Washington D.C. is of course the capital of the United States of America where all three pillars of the United States are located; the President, Congress and the Supreme Court. All iconic buildings and very known by the whole world: via the news, movies, serries. A must see for all the local Americans but also for the rest of the world a ones in a lifetime must see.
The White House
The White House is the home and residence of the sitting president, with the famous Oval Office. The Neoclassical style, by Irish architect, was built between 1792 and 1800. Over time the White House was extended and constructed several times, like the East and West Wing and Oval Office.
The White House is located in the middle of the city surrounded by high fences and lots of security. I found the view a bit disappointing, but it is an iconic building of course. It is extremely hard to get into the White House, you need to have a special access and request via the embassy of your country, but still extremely hard to get a tour around here.
Stand a little further away then you will have a better view than standing close by because of the fences and road around it.
The Capitol
The Capitol the political center with the US Parliament. The Capitol is a working office building, but it is also the place where visitors from around the United States and the world come to learn about American democracy. After a security check you can enter The Capitol, even without a tour you can walk around the Capitol and Exhibition Hall, explaining Congress, Senate and House of Representatives.
I recommend you to book a free tour, which gets you inside the white dome! You need to make a reservation online to get a time slot for a tour, which runs every 10 minutes. You receive a headset through which you can listen to your guide. Our group had about 40 people, indeed everything is huge here hahah. First part of the tour is a 20-minute movie on the history of the Capitol. Then you walk though several rooms with the highlight the Dome itself. Very impressive to be in such an iconic building! Many statues of several former presidents and other important people, stunning paintings and of course the immense rotunda and 88-meter dome with the painting The Apotheosis of Washington.
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is another iconic building, but up close you can’t see anything of its unique pentagonal shape. The Pentagon houses the U.S. Department of Defense, Army, Navy and Air Force and is mega heavy security, which is quite daunting I can tell you. But cool to see employees with FBI badges standing in the subway. The building is huge, they say the second largest office building, where about ±26.000 people work.
The Pentagon was damaged during the September 11 plane attacks, where 125 employees in the Pentagon were killed next to the 59 on board. Next to the Pentagon a memorial was created in 2009, in remembrance of the taken lives. Each bench in the memorial represents a person, the direction of the bench indicates if it was a life taken in the Pentagon or plane, all set by birth date. Very intense memorial, mainly because I could still remember that date and impact.
If you want to get closer go to the Pentagon Memorial, there you can also see the impact of the plane that crashed into the building there on 9/11 and I didn’t get caught taking pictures.
Many of the political buildings are much in the news, such as the storming of the Capitol in 2021, is still on our minds from TV. Furthermore, many series and movies use the setting of these stately buildings, think of Forrest Gump, where the Vietnam Memorial is used as a setting along with the reflecting pond. The Pentagon appears in many movies and series, really cool to recognize so much!
These iconic building go hand in hand with the historical memorials, check my blog here.
