A Capitol Tour
The first of a series, a virtual tour of the U. S. Capitol. I have stories.
I can’t exactly recall when I gave my first tour of the US Capitol, but I remember when I received my first one. It was during the summer of 1995, just days after I was sworn in as the 28th Secretary of the Senate.
I quickly learned that among the 19 offices then under my jurisdiction was the Senate’s Historical Office, led by the estimable Dr. Richard Baker and Associate Historian Dr. Donald Ritchie, who would eventually succeed him.
I remember calling Don and noting that since I was responsible for the office but also empowered to extol the history and significance of the US Senate publicly, I’d better get an in-depth tour. The fact is, I’d never had a tour of the Capitol during my then-16 years in Washington, DC, nine of which had been spent working on Capitol Hill.
Historian Ritchie responded by asking a favor of his own - for a trip up to the top of the Capitol dome. I was surprised - he’d never been to the top of the dome. “We’re doing that first,” I recall telling him. After Ritchie’s then-two decades of service, I thought it was way overdue.
And a great tour it was. I’d already taken two Senate spouses on my first excursion, along with staff for the Architect of the Capitol, but I’d learn from this.
Thus we begin our tour of the US Capitol, focusing on its construction and evolution over 230 years. Like our country, it wasn’t all built at once. When the Capitol opened in 1801, it was a tidy two-floor square box. What is now the Senate Republican Leader’s personal Capitol office was the original House chamber (I cannot imagine all 106 members elected in 1800 fitting there). The original Senate chamber was a darkly-lit room on the first floor, which would, ten years later, become the Supreme Court. The Library of Congress - now comprising three massive buildings - was on the second floor.
It has been built in stages and expanded to reflect the nation's growth. The most recent expansion, the lower part of the west front to add several new conference rooms and offices, occurred in the 1980s. The current House and Senate Chambers were added in 1860 - just in time for the Civil War, with the nine-million-pound cast iron dome built during that war and completed as the war ended.
The stairway leading up to the top of the dome starts on the third floor on the Senate side of the dome via a locked door. All tours must be scheduled and include a current Member or Officer of Congress and staff from the Capitol Architect. The 382-step narrow and winding stairway (my then-7-year-old son’s unofficial count) ascends between the inner and outer walls of the dome.
The Capitol’s first dome isn’t what you see today. The original wooden and copper dome, built after the British torched the Capitol in 1814, was a fire hazard and began leaking almost from completion in 1824. By around 1855, President Franklin Pierce signed legislation that appropriated the first $100,000 that launched the construction of a new, grander dome concurrent with new House and Senate chambers completed in 1859.
The first dome tour, I was told, was led by President Abraham Lincoln before it was completed. There’s a story, which was never confirmed that Lincoln was asked whether construction on the new dome should be suspended during the Civil War. After all, battles were occurring not far from Washington, and multiple forts had been constructed, especially in northern Virginia, to protect the Capitol.
No, Lincoln reputedly said, the business of the nation must continue. True or not, a great line.
As we ascended the stairs near where the “new” dome started, Ritchie spotted a window he’d longed to see. Sheltered from the elements, he inspected it for something he’d heard - Lincoln’s first tour included everyone signing their names with a sharp object onto the glass. “There it is,” Ritchie exclaimed, finding Lincoln’s unmistakable signature.
We would continue to ascend, stopping at a “sniper hole” that allows law enforcement to open and see the inner rotunda. The next stop was at the top of the interior, with a close look at Constantino Brumidi’s famous work in 1865, the Apotheosis of George Washington. The acoustics on the circular surrounding Brumidi’s signature painting made it possible to hear a whisper anywhere.
Christina Garay video from YouTube
After that, we ascended to the top with a bird’s eye view of Pierre L’Enfant’s brilliant layout of Washington, DC.
Capitol dome tours used to be easy to do. I was among the few in the mid-1990s willing and excited to do them. Sure, there were a few House and Senate members who did. Former US. Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-CA) loved doing them, as did retiring US Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK). There were a few others. Today, even with Members of Congress, they are so popular that they must be scheduled well in advance. That’s a good thing.
A warning: Dome tours are not easy to do. There is no air conditioning or heating between the inner and outer walls. It’s steaming hot in July and damn cold in the winter. The steps, at points, are steep and narrow with low thresholds - they weren’t built for tours. I recall giving then-Arkansas Lt. Governor Mike Huckabee and his family a dome tour in 1996. They are not small people, even then-14-year-old and future White House press secretary Sarah, just elected Arkansas Governor on November 8th. It was a sweaty climb to the top. Huckabee, at the time, was running for US Senate. Democratic incumbent Gov. Jim Guy Tucker’s conviction on corruption charges elevated Huckabee, who would be elected the state’s chief executive twice afterward.
My next post takes us inside, starting in the Senate’s reception room.