I have a friend who works on The Hill (anyone who lives in this area for any length of time does, you know). This one works in a Senator's office. She was kind enough to arrange for a tour of the Capitol building for us while my mother visits. We took off a day and dragged The Caterpillar out there this week. I've been to The Capitol many times but I have never before gotten to ride in this:
The tram that runs in the tunnel under the Senate office buildings to the Capitol building. This was, perhaps, the most exciting part of the entire tour and The Caterpillar hung her head out into the wind like a pet dog on a car ride.
Why do I not have one of these at my place of work? How convenient would that be? I want mine to go from my office door to the bathroom. That would have come in handy back when I was pregnant; I seriously considered moving my desk in there.
Here are some other photos of note:
The Caterpillar standing at "the place of power," the center of the foundation, at the center of the building, at the center of the city, in the Capital of the country (which, is not, incidentally, in the center of the country, so there's where the metaphor breaks down). Wonder twin powers, activate!
I was trying to take a picture of the dome from directly underneath, but kept getting edged over by tourists. Turns out I like the optical illusion of the off center photo better.
This is the frieze around the dome of the Capitol. There were three artists who worked on this piece of artwork. The first, fell while painting it and hung off a scaffold for fifteen minutes while others tried to get him down without killing him. He was unable to finish the piece because of the injuries he sustained. The second artist, hired to replace him, painted the section here. But he was fired because he chose to paint himself into the frieze.
See? The face in the base of the tree above the fern. Apparently, the powers that be felt it wasn't dignified and they uninvited him to complete the rest.
This is a cool chandelier I just liked. I have no interesting anecdotes about it. All I got from our tour guide was that it takes a long time to clean one.
One of the Brumidi corridors.
I took this for my brother. The Challenger crew.
More gratuitous brother shout outs.
Snazzy mosaic pattern on the floor somewhere in the bowels of the building. Do you think I could reproduce this on my kitchen floor for under $300?
The biggest perk of being named Chief Justice is getting your very own coat hook.
Cool sculpture in the Senate Hart Office building.
Which, apparently, is breeding.
The tram that runs in the tunnel under the Senate office buildings to the Capitol building. This was, perhaps, the most exciting part of the entire tour and The Caterpillar hung her head out into the wind like a pet dog on a car ride.
Why do I not have one of these at my place of work? How convenient would that be? I want mine to go from my office door to the bathroom. That would have come in handy back when I was pregnant; I seriously considered moving my desk in there.
Here are some other photos of note:
The Caterpillar standing at "the place of power," the center of the foundation, at the center of the building, at the center of the city, in the Capital of the country (which, is not, incidentally, in the center of the country, so there's where the metaphor breaks down). Wonder twin powers, activate!
I was trying to take a picture of the dome from directly underneath, but kept getting edged over by tourists. Turns out I like the optical illusion of the off center photo better.
This is the frieze around the dome of the Capitol. There were three artists who worked on this piece of artwork. The first, fell while painting it and hung off a scaffold for fifteen minutes while others tried to get him down without killing him. He was unable to finish the piece because of the injuries he sustained. The second artist, hired to replace him, painted the section here. But he was fired because he chose to paint himself into the frieze. 
See? The face in the base of the tree above the fern. Apparently, the powers that be felt it wasn't dignified and they uninvited him to complete the rest.
This is a cool chandelier I just liked. I have no interesting anecdotes about it. All I got from our tour guide was that it takes a long time to clean one.
One of the Brumidi corridors.
I took this for my brother. The Challenger crew.
More gratuitous brother shout outs.
Snazzy mosaic pattern on the floor somewhere in the bowels of the building. Do you think I could reproduce this on my kitchen floor for under $300?
The biggest perk of being named Chief Justice is getting your very own coat hook.
Cool sculpture in the Senate Hart Office building.
Which, apparently, is breeding. Share:
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March 23, 2008 at 10:20 AM
When Grant worked on the Hill he said he would hear other tour guides just making up stuff ALL THE TIME. He wasn't sure if they actually believed it or if they were just having fun with the tourists. None of them had some great book of facts they learned from, it was just all stuff that had been passed along in a game of telephone. The extent of his training was, "Here, you go on one of my tours. OK, now go give some yourself." By the end of his stint he was weaving all sorts of fantastic tales.
March 23, 2008 at 10:37 AM
Oh my gosh... I totally wondered about the making stuff up and asked the intern if that was true about the dude getting fired. He claims it is. I did find confirmation that Brumidi fell off the scaffolding, and that Filippo Costaggini continued the job, but the Wikipedia article says he didn't finish due to an error in Brumidi's design. So who knows.
March 23, 2008 at 10:45 AM
Ooo! Do you suppose it's really the bearded face of Jesus in a Cheeto?
March 23, 2008 at 7:03 PM
That's definitely some interesting architecture and artwork.
March 23, 2008 at 8:39 PM
Actually, I heard the same thing about Brumidi and the dude who followed him. Since two of us have heard the same thing, does that make it true? Or do that just mean that two guides were suckered into the apocryphal tale?
Personally, I'm leaning more toward your theory: It's Cheesus.