Welcome to the deep dive I am I'm so glad you
were joining us today because we are looking
at something you have seen A thousand times.
Oh, easily a thousand. Right. It's on the evening
news. It's the backdrop of countless movies.
It's even printed on the back of the $50 bill.
We're talking about the United States Capitol
building. But right out of the gate, I want to
promise you something. This is not going to be
a dry, dusty civics lesson about how a bill becomes
a law. Not at all. We are looking at the physical
space itself, which is honestly a story of fire.
sprawls and some truly staggering engineering.
Exactly. Our source material today is a really
comprehensive historical overview of the U .S.
Capitol. And our mission for this deep dive is
to give you a massive shortcut. We want you to
walk away from this incredibly well -informed,
completely bypassing that, you know, postcard
perfect, pristine image you usually see. Yeah,
the tourist version. Right. We're going to uncover
the messy, the surprising and the profoundly
human history that is actually hiding right behind.
that famous white marble facade. And it is essential
to look past that static monument we see today
because the Capitol is a living, breathing structure.
I mean, it is physically expanded in these chaotic
spurts. It is burned and it has evolved right
alongside the country. The guiding question I
really want you to keep in mind as we go through
the sources today is this. How does the physical
structure of a building dictate and reflect the
history of the democracy that is happening inside
it? OK, let's unpack this, because to understand
the Capitol, we actually have to start before
it even existed. In the early days of the U .S.
government, Congress was practically nomadic.
They didn't have Washington, D .C. Yeah, they
were bouncing all over the place. Yeah, they
were meeting in Philadelphia, New York, Princeton,
Annapolis, just bouncing around the eastern seaboard.
And the reason they had to keep moving is wild.
I was reading in the source about the Pennsylvania
mutiny in 1783. What exactly happened there that
forced them out of Philadelphia? It was a very
precarious time. You had a mob of angry soldiers
who converged on Independence Hall in Philadelphia,
and they were demanding back pay for their service
in the Revolutionary War. And they're just outside
the door. Right outside. So the lawmakers inside
appealed to the local Pennsylvania government
for protection, but the local authorities essentially
refused to intervene. So Congress was forced
to literally flee the city. Wow. So they realized
right then and there they can't rely on a state
governor for their own physical safety. Exactly.
If we connect this to the bigger picture, that
fear of being at the mercy of a local state government
is exactly why they realized they needed a permanent,
independent federal capital. They needed their
own jurisdiction. But deciding where to put that
jurisdiction was incredibly contentious. Which
makes sense. Everyone wanted the power. Right.
And it led to Alexander Hamilton brokering one
of the most famous compromises in American history.
The northern states had a lot of Revolutionary
War debt, and the southern states didn't want
to pay for it. So the compromise was that the
federal government would absorb the northern
debt, and in exchange, the South got the permanent
capital located right along the Potomac River.
Which brings us to Pierre L 'Enfant. the planner
who was tasked with figuring out where this grand
building should actually sit. He finds a spot
called Jenkins Hill and famously describes it
in the source material as a pedestal awaiting
a monument. A very grand vision. It's such a
cinematic way to view what was basically a patch
of dirt. But L 'Enfant ends up getting dismissed
and they still need a building. So Thomas Jefferson
decides the best way forward is to launch a public
design competition. A competition with a prize
of $500 and a lot of land in the new federal
city. Which, you have to remember, the United
States was a brand new country. There were very
few professionally trained architects. The source
describes the initial response as pretty dismal.
I mean, they only got about 10 submissions and
most of them were crude and amateurish. I saw
sketches that look like someone's rough draft
for a large barn. Yes, very utilitarian. They
just couldn't find anything that matched the
grand vision of a new republic. They consulted
a French architect whose ideas were far too ornate
and expensive. And then most of the local submissions
were too simple. They were looking for a very
specific architectural language that would communicate
legitimacy to the rest of the world. And then
a late entry comes in from a guy named William
Thornton. And the incredible thing is Thornton
wasn't even a professional architect. No, he's
a physician. A physician. He's a total amateur,
yet his design is the one that wins. What was
it about his sketches that caught the attention
of the founders? Well, George Washington and
Thomas Jefferson loved what they described. described
as its grandeur, simplicity, and beauty. Thornton
was heavily inspired by European architecture,
specifically the east front of the Louvre and
the Paris Pantheon. Oh, okay. He included a grand
circular room and a central dome. For Jefferson
and Washington, that classical design perfectly
captured the democratic, Roman, and Greek ideals
they wanted to project. It wasn't a palace for
a king, it was a temple for a republic. So they
have the design, and they get to work. On September
18, 1793, they lay the cornerstone. But George
Washington doesn't just show up in a standard
suit for a ribbon cutting. He performs the ceremony
dressed in full Masonic regalia. Yes, the full
traditional attire. He's wearing the ceremonial
apron. He's using the silver trowel alongside
eight other Freemasons. It is a highly theatrical,
ritualistic beginning. But the source material
provides a really stark contrast between that
grand ceremony and the reality of how the building
was actually constructed. Who was doing the heavy
lifting? That is a vital point. The initial plan
was to recruit workers from Europe, but the response
to those recruitment efforts was very poor. Consequently,
the grueling labor required to raise this massive
stone structure fell largely to African Americans,
both enslaved and free. They worked alongside
Scottish stonemasons. But the enslaved laborers
were the ones cutting the timber, laying the
heavy stone foundations, and baking the bricks
in the kilns. And understanding this is absolutely
crucial. You cannot grasp the foundational history
of the building without acknowledging that a
monument designed to celebrate liberty was physically
built, in large part, through enslaved labor.
It is a profound paradox that is literally baked
into the bricks of the foundation. And the building
itself struggled to survive its early decades.
I mean, during the War of 1812, the British marched
into Washington and set fire to the Capitol in
1814. Just a devastating blow. to the new capital.
It was partially burned and architects like Benjamin
Henry Latrobe and Charles Bullfinch had to step
in to oversee the reconstruction, which included
a new copper dome. But here's where it gets really
interesting. We get to the 1850s. The country
is expanding rapidly. New states are joining
the union and they simply need more room for
all the new representatives. So they build these
massive new wings for the House and the Senate.
And that piecemeal expansion created a massive
visual problem. Oh, how so? Well, the building
was now incredibly long. but Bullfinch's original
copper dome was still sitting right in the middle.
Visually, the dome looked tiny, And completely
disproportionate to the massive new wings, it
threw off the entire symmetry of Thornton's original
vision. So they bring in an architect named Thomas
U. Walter to fix it. And he designs the massive
wedding cake style dome that we all recognize
today. But he didn't use copper or stone. He
used cast iron. Which is where the engineering
becomes truly staggering. That cast iron dome
weighs 8 ,909 ,200 pounds. Over 8 million pounds.
Nearly nine. Think about the logistics of the
1850s. They used steam -powered derricks to hoist
nearly 9 million pounds of iron up into the sky,
and they had to figure out how to support all
of that immense weight on the existing older
masonry walls of the building. Did the original
structure just handle that kind of pressure effortlessly?
Not at all. The visual and physical weight of
the new dome was so massive that it eventually
overpowered the proportions of the original columns
on the East Portico. It just looked too heavy.
Exactly. The dome looked like it was hovering
too heavily over the eastern entrance, which
eventually led to an entirely new architectural
expansion of the east front decades later just
to visually balance out the weight of the iron.
The building was constantly forcing its architects
to adapt to its own expanding scale. I want to
take you inside the building now because the
interior is just as fascinating as that 9 million
pound dome. Let's start at the very bottom on
the ground floor in a space called the crypt.
It was designed with a specific purpose in mind.
It was meant to hold the body of George Washington.
They were very intent on that. Yeah, they even
built a circular opening in the floor of the
rotunda above it with a ringed balustrade so
visitors could look down at his tomb. But if
you go there today, Washington isn't there. No,
his will dictated that he be buried at his estate
at Mount Vernon, and his family honored that
wish, so the intended tomb remained empty. Today,
the crypt holds a compass star inlaid in the
floor. which marks the point that divides Washington,
D .C. into its four quadrants. It also holds
a massive bust of Abraham Lincoln. It was carved
from a single six -ton block of marble by Gutzon
Borglum, the sculptor who later created Mount
Rushmore. And there is a lingering legend about
this bust, that Borglum intentionally left Lincoln's
left ear missing to symbolize his unfinished
life and presidency. What's fascinating here
is what happens when you move up from the crypt
and stand in the rotunda. You look up into the
canopy of that massive iron dome and you see
a fresco painted by Constantino Brumidi. Now,
a fresco is a technique where the artist paints
directly into wet plaster. So you had to work
incredibly fast. Very fast. You had to work quickly
while suspended on scaffolding nearly 180 feet
in the air. And the painting is called The Apotheosis
of Washington. Yes. And the word apotheosis means
the elevation of someone to divine status. And
that is exactly what Brumidi painted. It depicts
George Washington ascending into the heavens,
surrounded by classical Roman and Greek gods.
It was the first attempt by the United States
government to literally defy founding father
through art. What does that say about the mindset
of the country at that time? Because looking
up at the first president hanging out with Roman
deities feels like a very bold statement. It
reveals a deep sense of insecurity, actually.
The fresco was completed right at the end of
the Civil War. The nation had just torn itself
apart. By painting Washington as a divine, immortal
figure surrounded by gods of commerce, mechanics,
and agriculture, the government was projecting
an image of divine permanence. They needed the
republic to look eternal, precisely because the
reality of the country was incredibly fragile.
That makes a lot of sense. The building is trying
to project stability, but the actual rooms where
the lawmakers meet are full of eccentricities.
In the House chamber, there are 448 permanent
seats, but none of them are assigned. Just open
seating. Right. And circling the upper walls
of that chamber are 23 marble relief portraits
of famous historical lawgivers. You have figures
like Hammurabi and Thomas Jefferson. But out
of all 23 portraits, only one is sculpted from
a full, straight -on front view. Every other
figure is carved in profile. The only one looking
straight out at the chamber is Moses. It is a
deliberate choice by the artists to embed these
deep historical and cultural influences directly
into the walls where modern laws are debated.
The architecture is constantly reminding the
occupants of the historical weight of their actions.
And sometimes the building struggles with the
physical weight of what is brought inside it.
Take Statuary Hall, which is the old house chamber.
The tradition is that each state gets to donate
two statues of prominent citizens. Well, in 1959,
Hawaii joined the union and donated a bronze
statue of King Kamehameha. But they had a major
problem. Weight issue again. Yes. The statue
weighed 15 ,000 pounds. They couldn't place in
the statuary hall because the engineers were
legitimately afraid it would crash right through
the floorboards. They had to relocate it to a
sturdier part of the building. It is a great
metaphor for the Capitol as a whole. The physical
structure is constantly straining to accommodate
the sheer volume of history, people, and monuments
placed inside it. And speaking of the people,
the basement of the Capitol holds secrets from
the daily lives of the lawmakers. Tucked away
in a utility space, there are two original marble
bathtubs left over from the 19th century. Before
modern plumbing was common in the city, Congress
actually had a spa -like facility for senators
down there, complete with a barbershop and massage
parlor. You can also find a steep, hidden metal
staircase with exactly 365 steps leading up to
the dome, representing the days of the year.
But one of the most interesting contemporary
details from the source material is that there
is a space in the basement where Muslim staffers
currently hold weekly Friday Jummah prayers.
Which is a profound reflection of modern America.
But what is truly interesting is how that modern
religious practice connects to the building's
earliest days. In the early 19th century, during
the administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James
Madison, they actually attended Protestant church
services inside the house chamber. Wait, they
held church services in the House of Representatives?
They did. The state effectively became the church
on Sundays. Preachers from various Protestant
denominations would deliver sermons right there
in the chamber. Jefferson found it acceptable
because attendance was strictly voluntary and
non -discriminatory. So the Capitol has this
long, complex history of functioning as a space
for personal religious practice right alongside
its role in secular lawmaking. It functions as
the ultimate gathering place for the nation.
It is a stage for history. We see it used for
presidential inaugurations. We see it used as
a place of profound public mourning where citizens
have lain in state or honor. The source notes
everyone from Abraham Lincoln to civil rights
icon Rosa Parks and the Reverend Billy Graham.
But because the Capitol is the undeniable center
of American power, it has also been a continuous
target for violence. The building has been the
site of conflict for almost as long as it has
been standing. Let's look at the timeline the
sources provide. Going back to 1835, there was
an assassination attempt on President Andrew
Jackson right outside on the East Portico. A
man named Richard Lawrence stepped out of the
crowd, aimed a pistol at Jackson, and pulled
the trigger. But it misfired. He dropped it,
pulled out a second pistol, fired again, and
that one misfired too. Historians generally attribute
the misfires to the heavy humidity that day,
which likely ruined the gunpowder in both weapons.
And Jackson, who was famous for his temper, didn't
run away. He attacked the shooter with his walking
cane until Davy Crockett and others managed to
restrain the guy. So you have violence outside
the building, but you also have it inside the
chambers. In 1844, a massive fistfight broke
out right on the House floor. How does a legislative
session devolve into a brawl? It started with
a simple breach of decorum. A representative
told the House speaker to be quiet during a speech.
Tensions were already high, and that insult sparked
a physical altercation that escalated into dozens
of members fighting each other on the floor.
During the chaos, someone in the visitor gallery
actually fired a pistol into the crowd below.
So, what does this all mean for us today? The
Capitol has always been a physical manifestation
of the country's political temperature. We saw
that physical vulnerability in the 1800s and
the source material documents that we are still
seeing it in the modern era. And just looking
directly at the historical timeline from our
sources without taking any sides here. On January
6th, 2021, during the counting of Electoral College
votes for the 2020 presidential election, a pro
-Trump mob unlawfully entered the Capitol to
disrupt the certification of President -elect
Joe Biden. Yes, that is detailed extensively
in the source. The source documents that this
triggered a lockdown resulted in the deaths of
four rioters, including one woman shot by law
enforcement and led to the second impeachment
of Donald Trump. It marked the first time the
Capitol had been violently seized since the British
burned it in 1814. Furthermore, the source outlines
a subsequent security event on June 13th, 2025.
Protest groups broke through barriers attempting
to hold a sit -in at the Capitol building. This
was organized as a protest against the Trump
administration's mass deportation efforts. The
event resulted in police arresting around 60
people, a group that included United States military
veterans. When we look at this timeline of events
through the lens of the architecture, we can
see the profound physical toll that security
concerns have taken on the building and its grounds.
Every era of violence forces the Capitol to adapt
its physical posture. For example, in 1998, two
Capitol Police officers were tragically shot
and killed. In response to that vulnerability,
a massive $621 million underground Capitol Visitor
Center was planned and built. That's a huge undertaking.
The goal was to streamline security and push
the screening process far away from the immediate
historic entrances. Following the September 11
attacks, and compounded by the events of 2021
and 2025, the exterior grounds were radically
transformed. If you look at old photographs,
the Capitol sat in an incredibly open, public,
park -like setting. Today, that open space is
fortified. You see scores of jersey barriers,
those heavy sloped concrete walls used to block
off roads, along with hundreds of ornamental
bollards, which are thick metal posts driven
deep into the ground to stop vehicles. The physical
reality of the building has shifted from a completely
open public forum into a highly controlled fortified
space. The environment completely changes how
a citizen experiences walking up to the building.
It changes the relationship between the public
and the space entirely. If we are to synthesize
everything we have explored in the source material
today, it is clear that the capital is a remarkably
accurate mirror of the nation it serves. It is
grand, aspiring to the highest classical ideals.
But it is also built on desperate political compromises
and dark histories, like the reliance on enslaved
labor. It is a structure filled with architectural
eccentricities, constantly expanding to fit a
growing country. And it is marked equally by
moments of profound national reverence and instances
of intense physical conflict. It is not just
a passive container for American history. It
is an active participant. As we wrap up this
deep dive, I want to leave you with a final lingering
thought based on a detail from the source material.
We have talked a lot about how the building has
expanded, how domed were replaced, and how walls
were moved. But when a historic monumental building
like the U .S. Capitol gets a major upgrade,
where do all the old pieces go? That is a great
question. During the 20th century, architects
undertook a massive project to rebuild the east
front of the Capitol. During that process, they
carefully removed the original majestic sandstone
Corinthian columns, you know, those massive pillars
with the leafy, ornate carvings at the top. But
they didn't really have a plan for them. For
a long time, these historic columns were simply
dumped in an unused maintenance yard and forgotten.
Just left there. Left in the yard. Today, if
you know where to look, you can actually go visit
them. They have been set up in a large meadow
at the National Arboretum in Washington, D .C.,
standing alone in the grass like ancient Roman
ruins. And if you want to own a piece of the
building for yourself, the United States Capitol
Historical Society still periodically goes out
to a park in D .C. to mine the old, discarded
19th century rubble from those early renovations.
They cut up the raw stone and sell the pieces
as commemorative bookends. It is a fascinating
reality. symbol of the republic, with all its
messy, triumphant, and tragic history. Even the
discarded ruins of democracy can eventually end
up quietly resting on someone's bookshelf. Think
about that the next time you see the Capitol
on the news. Thanks for joining us on this deep
dive.