Capitol by night!

The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the US Congress and the legislature of the federal government it sits on Capitol Hill and is at the end of the National Mall.  Capitol is the seat and representation of democracy in America.  Its corner stone was laid in 1793 by President George Washington and was then completed in 1865. The tour of Capitol is great once you get through security and are allocated a tour group you go into a theatre to view a historical piece on Capitol's origins, then walk through all the halls and chambers.  While we were there they were setting up the lighting for the news coverage of Obama's inauguration, so it was interesting to see the Obama dinner in the echoey statue hall on the news a few days later where we stood and see the flight of steps he ascended into the house that was being set up when we walked through.

Our hotel was in walking distance to it so it came in handy when I stupidly took the family out on a freezing night to take night photos of The Mall with my new tripod - hoping to get the Lincoln memorial lit up in the Reflecting pool!  The expedition took a few hours it ending up turning into torrential rain with lots of mud,  the camera froze up as did my fingers and the rain was unrelenting.  We had walked so far that we couldn't return easily, in an area that is normally swarming with tourists during the day it had become deserted by night so to get a taxi was near impossible.   One finally did pick us up as we must have looked so desperate waving frantically with wet hair.

Just like Canberra its a political city and the politicians and campaign people were in the  full swing with the re instalment of Obama.  We went to a nice cafe our concierge  recommended Paul's French Bakery in Penn Quarter and saw Presidential power brokers discussing Obama's opinion polls at the next table it was just like the West Wing!

Outside Capitol

No wonder the English were offended it was pretty grand and makes a statement about Independence.

The Brumidi's 'Apotheosis of Washington' the fresco inside the dome of the Capitol building.

 'The Statue of Freedom' by Thomas Crawford, sits on top of the dome of the United States Capitol. The statue is a classical female figure, standing on a cast-iron globe encircled with the words in Latin for "Out of Many, One," 

Before the rain!