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Dan and Lu's Travels
Got a very long and winding bus journey from Silver Spring this morning to a subway station to get into DC.
Went to Capitol Hill and to the Library of Congress first, which is the world's largest library, it fills 3 buildings with over 26 million books, 36 million manuscripts and maps, photographs and sheet music.
The library was established by an act of congress in 1800 when the seat of government moved from Philadelphia to the new capital city of DC. It was originally housed inside the Capitol Building, but we, the British, burned it down!! (we just didn't want to give up did we?!) So retired president thomas jefferson offered his collection of books to start a new one. he'd spent 50 years collecting everything connected to or important to America.
We looked around the main building, which is the Thomas Jefferson Building, which is very grand with murals in the entrance hallway. There was a good exhibition in one of the rooms.
We then walked from there to the Capitol Building, the cornerstone of which was laid by George Washington in 1793 and Congress moved in seven years later. We almost destroyed it in 1814, but not quite!
We spent time there then walked down Constitution Avenue to the National Gallery of Art and spent the rest of the afternoon in there. Its a lovely gallery and like everything else in this city - free!
I like Washington DC, it has a quietly confident feel about it, not flashy or brash, but it feels very important. Which I suppose it is really....
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