DOME

So the most prolific phone call of my life came on Wednesday at like 10 am. It was a fellow Barlow intern offering me a spot on a dome tour later that afternoon! Yeah buddy!!! Dome tours are more exclusive because a member of congress "has to" be on it with you. Anywhays. It's amazing. It's only when you're looking from the balcony right under the Apotheosis of Washington that you can truly appreciate just how high Brumidi was when he painted, and it's only when you can look at eye level to the frieze that you understand just how long the 15 minutes was when he was hanging onto the scaffoldings for dear life. It's when you see the exterior of the old dome and 3 of the 13 women surrounding George turning away from the circle that you realize just how crucial the completion of this dome was during the Civil War. It's when you look down at the people below that you can understand how the Statue of Liberty can, in fact, fit inside the rotunda with 30 ft between the top of her torch and the top of the dome.

This is right above the frieze. The first stop is actually in-between the original dome and the addition. When the capitol was expanded the smaller dome looked funny so they built another dome (what we see from the outside now) around it to make the capital building look more proportional. 

This is the balcony under the Apotheosis. Really, really, really, really high up. 

A cell phone camera shot looking down. So, so far down. 

The tour takes you outside the capitol on the roof. It's an amazing view, obviously. This is the National Mall and my excited face because we're on top of the roof. That's what's up. Oh, and my badge is in the picture too. How appropriate. 

In conclusion: We went inside just as a storm was coming in; you may be able to see it in the photo above. But we heard the first boom of thunder in the distance and felt the first raindrops then saw our hair start to get static and decided we should book it down the 300+ steps of the completely iron dome.