The U.S. Capitol has been building a new visitor's center for years. They were supposed to open when we did, but 9/11 changed everything. I'm feeling badly right now about being over budget and late on one of my projects, but honestly, I should just think about the new visitor center when that happens--at least I'm not triple the estimate and several years late!
In any case, Smithsonian was on the list to help test the center before the public opening in December, so we had preview tickets for Tuesday. This was definitely the way to see it, because without all the tourist crowds, we could actually SEE it. We could play the game and read the panels. We could get up close and look at the pictures. We could stand and look at the statues for as long as we wanted without getting jostled.
It's quite a vast space, but I'm sure will be filled with school groups and quite loud once it opens. There is a film to start, which I thought was well done. It does gloss over quite a bit, but that's to be expected when it's only 13 minutes long. I hadn't had a tour of the Capitol since I used to give them when I was an intern on the Hill. They have moved a number of the statues to the visitor center, but much is the same. It is something that I do think is worth doing--every American ought to have visited these buildings and obtained some sense of what our government does and how it works. A tour really isn't enough, but it's the closest most will get.
Interestingly, we were in esteemed company on our tour: Supreme Court Justice Souter was in our film group, and we saw him several times throughout the building during the next hour. I am also fairly certain that Senator Mikulski was in the center while we were there too. Normally I don't recognize anyone in this town so this was fun.
No cameras were allowed because the center hasn't had it's public unveiling yet. So, the best we could do was Greg's iPhone. The top shows you that construction is still underway. The entrance is actually underground, on the east side of the building. The second photo is the Supreme Court, just across the street from the entrance. Since we were in the presence of one of the nine justices, I thought it appropriate to add the court in too.
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