Welcome to the U.S. Capitol.
Until you can visit us in person, we're going to share with you some of our
favorite aspects of a Capitol tour.
Since 1800, Congress has met here in Washington, D.C.
to represent the people and make laws.
Both the U.S.House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate share the building.
The House is on the south side of the building or the left from this
vantage point, and the Senate is on the north side of the building or the right
from this angle with the Rotunda in the middle under the Capitol dome.
Notice the statue on the top of the Capitol?
Her name is Freedom.
And we're going to see a model of her up close in the Capitol Visitor Center.
Come on, let's go inside.
When you visit the Capitol, you enter through the
Capitol Visitor Center.
People from the U.S. and around the world not only come here for tours, but
also for conferences and meetings with members of Congress on important issues.
This room is named Emancipation Hall to honor the enslaved people who worked
to build the Capitol beginning in 1793.
Statues of Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Sacagawea
reflect the diversity of the individuals who helped shape our country's history.
Remember this statue from the top of the dome?
This is the original plaster model that was used to create the bronze
Statue of Freedom.
It was designed by an American artist named Thomas Crawford,
who had this model shipped to Washington D.C. all the way from Italy.
The entire statue is 19.5 feet tall.
Freedom is dressed in a classic Greco Roman style to match the
architecture of the building.
She also wears a helmet topped with an eagle-plumed crest and carries a sword,
shield, and laurel wreath.
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The first place we're going inside the historic Capitol building is the Crypt.
The Crypt is not the fanciest room in the Capitol, but it has an important job.
The arches and the 40 large columns not only hold up the ceiling,
but also the 8.9 million-pound dome you saw from the outside.
The weight of the dome in the Rotunda, which we'll visit shortly,
sits on the walls and the arches carry that weight to the columns so that
everything is supported.
There's a lot of engineering in there.
And remember, in the 1800s, they did all of this without power tools
or modern construction equipment.
You can still see the tool marks on one of the columns.
Imagine all of the work it took just to make one of these with hand tools.
When Pierre L'Enfant designed the city of Washington, he put the Capitol building
in the center of his design.
The star in the Crypt marks the place where the four quadrants of the
city come together.
We have a lot of statues in the Capitol.
The Crypt, in particular, has one statue from each
of the 13 original colonies.
This is a statue of Roger Sherman from Connecticut.
Along with Oliver Ellsworth, Roger Sherman is the author of "The Great Compromise,"
which is the part of the Constitution that laid out the ways
in which Congress represents the people.
Now let's go upstairs to see the Rotunda, the room directly under the dome.
The Rotunda is the ceremonial center of the Capitol.
Over the years, we've used this room to share our history, unveil new art,
honor those who've made significant contributions, and to say goodbye
to national leaders and citizens who have served our country.
During the civil war, we even used this room as a hospital
for wounded soldiers.
The room is decorated with art.
Above us in the eye of the Rotunda is the "Apotheosis of Washington."
It is a fresco, which means that it was painted onto the ceiling over wet plaster.
The entire painting is huge, 4,664 square feet.
The artist, Constantino Brumidi, had to climb 180 feet up inside the dome
to paint it.
The word apotheosis means that you've reached the highest height and in the
middle of the painting is George Washington surrounded by women,
13 of which represent the 13 original colonies.
Also in the painting are scenes representing six different themes⏤war,
science, marine, commerce, mechanics, and agriculture⏤symbolized by Roman
gods and goddesses.
Much of the artwork in the Capitol reflects the history of the country.
Some of these may even be familiar to you.
This painting by John Trumbull is the presentation of the Declaration
of Independence, which appears in a lot of textbooks and even on the back
of the $2 bill.
Each piece of art tells a story.
The American Revolution, the Civil War, stories of peace, stories of struggle,
stories of America.
But while we're touring the Capitol, the work of Congress is going
on around us.
We may be talking about the past, but the future of our country is being
decided here today.
Let's walk next door.
This is Statuary Hall.
Before it was a room filled with statues, it functioned as the House
of Representatives chamber. From 1807 to 1857
this was one of the rooms where Congress made laws.
As the country grew in size, Congress added members to the House and
the Senate to represent the new states and the greater population of the country.
The Capitol building had to grow as well.
And today the House of Representatives works in a larger chamber down the hall.
Today we recognize some of the people who were members of the House in this room
by marking their old desk locations.
Eight of them, including Abraham Lincoln and John Quincy Adams
became presidents of the United States.
We've marked their desk locations with plaques on the floor.
Congress turned the old hall of the House into National Statuary Hall in 1864.
Statues are chosen by the state legislatures.
Each state can send statues of two people from its history.
Some of the state statues that are in this room today depict people who were
members of the House when this room was the House chamber.
For example, Kentucky sent a statue of Henry Clay who was the youngest speaker
of the House.
But states haven't just sent statues of members of Congress.
One of the newer statues in the collection is Chief Standing Bear
from Nebraska.
He was a leader of the Ponca tribe.
When his people were forced to move to Oklahoma to a reservation,
he argued successfully for the rights of his people.
Here's the statue of the inventor, Thomas Edison.
The state of Ohio sent this one.
There is also a statue that is not a state statute but is a gift from Congress to all
of us, and that is the one of the iconic civil rights leader, Rosa Parks,
a woman who risked her life in the fight against segregation.
When this room became statuary hall, they thought that all of the state
statues would be placed here, but that was before we had 50 states.
Statues started arriving in the Capitol in 1870 but in the 1930s,
the collection outgrew Statuary Hall and for both aesthetic and structural reasons,
Congress authorized the display of statues throughout the building.
Here are a few of the statues you can find in Emancipation Hall where we
started our tour.
This is Montana statue of Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to the
House of Representatives.
New Mexico sent this statue of Po'pay, one of the leaders of the Pueblo Indians
in the 1600s.
Alabama sent the statue of Helen Keller.
Ms. Keller, as an adult, advocated for the rights of people with disabilities.
She was both deaf and blind.
In this statue of her as a girl, the artist captured the moment when she
learned how to communicate the word for water.
The Capitol is unlike any other place you will visit.
It's the center of American government, but it's also a witness to history and a
symbol of democracy, a place where we tell the stories of what
it means to be a citizen of the United States in the building where the people
are represented by Congress.
We're happy that you took the time to come on a brief tour with us,
and we hope that you have been as inspired by what you've seen as we are every day.
When you're able to visit, we'll be here to welcome you to the
United States Capitol.