CAPITOL BUILDING AND CAPITOL HILL, Capitol Building Exterior

The United States Capitol is a fine example of nineteenth-century Neoclassical style, both beautiful and functional. The design, inspired by Greek and Roman architecture, is a celebration of the principles that guided America’s Founding Fathers when they established the republic. 

The present-day building, which has completely incorporated the original construction that was completed in 1800, and bears a close resemblance to St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, in Rome, and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, is characterized by the enormous, central dome, covered in white marble and rising up on top of a rotunda, connecting the two wings that host the two chambers of Congress.

Thomas Walter, the architect who designed the dome, modeled it on the one of the Panthéon in Paris; this is why the Capitol Building has a double dome, with one dome built on top of another. A Statue of Freedom in bronze was placed on the top of the dome in 1863.

The 106-meter-long north wing is occupied by the Senate, while the south wing is home to the House of Representatives. The Capitol Building occupies a total surface area of 54,000 square meters, measuring more than 220 thousand square meters on the inside....