US Capitol - West Face

The United States Capitol in Washington, DC is a symbol of the American people and their government, the meeting place of the nation's legislature.

Construction of the US Capitol began in seventeen ninty three, and for the first time in eighteen hundred, the Congress met for the first time in the completed portion of the north wing.

The Capitol has been rebuilt and improved upon many times since its origin, with none more significant then after the British attack on Washington in August of eighteen fourteen when during the War of 1812, the British set fire to the Capitol.

The center dome of the Capitol is flanked by two wings.  Looking at the Capitol from the Mall, to the left of the dome is the US Senate side of the Capitol, to the right of the dome is the House of Representatives side of the Capitol building.

There are one hundred US Senators, 2 from each state.  There are 435 voting members in the House of Representatives. The number of representatives a state has is determined by population.  Therefore, California with a population of just under forty million people has 53 representatives, while a state with fewer people, Montana for example, has a single representative in the House of Representatives.  Every state is guaranteed at least one representative, and two US Senators.

If you look closely at the dome atop the capital, you will see a statue , the Statue of Freedom.  The statue was designed by the noted American sculptor, Thomas Crawford, but much of the work in 1863, was done by a slave, a man named Philip Reid.