Clayton, Marcus Whitman

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National Statuary Hall

From the left,John Burke (ND), William Allen (OH), John Sevier (TN), John James Ingalls (KS)

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National Statuary Hall

From left, Lewis Cass (MI), ??

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National Statuary Hall

Ethan Allen (VT)

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National Statuary Hall

ON lieft, Hannibal Hamlin (ME) and Daniel Webster (NH)

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Rotunda Dome

The United States Capitol rotunda is the central rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.. Located below the Capitol dome, it is the tallest part of the Capitol and has been described as its "symbolic and physical heart."

The rotunda is surrounded by corridors connecting the House of Representatives and Senate sides of the Capitol. To the south of the rotunda is the semi-circular National Statuary Hall, which until 1857 was the House of Representatives chamber. The northeast of the Rotunda is the Old Senate Chamber, used by the Senate until 1859.

The Rotunda is 96 feet in diameter and rises 180 feet 3 inches to the canopy, and is visited by thousands of people each day. It is also used for ceremonial events authorized by concurrent resolution, including the lying in state of honored people.

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Rotunda Dome detail

The doctor and architect William Thornton was the winner of the contest to design the Capitol in 1793. Thornton had first conceived the idea of a central rotunda. However, due to lack of funds or resources, oft-interrupted construction, and the British attack on Washington during the War of 1812, work on the rotunda did not begin until 1818. The rotunda was completed in 1824 under Architect of the Capitol Charles Bulfinch, as part of a series of new buildings and projects in preparation for the final visit of Marquis de Lafayette in 1824. The rotunda was designed in the neoclassical style and was intended to evoke the design of the Pantheon.

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Rotunda Dome

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Rotunda Dome

Statues of Jefferson and Washington

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Rotunda Dome

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Rotunda Dome

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Rotunda Dome

Statue of Martin Luther King

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Rotunda Dome

Frieze detail

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Rotunda

Statue of Eisenhower

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Rotunda

Statue of Ronald Reagan

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Rotunda

Statue of Jefferson

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Rotunda

Statue of Washington

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Statue of Alexander Hamilton

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Statue of Lincoln

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Rotunda

Women's Suffrage Movement Statue

This group portrait monument is known formally as the Portrait Monument to Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, pioneers of the women's suffrage movement in the United States.

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