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It
was a time of great excitement in Washington, D.C. In the winter months
of early 1905, the nation's capital was preparing for the second term
of President Theodore Roosevelt, a popular and forceful leader who had
been reelected by an unprecedented majority of votes. On Capitol Hill,
horse-drawn hansom cabs and carriages brought congressmen, senators,
and their staffers to work on legislation in one of the most beautiful
and impressive buildings in the world. The great dome of the National
Capitol building seemed to glow against the evening sky, illuminated
from above by electric lights during night sessions of Congress. The
Statue of Freedom, perched atop the immense iron dome, crowned an
architectural masterpiece of white marble and sandstone that took many
years to complete. The concept of a Capitol building as conceived by
Pierre L'Enfant and George Washington was to create a "Federal House
for Congress." After Washington laid the cornerstone in 1793, the
ensuing construction was to endure many setbacks: funding, missed
deadlines, plan changes (under the guidance of a succession of
architects) and, most devastating of all, the burning of the Capitol by
the British in 1814. The building was redesigned and rose again "like a
phoenix from its ashes," and through the next half-century was
completed section by section, finishing with the dome in 1863, during
our country's Civil War. Over the years, the National Capitol building
has come to be a shining white symbol of what Abraham Lincoln called
the "last best hope of mankind," a symbol of a nation created "of the
people, by the people, for the people."
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