Which is the front of the U.S. Capitol building?

Like the principal buildings of the executive and judicial branches, the Capitol is built in a neoclassical style and has a white exterior. Both its east and west elevations are formally referred to as fronts, although only the east front was intended for the reception of visitors and dignitaries.



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West Front Lawn This area creates a formal setting for the Capitol's West Front, the side of the building that faces the National Mall. Beginning with the inauguration of Ronald Reagan in 1981, presidential inaugurations have been held on the marble terrace designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

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Why is part of the Capitol Building covered in scaffolding? The Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is preserving the building's exterior stone and metals.

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Thomas Crawford's Statue of Freedom (figure 1), the colossal bronze statue atop the U.S. Capitol dome, dominates the Capitol and the city of Washington, D. C., by virtue of its size and placement so far above the ground. Yet this symbol of freedom is often misidentified as an Indian.

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The Basics. Painted in 1865 by Constantino Brumidi, the Apotheosis of Washington in the eye of the U.S. Capitol Building's Rotunda depicts George Washington rising to the heavens in glory, flanked by female figures representing Liberty and Victory/Fame and surrounded by six groups of figures.

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To the east, the U.S. Capitol, R.F.K. Stadium, the Anacostia River, Nationals Park, and the National Arboretum; to the north, the White House, National Cathedral, and Shrine of the Immaculate Conception; to the west, the Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr.

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The grounds immediately surrounding the U.S. Capitol are bordered by a stone wall and cover an area of 58.8 acres. Its boundaries are Independence Avenue on the south, Constitution Avenue on the north, First Street NE/SE on the east, and First Street NW/SW on the west.

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The United States Capitol crypt is the large circular room filled with forty neoclassical Doric columns directly beneath the United States Capitol rotunda. It was built originally to support the rotunda as well as offer an entrance to Washington's Tomb.

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At two and one-half times life size, the figure of Grant mounted on his horse forms the monument's apex atop a pedestal that is over twenty-two feet high.

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The commissioners, in turn, hired the French engineer Pierre Charles L'Enfant to plan the new city of Washington. He located the Capitol at the elevated east end of the Mall, on the brow of what was then called Jenkins' Hill. The site was, in L'Enfant's words, a pedestal waiting for a monument.

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