Again, the Capitol was unfinished, but instead of putting off all work, construction on the dome was pushed forward. War broke out again in 1861, but this time it was internal. In 1856, the old dome was removed, its wood used as fuel for a steam engine in the new construction. Walter proposed the use of cast iron, a fireproof material that would allow the dome to be built higher at a lower cost. Taking advantage of both the opportunity to revise the less-than-favored dome and the technical innovations of the previous 30 years, new architect Thomas Walter came up with a new dome, along with extensions to the building. Everyone just thought it was an ungainly, odd-looking roof over the rotunda."īy the 1850s, Congress had outgrown its quarters, and plans to triple the size of the building were put into motion. "No one liked it," says Bill Allen, the Capitol's architectural historian. It was met with almost unanimous disapproval. Unfortunately for Bulfinch, Monroe approved the more garish of the two proposals, and the copper dome was finished in 1824. One was his favored rendering, and another included a massive wooden dome sheathed in copper that he felt was ugly enough to make his preferred model look modest by comparison. Bulfinch wanted to make the dome bigger, and came up with two new designs to present to President James Monroe. By the time the dome was started in 1818, a new architect, Charles Bulfinch, had control of the reins. The building wasn't completely destroyed, but in its reconstruction, many modifications were made to the original design. The British set fire to the still incomplete Capitol on Aug. And while the wings of the building were nearing completion in the early 1810s, the dome was still nowhere to be seen, and funds were being channeled away from construction toward the imminent war with Great Britain.Īs it turned out, construction wasn't just halted by the War of 1812: it was reversed. This estimate proved overly optimistic, however, with construction outlasting the first decade of the 19th century, as well as multiple architects. He formally approved the plan on July 25, 1793, thinking it could be completed by 1800. Thornton's design, which consisted of two wings - one for each house of Congress - on either side of a Neo-classical dome, immediately caught the eye of George Washington. None of the 17 original submissions proved satisfactory, but after the deadline had passed, one final design was proposed, this one by amateur architect William Thornton. As part of Present at the Creation, NPR's series on American icons, she explores the history of the dome that crowns the building and gives us one of our most enduring symbols of democracy.Ĭonstruction on the Capitol began in 1793, following the open contest suggested by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. And though the history of the building is hardly without incident, its design has remained largely the same, centered around one distinguishing feature: the Capitol Dome.įor Morning Edition, Kitty Eisele reports that the Capitol was, from its very inception, imagined as a monument to the form of government it would house. After all, it houses those elected federal leaders who most closely mirror the larger nation that surrounds the District of Columbia. Today, it stands in the same location selected by city planners over 200 years ago.īut besides serving as home to the legislative branch of the government, the Capitol Building might reasonably be expected to serve as some sort of historical or political metaphor for the country itself. Included among those first buildings, the Capitol would provide shelter for the leaders who gathered to represent citizens from across the breadth of the nation. J- When the forefathers of the United States devised a home for their fledgling government, a few necessities were imagined.
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