Where the Laws are Made
1793 AD
1793 1793
77.02W38.54N
ARC

WASHINGTON, D.C.
	The domed structure you see before you is the seat of the United States government. The House of Representatives and the Senate meet in opposite wings of this structure.
	Dr. William Thornton, an amateur architect, originally designed the Capitol building in 1793. His plan won him $500 and a lot in Washington D.C.
	President George Washington laid the cornerstone of the North Wing of the Capitol on Sept. 18, 1793 on what was then called Jenkins Hill (now Capitol Hill). The South Wing was completed in 1807, under the direction of Benjamin Latrobe.
	During the War of 1812, between the United States and Great Britain, the British invaded Washington D.C. and burned the Capitol. The Speaker's platform and mahogany desks were piled together for kindling and the entire building was soon engulfed in flames.
	The cast-iron dome that now covers the Capitol Building is 135 feet and five inches at its widest point and is topped by a bronze Statue of Freedom around whose base are the words, "E Pluribus Unim," which means, "Out of many, one."
	At the center of the building is the Capitol Rotunda, a round room over 180 feet tall and almost 100 feet across. It is decorated with oil paintings and statuary of U.S. history.
	On either side of the Rotunda are the two wings in which the two houses of Congress meet.