Washington, DC, U.S.A.
Your Washington tour could start from the Library of Congress. You go there to check whether your book is there. Quite contrary to your misunderstanding, there are far more scientists than politicians in the Washington area.
- The Library of Congress is about 300 meters east
of the Capitol. If you write a book, you have get a serial number from this
library.
- In 1900, the Library looked like this. This main structure is called the "Thomas Jefferson Library." Presumably this photo was taken from the Capitol dome.
- The Jefferson Library seen from the sky.
- The entrance to the Jefferson Library seen from the Capitol ground.
- The Great Hall is at the center of this building.
- The James Madison Building is one of the
additional buildings. They had to add these new buildings to store
the book you will write in the future.
- You can then walk to the Capitol building, and see how Americans
manage their democracy. From there you can see the National Mall and
the Washington Monument. On the right side (north) the Monument is
the White House. On the left (south) is the Jefferson Memorial.
- On the other side of the Monument of the Lincoln Memorial. You are now ready to make a systematic tour.
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Capitol Hill, National Mall
- The Capitol houses both
chambers of the United States Congress, namely the Senate and the
House of Representatives. This photo was taken from the
National Mall (west of the Capitol).
Photographers like to take photos of humans with impressive backgrounds. I use humans as backgrounds when I take important structures. You would agree that this building looks much better with people. This building is for the people.
- Entrance to the Capitol seen from the east of the building. Before 1980, the presidential inaugural ceremonies took place at the square in front of the building. Ronald Reagan" moved the place to the west side facing the National Mall and the Washington Monument.
- From the sky, the Capitol looks like this (photo from the public domain).
- from the White House ground, along the Pennsylvania Avenue. After the inaugural at the capitol, the president comes to the White House along this route.
- seen from the Lincoln Memorial, together with the Washington Monument. I took this photo with my Leica camera in 1971.
- The State of Union Speech is delivered every January by the President at the Chamber of the House of the Representatives. In this photo, George W. Bush is giving his speech in January of 2003.
- Ronald Reagan's gasket is
lying at the Capitol Rotunda (2004). I was not there, and this photo is
from the public domain. I was there in 1963 when John F. Kennedy died,
and was there again when Douglas MacArthur died.
Reagan was a very popular among Americans, and Margaret Thatcher liked him very much. His statue is on the U.S. Embassy ground in London. Here is a photo of the Reagan statue.
- The Supreme Court Building is one block east of the Capitol.
- National Gallery of Art
in Washington.
- Mercury Statue in the lobby of the Gallery.
- One of the exhibition rooms (2006).
- The Great Hall is like this.
- The Jefferson Library viewed from the sky.
- The main entrance to the Gallery is bout 300 meters from the Capitol building in Washington. This Gallery was constructed by
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Andrew Mellon, and donated to his country, the United States
of America.
- Paul Mellon's East Wing seen from the ground of the Capitol building. Andrew Mellon had a son named Paul. Undoubtedly he inherited some fortune from his father, but he multiplied his fortune to add a new building to the Gallery his father built.
- Map of the National Mall taken from http://www.asia.si.edu/visitor/siMapPopUp.htm. You will see that the Capitol and the NGA buildings are grey-marked.
- Here is the NGA website. From these buildings and their vicinity to the Capitol of the United States, you can see how important the National Gallery is to Americans.
- Paul Mellon's East Wing seen from the ground of the Capitol building. Andrew Mellon had a son named Paul. Undoubtedly he inherited some fortune from his father, but he multiplied his fortune to add a new building to the Gallery his father built.
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White House and its Vicinity
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- Map of the White House and its Vicinity.
- White House seen from the
Lafayette Park (north).
- White House seen from the Ellipse (south).
- The West Wing of the White House, where the president meets reporters.
- White House seen from the the Washington Monument ground.
- White House Christmas Tree.
- More White House Photos.
- Blair House facing the White House, where kings and presidents stay when they are invited by the president.
- Eisenhower Executive Building (photo from the
public domain),
seen from the 17th Street west of the White House.
- Lafayette Park in front of the
White House. Andrew Jackson's statue, White House, and Washington
Monument are seen. Jackson was the 7th president of the United
States (1829-37). The United States experienced a great territorial
expansion during his presidency. Jackson was the founder of the
political party known today as the "Democratic Party."
- Jackson Statue in detail.
- Lafayette Park seen from the White House.
- Lafayette Park would be meaningless without a statue of General Marquis de Lafayette who made a decisive contribution in the war of American independence. This statue is at the south-east corner of the park, the closest point to the White House.
- Tadeusz Kosciuszko was Polish general who helped George Washington as the commander of the engineering unit during the Independecne War. His statue is also at one of the corners of the Park. The base of his statue says Son of Poland.
- The Department of the Treasury is
just east of the White House. This is the south side of the building.
The northern entrance looks like this.
- Statue of William Tecumseh Sherman.
General Sherman was a brave military man who led the Northern army deep into
the South during the Civil War.
- Gone with the Wind. General Sherman is thoroughly cursed by Southern ladies.
- Sherman Tanks.
He is also well known for World War II American tanks. By 1960,
all Sherman tanks were retired, but Fidel Castro of Cuba claimed
Americans attempted to invade Cuba using their Sherman tanks.
- Pershing's statue is also in
the same area. Who was Pershing?
Click here.
- Casimir Pulaski's statue is one block east
of the Pershing statue. Like Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Pulaski was a Polish
general.
He was the commander of George Washington's cavalry corps
during the American Independence War. He was killed in action in Savanna, Georgia.
Since he was a horse man, there are many highways named after him, such as the Pulaski Road in Chicago, the Pulaski Highway in Baltimore, and the General Pulaski Skyway in New Jersey connecting to the Lincoln Tunnel underneath the Hudson River connecting to New York.
Click here for more about him.
- Corcoran Galley of Art is 100 meters
from the southwest corner of the White House.
- Lion Statue at the entrance.
- Entrance Lobby.
- Love of Europe. Being so near to the White House, the gallery usually shows paintings by American artists. Sometimes, it has respectable European programs.
- Organization of American States.
The United States plays the dominant role in the Western Hemisphere.
It is thus natural for this organization to be so close to the
White House.
I was in this building when Marcos Moshinsky received a pan-American science award in 1996. I have some photos from this occasion, and intend to post them when I find them. - American Red Cross. You all know
what this organization does, and it deserves to be close to the
White House. There is
another Red Cross building in the same area.
- Daughters of the American Revolution.
This is an organization of women who are descendents of those
Americans who made direct contributions to the Independence of America
from the British rule. It is of course patriotic and conservative
organization, but it is quite capable of adjusting itself to changing
times. This building has a large music hall called "Constitution Hall."
- Entrance to the Constitution Hall facing west is one block away from the east entrance. The building occupies one entire block.
- The Alexandrov music group is a very important component of Russia's Red Army. This group came to this hall and presented a brilliant performance.
- I was there and took many photos.
- Applause. Those Russian performers are accepting an enthusiastic applause.
- American Uniforms. Three of those performers were wearing American uniforms. They were reproducing the meeting of the U.S. and U.S.S.R army units on the Elbe River in 1945 during the final days of Hitler's rule in Germany.
- Proschanie Slaviankie was not included in their program, and I complained to one of managers of the group, and he apologized and told me he appreciated my complaint.