A Capitol Rotunda

by Cora Wandel

Title

A Capitol Rotunda

Artist

Cora Wandel

Medium

Photograph

Description

The symbolic and physical heart of the United States Capitol is the Rotunda, an imposing circular room 96 feet in diameter and 180 feet in height. It is the principal circulation space in the Capitol, connecting the House and Senate sides, and is visited by thousands of people each day. The Rotunda is used for important ceremonial events such as the lying in state of Presidents and other eminent citizens, such as civil rights heroine Rosa Parks, who was the first woman to lie in state in the Rotunda.

Construction of the Capitol began in Washington, D.C. in 1793, and since that time it has has been built, burnt, rebuilt, extended, and restored. The Capitol that we see today is the result of several major periods of construction; it stands as a monument to the ingenuity, determination, and skill of the American people. Construction of the United States Capitol is considered to have first been completed in 1868, but renovations and extensions continue to this day.

The last major addition to the Capitol is its large underground visitor's center which opened in late 2008. It is 580,000 square feet in size and cost $621 million to build. It is an underground extension of the Capitol and the first major upstairs room it connects with is the Rotunda.

Uploaded

May 11th, 2013

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