Zohery Tours

Washington DC Sightseeing Tours

400 block New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20001

The Dirksen Building 

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After the completion of the Russell Building, there was the need for another building to house State Senators. is is what gave birth to the construction of the Dirksen Senate Office Building that was named after Everett Dirksen who in 1972 was the minority leader from Illinois. The issue of space was very crucial to satisfy the needs of senators who wanted to accommodate their increasing number of staff. Another reason for wanting to create additional senate building was because Alaska and Hawaii had been added as states after the Second World War and so their senators needed accommodation. 

Otto Eggers and Daniel Higgins were the two architects from New York who were entrusted the task of designing the building. It was in 1958 that the new building was completed. With the dawn of the television technology, this new building was constructed in a way to accommodate those exigencies. 

The Russell Building

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The Russell Senate Office was designed and executed by architect Edward Clark in 1901.

Of all the Senate office Buildings in Washington DC, the Russell Senate Office is the oldest. It was constructed between 1903 and 1908. It was in 1909 that the 61st Congress Senate used the Russell Building. Since there has been a steady growth in the number of staff and committees that need to use the building, there have been additional rooms built in the last score years. Of particular significance to this building is the Rotunda where caskets of prominent statesmen and women have been displayed for public view. The building was named after Senator Richard Brevard Russell, Jr.

The Grand Tour of Washington, DC
e Dirckens Building After the completion of e Russell Building, there was the need for another building to house State Senators. is is what gave birth to the construction of the Dirksen Senate O ce Building that was named after Everett Dirksen who in 1972 was the minority leader from Illinois. e issue of space was very crucial to satisfy the needs of senators who wanted to accommodate their increasing number of sta . Another reason for wanting to create additional senate building was because Alaska and Hawaii had been added as states after the Second World War and so their senators needed accommodation. Otto Eggers and Daniel Higgins were the two architects from New York who were entrusted the task of designing the building. It was in 1958 that the new building was completed. With the dawn of the television technology, this new building was constructed in a way to accommodate those exigencies.

The Supreme Court

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In 1935 Cass Gilbert completed the construction of the United States Supreme Court. Prior to its full construction, the sessions of the court were conducted in the Royal Exchange Building in New York, and the independence and city Hall in Philadelphia when the nations Capitol was in Philadelphia. In 1800 while in the permanent capital in Washington DC, the Supreme Court was located in the capitol building. In 1929, the Chief Justice Howard Taft, who at the same time was the former president, initiated the arrangement for an independent building for the Supreme Court. He had to persuade Congress for this to happen. The US Supreme Court is the highest office in the land. After the verdict in the Supreme Court, there is no other appeal. There are nine Justices and one Associate. The Supreme Court is the judiciary branch of the government. The sitting position in the Supreme Court is according to seniority and rank. The Chief justice, who is the presiding judge always sits in the center followed by the senior associate judge. There is order in the way cases are heard in the Supreme Court. The bench sits on Mondays at about 10 am for preliminaries. The public can assist in hearing cases from 9:30-3:30 daily. When a case has been announced, copies of the ruling are available to the public 30 minutes after. The ground floor has more information for first time visitors and other relevant materials for regular visitors.

The Library of Congress

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The Library of Congress is an o shoot of the private collection of books by Thomas Jefferson. During the 1812 war when the US capitol was attacked, books on facts, statistics and laws of the United States were all burnt. Thomas Jefferson then offered to sell his books to Congress. Books were then bought from the library of Jefferson to start what has now become known as the Library of Congress.

Between 1851 and 1853, the library suffered many losses due to fire. Close to 55,000 volumes of materials were consumed by re. Ideas then dawn on law makers that the Library of Congress needed to have separate structure independent of the capitol building. That idea was put into effect by Jefferson in 1886. By 1897, the new building was ready for the general public. Today, the Library of Congress enjoys the privilege of being the most prestigious and the best equipped library in the world with over 90 million items.

The Library of Congress has about 84 million articles, 74 millions books. All these documents and articles are written in 365 languages. ere are several buildings adjacent and across the Library of Congress that constitute and extension of the library. These houses include the Madison Building and John Adams Building. In the Madison building a number of services are located within it: the copyright office, geography room, law library, presidential papers, prints and photographs. Also in the Adams building you have the African, Asian, Hebrew, Near East, Science and social science reading rooms. In one of these buildings, a short lm documentary is shown to visitors about the history of the Library of Congress. To gain access to the library and also to become a permanent member of library, you need to apply for a temporary library card or a permanent one. The services for membership cards are located on the first floor of the Jefferson building which is the main building of the library. It is the building that is located next to the Supreme Court.

US Capitol Building

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The Capitol Building is the building where law Since the beginning of the construction of the makers in the House of Representative and the building in 1793, there have been numerous Senate meet to discuss and debate economic, innovations to the building making it today the political and social issues affecting the nation.

symbol of American political pride. Several people were in line for the designing and construction of the Capitol Building, but in the end George Washington awarded the contract to Dr. William ornton who was trained in Scotland as a physician. ornton worked in collaboration with some architects. He only succeeded in completing the East Wing on November 17, 1800. By 1813, the north and the south wings were completed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe

The war of 1812 brought about the destruction. e Building was set on fire during the war of 1812. It was not until 1825 that Latrobe returned to Washington to ensure its renovation. But he later abandoned the project and it was later given to another architect from Boston named Charles Burlfinch. He worked on the dome and decorations of the interior and exterior of the building.

On the Capitol there is a freedom statue. e freedom statute has a lady holding a symbol of peace and power, meaning freedom rises for ever and under the freedom there are thirteen columns. Under the columns is the dome which symbolizes the unity of the country. e thirteen columns represent the thirteen colonies. e north side of the dome is where the senators assemble.

if you want to know more of Washington DC and explore its top monuments and landmarks, book a tour with Zohery Tours by clicking on the link below:
https://www.zohery.com/reservations