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The Lincoln Memorial is a national monument to the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was the emancipator and preserver of the Union of States. The building is located at the west end of The Mall, approximately 2 miles from the Capitol Building, which is at the Mall's eastern end. The concept of the Mall should probably be credited to Thomas Jefferson, who envisioned an extensive garden joining the Capitol Building and the White House.
Construction of the Lincoln Memorial, designed by Henry Bacon, was completed in 1922. There is considerable symbolism in the building itself and in its physical relationship to the Lee-Custis Mansion (home of Robert E. Lee, and originally named Arlington House by the Custis family, which owned it), which is located directly across the Potomac River in Arlington Cemetery. The Lincoln Memorial's 36 Doric style columns represent the number of states at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. There is also representation of the original 48 states that existed at the time of the memorial's construction. The Arlington Memorial Bridge, which spans the Potomac and visually connects the Lincoln Memorial to the Lee-Custis Mansion, was intended as a symbol of healing between the North and the South after the Civil War.
The huge 19ft Daniel Chester French marble statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln occupies the central portion of the Memorial and is visually quite impressive.
The Supreme Court represents the Judicial branch of the U.S. Government (The 3 branches are Executive, Legislative, and Judicial) and is the highest court in the land. It has jurisdiction over all other courts in the nation. The Supreme Court consists of nine justices, including the Chief Justice. All nine Supreme Court justices are nominated by the President and must be approved by the Senate.
The Supreme Court building, located at the comer of 1st and East Capitol Streets, NE, was completed in 1935. The design and construction of the building was overseen by the United States Supreme Court Commission, which was formed in 1928. The building's architect, Cass Gilbert, is considered to have achieved one of the most successful relationships of architecture and landscaping in the city of Washington, D.C. The most dominant of the building's three parts is the center facade, which is patterned after an ancient Roman temple. It is this portion of the building that houses the Supreme Court Chambers. The bronze entrance doors to the building weigh 13 tons.
The Supreme Court was originally housed in the U.S. Capitol Building in various chambers. Iii 1860 it was moved to the former Senate Chamber on the main floor of the Capitol, where it remained until 1935, when the present building was completed.
The United States Capitol Building, symbol of the power of the people, is located in the center of the Pierre L'Enfant design for Washington, D C., with streets radiating outward from the building like the spokes of a wheel. It is the building where Congress-the legislative branch of the U.S. Government-meets. The building itself was designed by William Thornton, a young, multi-talented physician of the area. George Washington approved the final design and laid the cornerstone (which has not been seen since that very day!). Construction of the first portion of the building began in 1793 and was finally completed in 1829. Additional construction began in 1850 to enlarge the capacity of the building, and a new cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1851, by President Millard Fillmore, wearing the same Masonic apron that President George Washington had used six decades earlier. Further construction was subsequently done during several periods of time as the country grew in population.
The Capitol Building was the scene of many "firsts" in American history. In 1829 Andrew Jackson became the first President to be inaugurated on the east front steps. Until that time, presidents had been sworn in at the Senate or House of Representatives' Chamber (one exception being George Washington, who took his oath on the steps of the Treasury Building in New York City). In the building Samuel F.B. Morse first demonstrated the telegraph to members of Congress.
A statue representing Freedom stands atop the Capitol dome. The statue was designed by Thomas Crawford in his studio in Rome, Italy. A full-size plaster model was shipped from Leghorn, Italy, for casting in America. The original model for the head and shoulders now resides in a warehouse belonging to The Smithsonian Institution.
The inside of the dome of the Capitol Building is elaborately decorated with frescos and paintings by Constantino Brumidi, an Italian painter who was commissioned to decorate many of the spaces within the building. Brumidi is often referred to as "The Michaelangelo of the Capitol" for his introduction of fresco work to America. His paintings in the Senate Committee on Appropriations' Room are among the most beautiful. Other artists, including John Trumbull, Carlo Franzoni, Howard Chandler Christy, and Enrico Causici, contributed much to the decoration of the Capitol Building.
The National Archives, located on Pennsylvania Avenue between 7th and 9th Street, NW, is the primary storage facility for all records of the U.S. Government that are generated in its day-to-day operations
Also stored in the National Archives are the most important documents in the history of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. These three documents are protected from light, dampness, pollution, and insects by being encased in sealed, helium-filled, bronze-bound cases. The three cases are placed in a bomb-proof vault at night. To prevent their capture by the British during the War of 1812 the three documents were secretly moved to a privately owned plantation in Loudoun County, Virginia, where they were placed in a sealed basement vault made of brick. Later they were taken to the Patent Office, and many years after that were on display in a glass case at the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, time, air pollution, insects, and other elements have taken their toll; so the three documents were moved to their present site in the National Archives Building in 1952.
The Archives Building, designed by John Russell Pope, and completed in 1935 (as was the Supreme Court building), occupies a dominant position in the so-called Federal Triangle, which is half way between the Capitol Building and the White House. The Archives Building is the tallest in the Federal Triangle.
The most famous address in the United States is undoubtedly 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. Washington. D.C., the home of the President of the United States The White House, along with the Executive Office Building next door, symbolizes the site of the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government
The building was designed by James Hoban and the cornerstone was laid on October 13,1792. The exterior walls were painted white during construction; consequently, the building was called the White House early on. It was also known as the President's House, the President's Palace, and the Executive Mansion until it was officially named the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt.
The British burned the White House during the War of 1812. President James Madison's wife, Dolley, is credited with saving the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington from the fire by cutting it out of its frame, rolling it up, and hiding it under her gown while she escaped from the fire. There have been several additions and modernizations to the White House since it was built and burned down. In 1948, during President Harry Truman's term of offices major restoration was begun (probably due in part to the fact that the grand piano leg fell through the floor upstairs!) In 1961, Mrs. John F. Kennedy, the president's wife, formed committees to help refurbish the White House with antiques and historical items that had been given away and otherwise disappeared since the fire. Mrs. Kennedy also worked to develop a permanent collection of fine art and paintings for the White House.