60 minutes rewind if you're yearning for something that rises above the
dysfunctional politics of washington we have just the thing 288 feet above in fact
tomorrow marks the 150th anniversary of the completion of the capitol dome
it's hard to imagine america without this crowning achievement but when you hear the
story of how it was created it becomes hard to imagine that our dome exists at all we were given
amazing access for this story and you're about to see the dome like you've never seen it before
george washington knew what he wanted a building so grand that no one could ever
move the capitol from his city he'd still find it on jenkins hill where he laid the cornerstone
and he might admire the dome which was built later for what it overcame built by men who despised
each other topped by a statue of freedom cast by a slave through war and rivalry the dome kept rising
and that's american character that runs deep below the skin this is when we go from that beautifully
richly decorated capital to the battleship gray industrial part of the capitol building
steven ayers holds the title architect of the capital he takes care of the dome and
everything below this is all original it's all 150 years old yes it is all of this was
designed by ayers predecessor thomas walter who proposed a dome no one had asked for this is the
capital that george washington knew and it's still the center of the capitol building today
walter won a competition to expand the house and senate sides to hold all of the politicians coming
in from the new states but then walter thought the original dome looked too small so he drew another
he posted it on the wall in his office and members of congress would often come by and see that
and it just stuck immediately didn't even have a cost estimate didn't know how they
were going to construct it how they were going to build it how they were going to design it
yet it was so beautiful and so wonderful everyone just knew immediately that they had to do it
walter drafted it after the great marble domes he'd seen in europe only to discover that the
building couldn't support the weight so he conjured an illusion everything
every column every ornament is cast iron painted to look like stone the weight was cut in half
wow this is from 1863 and you can see it's signed by thomas eustich walter his drawing in
the archive reveals there are two domes an inner dome with a ceiling painted with an apotheosis
of george washington ascending into heaven and the outer dome ascending into the sky we are
climbing atop this inner dome the apotheosis of washington fresco by constantino bermidi
that's right below us yes we're on top of that now that's exactly right
and this is the level that we go outside this is the top is the top
wow what a beautiful view it's about 30 stories and because dc outlawed skyscrapers back in 1910
you can see forever for the record the washington monument still being refurbished is nearly twice
as tall so there's the national mall they're taking the scaffolding down off the washington
monument yes you can see the potomac river and anacostia rivers coming together stephen what
what did it mean to have this dome completed very near the end of the civil war to me it's
a measure of our endurance of our will to succeed and our will to get it done and our will to stay
together as a country it took enormous will in congress the first vote on the dome passed 71 to
70. a critic called it a great mistake and then came the civil war not the war you're expecting
this was the war between the greats the brilliant architect versus the genius in charge of
construction army captain montgomery max he was incredibly honest very efficient bill allen was
the historian in the office of the architect who told us that despite meg's virtues he was obsessed
with winning fame and the way that he chose to do this was to put his name and
every place that it occurred to him where it could go it went on the bricks of the dc aqueduct and
on its stairs m.c meigs even etched his name on copper plates and laid them between the stones of
the capital in case of two three thousand years later the capitol became an archaeological site
the archaeologists would discover these these plates and know exactly who built the capital
extension but the last straw came when meigs claimed authorship of the dome signing his name
to walter's drawings the two men stopped talking and raised their pins like swords the letters are
are well worth reading they are they are amazing we found them in the archive meigs you're welcome
to assume the authorship of the pyramids of egypt you have no right to the new dome walter if i'm
not the architect of the new dome i'd like to know who is i shall be glad never to receive another
line from you megs i have the honor to inform you that your services are dispensed with he fired him
he tried to walter very calmly writes back and says i would like to remind you that my
appointment is at the pleasure of the president of the united states the work slowed but planning
continued including a debate about what to put on top they decided that they would have a statue
that would speak of freedom historian lonnie bunch researched the project for congress and they went
to a young american in rome who was studying and he came with this idea to create a statue
that had the look of america describe her to me in your mind's eye well she is this beautiful woman
who has some native american features has is capped by this beautiful headdress as a reminder
that this is a country that was different because it was built first and foremost around the issue
of freedom and one of the men instrumental in casting the statue was a slave named phillip reed
phillip reid was an enslaved man who was owned by someone who owned a foundry here in washington
and that when the statue initially plaster came back to the united states there was a concern
about how do you take it apart philip was really one of the people who knew how to do this he came
up with the idea of how to separate the model how to then cast the model he led the people
who were making the cast of the bronze statue but freedom would be grounded in 1861 when the real
civil war began montgomery meigs left to become quartermaster general supplying the army with
all that it needed for victory but all the money for construction was diverted to the war
one of my favorite stories that i'd love to tell my friends is that lincoln ordered the dome
to continue as a symbol that the nation would continue and that story turns out to be false
matt wasnewski a historian for the house told us it was the contractor
james fowler kirtland of new york that resumed work
without pay they delivered 1.3 million pounds of cast iron and didn't want to see it rust away
lincoln didn't mind he has the famous line that if the people see the capitol going
on it will be a sign that we intend the union shall go on the story will continue after this
this is the rotunda you're walking between statues of washington and jefferson
it's just off this room that you find the office of the speaker of the house john boehner who
administers a lot of what he calls the campus you ever not look up do you ever take this for granted
never listen for a guy who i grew up mopping floors in my dad's bar
it's a pretty humbling experience you've come up in the world just a little we went up in
the world from the floor of george washington's original capital to the heights of the inner dome
i told you it'd be beautiful up here this is the apotheosis of washington by constantino brumidi
i understand that somewhere in here the artist painted the face of the architect who designed
the dome it's right over here thomas walter is the one in the long white beer yes the scenes depict
american hard work and ingenuity and 180 feet below 21st century citizens look up at washington
rising at the center of the city laid down by he and urban planner pierre la anfant look how lon
font laid out this city with these radiating streets maryland and pennsylvania new jersey
and delaware the capitol right in the city right in the middle and everything proceeds from here
and you put the capitol atop this hill and that's how you create this iconic symbolism it was a
symbol for the whole nation that the union would endure now your job is to make the dome endure
up here you can see what is hidden from a distance the dome is falling apart
your guys bring in pieces into the office and say hey boss here's the here's what i
found you can see the level of rust behind it that is just eating away at the cast iron
even worse there are more than thirteen hundred serious cracks in the dome architect steven ayers
is starting a massive repair project he showed us how they'll cover the dome with scaffolding
for the next two years replace the rusted parts and stitch the cracks together with metal sutures
minority leader nancy pelosi helped congress put up nearly 60 million for the work
a lot of people think that you guys can't agree about anything and yet everybody came around the
idea of refurbishing the dome this capital belongs to the american people uh it is this place for
them to visit is the most identifiable symbol of democracy that there is on december 2nd 1863
the dome was topped with the statue of freedom and below congress had been working on freedom too it
had passed an emancipation act for the district of columbia when philip reed helped cast the statue
of freedom he was a slave by the time it's placed on top of the dome he's a free man he is free
what happens to him is that he symbolizes so many of the enslaved african-americans who looked at
that dome and saw it as a place of possibility saw it as a place that said here is the freedom that
we deserve the titanic struggle that crowned the capitol is largely forgotten now the house will
be in order but next time you look on political gridlock and wonder whether anything can get done
remember how much can rise above the fractured politics of washington the motion is adopted