Qualla: United States Capitol

United States Capitol: Introduction

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On August 24, 1814, British troops under Major General Robert Ross marched into Washington and set fire to the Capitol. The roof of the House chamber collapsed. Marble columns cracked from the heat. Books from the Library of Congress, kept in the Senate wing, were used as kindling. The fire was extinguished only by a violent thunderstorm that swept through the city overnight. The Capitol was less than fifteen years old, and most of it was destroyed. Benjamin Henry Latrobe was rehired to restore the building. Congress met in a temporary Old Brick Capitol while the work proceeded. By 1819 the two wings were back in service. By 1826 the center section, the original low copper-sheathed dome, and the rotunda above it were complete. The Capitol that Americans recognize today - the cast-iron dome and the bigger House and Senate chambers - would not exist for another forty years. The building has been continuously rebuilt since 1793, and is still being rebuilt.

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United States Capitol: Jenkins Hill

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Pierre L'Enfant called it 'a pedestal awaiting a monument.' Jenkins Hill, the small rise at the eastern end of the National Mall, was where the Congress House would stand. In 1792 Thomas Jefferson, having dismissed L'Enfant from the federal city project, announced a design compet...

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United States Capitol: Enslaved Builders

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The 1850s expansion, the largest in the building's history, was carried out partly by enslaved African Americans. The original plan was to import European stoneworkers and carpenters, but recruitment in Europe went poorly. The work fell instead to a mixed labor force of Scottish ...

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United States Capitol: The Cast-Iron Dome

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

By 1850 the Bulfinch dome of 1822 - low, copper-sheathed, made of timber - had become absurd. The 1850 expansion had doubled the building's length and the small dome looked silly. Thomas U. Walter designed the cast-iron replacement that still stands. It is three times the height ...

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United States Capitol: January 6, 2021

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On the afternoon of January 6, 2021, supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump, encouraged by speeches he and others had given at a rally on the Ellipse south of the White House, marched to the Capitol. Inside, both houses of Congress were meeting in joint session to certify ...

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United States Capitol: The Building Now

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Today the Capitol covers approximately four acres, with 540 rooms, sixteen and a half miles of corridors, and 658 windows. The 2008 underground Capitol Visitor Center adds 580,000 square feet beneath the East Plaza, with Emancipation Hall, two orientation theaters, gift shops, an...

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