Library of Congress

We continued down the street from the Supreme Court to the Library of Congress (Thomas Jefferson Building).

Because the collection is so large, the Library of Congress is actually housed in several buildings in the Washington area. The main building of interest for tourists is the Thomas Jefferson Building.

The grand entrance to the Thomas Jefferson Building.

Robin and I were taken by this ornate lamp which you can see at the left of the preceding photo.

Fortunately, another door was open. We had to go through airport type security and I even had to remove my belt. There were not as many guards as in the Supreme Court however.

The interior is very ornate and the style is called 'American Renaissance'.

We arrived in time to take a guided tour (free) which started off with a short video. Even though it was a very cold day, there were a lot of people waiting to take the tour and we were divided up into groups of 15.

Our guide was a former college President and he was excellent. Most of the tour took place in the large chamber at the entrance to the Library. The Library was built by a team of Italian workman who had come to Chicago for a World Fair. According to the guide, the women who posed for many of the the paintings on the ceilings and walls were local prostitutes.

Unfortunately, photography is not allowed in most of the library except in this large entrance chamber. It is all very impressive however.

Apparently the red colour was all the rage at the time.

I sneaked a picture of this ceiling that reminds me of the ceilings of some of the Washington Metro stations.

Mosaic floors. According to the guide, they were actually constructed in Italy, attached to paper and then sent to Washington to be laid.

The ban on photography meant that I could not take a photo of the room that most interested me, the Main Reading Room. It's design heavily influenced the design of the Main Reading Room in the State Library in Melbourne and I was curious to see the original. 

You can see the Thomas Jefferson original here and the Melbourne version here. To be honest, I can't understand why taking photographs of the Thomas Jefferson Reading Room is forbidden. Perhaps they think the flashes would disturb the patrons reading at the desks. Not that there were too many readers at the time we were there.

I still like the British Museum Reading Room the best.

My sister Anne sent a good link with more photos of the Library.

Robin and I both enjoyed our visit however and this is something I wouldn't mind doing again one day. 

After lunch with a former work colleague and her husband we wandered down to the Natural History Museum. I don't get too excited looking at stuffed animals, but Robin enjoyed it.

A sign we passed near the Supreme Court. I wish Congress would take some notice of it.

The Supreme Court

Robin and I usually try to visit Washington while she is home. This time we decided to visit the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress and the Natural History Museum if we had time.

As usual, we took the MARC train which is a commuter train that runs from Perryville to Union Station in Washington. Since I am now the old codger, I qualify for the half price $5.50 fare each way. The train ride is really quite enjoyable and the views across the Susquahanna River are usually spectacular.

We arrived to a very cold Washington. 

When you exit Union Station you get pretty good views of the Washington Monument and the Capitol.

Official Washington is filled with impressive buildings.

It was so cold the flowers were wilting.

The Supreme Court facade was being worked on so they had used the same technique we had seen in Europe where they cover the building with cloth painted to show what you would normally see.

The insides are quite impressive and I was intrigued by the spiral staircases.

A large Christmas tree still on display.

Entrance to an elevator.

We had just missed the guided tour so we could only get a glimpse of the Court Room. 

A corridor of power.

If you are interested in what exactly the Solicitor General does for a living behind this door, click on the link.

An outdoor area where it looks like staff could relax on a nice day. It would have been a bit difficult to relax out there on this particular day with the bitter cold.

Some of the detail in the building. A lot of money was spent on this decoration.

You wonder what really goes on down the corridor behind the gate. It's probably more boring than you can imagine, or more exciting.

Inside the old elevator. There was still a human operator who bemoaned that these days she just pushed the buttons for the appropriate floors instead of operating the old lever.

There was a display of the detail on the portico.

It was the first day of Congress sitting and there were guards everywhere in the building. I asked one of them how many guarded this building and the answer was 108 people. I may have the number wrong but it was still well over 100. These poor sods were out there in the bitter cold just standing around.

As my mother would say, this building is a oncer. Once was enough but it was interesting.