US CAPITOL BUILDING Walking Tour and History | Washington DC | United States Capitol

Hey there everyone, my name is Eduardo Arroyo, but you can call me Ed, and today we are here visiting the Capitol Building here in Washington, D.C. Yes you guys, you heard that right, today we are visiting the Capitol Building, essentially the place where the laws of this country are created. The goal for this video is simple, I want to tell you a little bit more about this place and to show you around so that you'll know what you'll see if you choose to visit. So if that interests you, come with me. The Capitol Building is the place where the leaders of this nation meet to discuss, debate, and decide on national policy, which basically means that this place is very important and impacts every single one of us living in this country. Here in America, we learn about this place from a very young age. I think my earliest memory about this place is that popular song by Schoolhouse Rock where the bill is hoping to become a law or something, and he sings something like I'm just a bill and I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill, and he's sitting like on the stairs over there or something. I can't be the only one who remembers that. And as we learn in that song, this structure houses the Congress, which itself is composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The building has housed these two groups for almost two centuries, which is crazy to think about. The Senate chamber is over to the left, and the House chamber is over to the right. The center structure is what stands out the most in my opinion, with this dome structure at the top called the Rotunda. The center section serves no legislative function, but it is a ceremonial center. Presidential funerals are hosted there, heads of state are brought in to visit, it has a gallery of paintings of important people, and it is also the home to the National Statuary Hall. This large area where I'm standing right now, as well as the back section of the Capitol building, which we'll visit later in the video, are both called the Capitol Grounds. They host a lot of different events, but most prominently, they host the Presidential Inauguration as well as the State Union Address given by the President. Sadly, this was also the place that was stormed in 2021. I won't dwell too much in politics, but I thought it was important to acknowledge as that event has impacted the experiences of a lot of people visiting this location. This is how it looks today, that is as far as we can go. If you look at 5 year old videos of people visiting this place, they were able to get all the way to the stairs with no problem. Tours were also easier to come by. In contrast, during the time of the storming, this place was completely fenced off. You couldn't access whatsoever, and even till this day, the fencing comes back on for important events. Things are slowly getting back to normal, so I do hope that tours do kick off once again so that if you have plans to visit in the future, you can check it out. For today, this is the best view that we can get. I want to keep showing you around, but first, I want to tell you a bit more about this place's history. George Washington signed the Residence Act of 1790, which provided that the federal government should be established in a permanent location by 1800. This is basically how Washington DC came to be. In 1792, a design competition was held to find the design for the Capitol building. The winning design was decided by George Washington himself. Construction began in 1793 and would be in periodic construction for two centuries. The Capitol building and the White House were both set on fire by the British during the War of 1812. Lastly, the Capitol building used to house the Library of Congress, as well as host Supreme Court sessions until both of these got their own dedicated buildings. Those are just some of the many interesting facts about this place. For now, let's continue exploring. I mentioned the Capitol Grounds area a bit earlier, but I have some more interesting facts to share with you guys. First of all, did you guys know that the designer of the Capitol Grounds was also the designer of Central Park in New York City? Pretty cool, right? Now, the trees. I've read that there are over 100 varieties of different trees planted around this area. And a lot of these are actually gifts from different states, which is pretty cool. And check it out, you guys. That area over there, those are the Capitol Grounds. If you keep walking just a very short distance, you'll make your way to Union Square, where you can get an amazing view of the Capitol. Let me show you. From Union Square, which is a green space area behind me, you can get an amazing view of the Capitol Building, as well as the Capitol Building Reflecting Pool, which, as the name suggests, reflects an image of the Capitol Building under the right conditions. Today's kind of cloudy and windy, as you can see, so not the best. Not only can you get amazing views of the Capitol Building, but if you turn around, you can also get amazing views of the Washington Monument. As you can see, it's right over there in the distance. I will be making a dedicated video of the Washington Monument, so stay tuned to the channel if you want to check that out. I'll leave it in the description down below once it goes up. Three statues overlook the Capitol. The first one is the Peace Monument, in honor of naval officers who died in the Civil War. The Ulysses S. Grant Memorial, in honor of the 18th President of the United States and the General of the Union Army during the Civil War. Last but not least is the Garfield Monument, in honor of everyone's favorite cat. I'm just kidding, he was the 20th President of the United States. If you make your way to the back, you will obviously see the back of the Capitol Building itself, along with the back section of the Capitol Grounds that I also mentioned earlier. To be honest guys, I didn't expect the views of the Capitol Building from the back would be any good, but they actually rival the front. Just because this area is really open, so anyone can just walk wherever. And I think I've seen some people taking pictures right on the stairs. This view is definitely a hard one to beat. This is the back view of the Senate Chamber, and this right here is the back section of the House Chamber. Behind the Capitol Building, you will also find other two very important buildings. One is the building of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the other one is the Library of Congress, or at least one of the three buildings of the Library of Congress that you can find here on Capitol Hill. I actually have plans on visiting the Library of Congress, it will depend on whether or not I can record inside, so we'll see. Stay tuned to the channel if you want to check that out. As I mentioned before, both of these buildings were once housed within the Capitol, until they grew too much, so they needed their own space. Both of these buildings are still very close to the Capitol. As you can see, they're only a street away. The last thing that I want to show you today are the Senate and House Office Buildings, which sit at either side of the Capitol, corresponding to each chamber. That is the Cannon House Office Building, obviously used by the House of Representatives. And that is the Russell Senate Office Building. An interesting fact is that the Senate and House Office Buildings are both connected to the Capitol via an underground subway. So yeah, congressmen and women can make their way to the Capitol Building without having to come out of their respective office buildings. And just like that you guys, we made it to the end of today's video. Hopefully you guys enjoyed. If you guys liked the video as much as I did, I'm going to ask you to please click on the like button and subscribe to my channel if you want to see more cool and interesting travel videos just like this one. And always remember to be kind, have an open mind. I'll see you next time.