Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, the production of iHeart Radio. Hey,
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Bogelbaum. Here the U. S Capital stands
Speaker 1: now as the foremost architectural symbol of America. But more
Speaker 1: than the White House, more than the various monuments that
Speaker 1: dot Washington, d C's landscape. The Capitol Building perched magnificently
Speaker 1: for more than two centuries on a hill overlooking the city.
Speaker 1: In many ways is America. It's where the legislative dirty
Speaker 1: work of democracy is done. The Capitol Building, befitting its status,
Speaker 1: is visited under normal circumstances by more than three million
Speaker 1: people every year, tourists, school kids, and international visitors bingle
Speaker 1: over the roughly four acres of grounds on which the
Speaker 1: Capitol Building sits. The builders envisioned that kind of interest,
Speaker 1: if not in those numbers, perhaps they saw that the
Speaker 1: capital would become a symbol for the nation, and thus
Speaker 1: decided that it should reflect the majesty of the ideas
Speaker 1: the United States represents. For the article, this episode is
Speaker 1: based on How Stuff Works. Spoke Ya email with Christopher J. Howard,
Speaker 1: a professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at
Speaker 1: the Catholic University of America in Washington, d C. He said,
Speaker 1: as a new nation, it was important to set a
Speaker 1: tone and establish a physical manifestation of the ideas and
Speaker 1: aspiration that this new nation represented, important for its own
Speaker 1: sake but also relative to the world. In projecting a
Speaker 1: confident identity of democratic values in a new republic meant
Speaker 1: to endure and be timeless. Settling on exactly how those
Speaker 1: ideals should be architecturally expressed, though, was hardly self evident.
Speaker 1: In the end, it was the result of a competition
Speaker 1: dreamed up by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and judged
Speaker 1: by Jefferson, President George Washington, and the commissioners of the
Speaker 1: District of Columbia. French engineer Pierre Charles Lamfont, who laid
Speaker 1: out the blueprint for Washington, d C. And the placement
Speaker 1: of the capital on what was then known as Jenkins Hill,
Speaker 1: was expected to design the capital building, but after he
Speaker 1: refused to submit plans he was said to have it
Speaker 1: all planned out in his head. Jefferson suggested an open competition.
Speaker 1: The judges received seventeen entrants, they weren't thrilled with any
Speaker 1: of them. The plans came from French, German, and Italian
Speaker 1: architects among others, and all tried to reflect what they
Speaker 1: thought the fledgling country stood for. From the Library of
Speaker 1: Congress Archives quote, Most competitors drew upon Renaissance architectural models,
Speaker 1: either filtered through the lens of eighteenth century English and
Speaker 1: American Georgian traditions, or based directly on buildings illustrated in
Speaker 1: Renaissance treatises. The Capital Competition coincided with nascent neo Classicism
Speaker 1: in America, in which forms and details from Greek and
Speaker 1: Roman architecture were revived. Three of the competition entries were
Speaker 1: inspired by ancient classical buildings. Many of those plans, if
Speaker 1: they had been realized, would have given a distinctly different
Speaker 1: flavor to the building from what we have come to know.
Speaker 1: Irish architect James Diamond's vision, for example, featured a string
Speaker 1: of arched windows on the first floor, and the building
Speaker 1: was capped by a modest dome. A Frenchman, Stephen Hallett,
Speaker 1: provided a fancy plan in the neoclassical style that was
Speaker 1: relatively well received but would have made snowy DC winters difficult.
Speaker 1: William Thornton, a physician trained in Scotland, submitted a late
Speaker 1: idea allowed by the largely disappointed judges that envisioned a
Speaker 1: three section building, a center portion topped by a low
Speaker 1: dome in the style of the Pantheon in Rome, and
Speaker 1: two sections on both sides of it, one for the
Speaker 1: House of Representatives and one for the Senate. Washington lauded
Speaker 1: Thornton's work for its quote, grandeur, simplicity, and convenience. The
Speaker 1: amateur architects plans were ultimately chosen, and Thornton one five
Speaker 1: hundred dollars and a plot of land in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: For his efforts. Howard said Thornton was able to step
Speaker 1: in with an inspired design idea that clearly resonated with
Speaker 1: the selection commission. A part of that success, I believe
Speaker 1: is attributed to showing a design that resembles what had
Speaker 1: already been implied and Pierre Leon Fonts plan for Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. Which already had purchase in terms of the
Speaker 1: physical imagining of what a capital building might promise. Work
Speaker 1: on the U S Capital began in sevente By eighteen hundred,
Speaker 1: though the building wasn't anywhere near finished. The Congress, the
Speaker 1: Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the courts of
Speaker 1: the District of Columbia moved in. The Congress and Supreme
Speaker 1: Court had been meeting at Federal Hall in New York
Speaker 1: City and in Congress Hall in Philadelphia, and with that
Speaker 1: American Democracy had its permanent home. Through the years, the
Speaker 1: Capital has undergone many changes, though never straying far from
Speaker 1: Thornton's neo classical vision. The building was out of flame
Speaker 1: by the British in the War of eighteen twelve, almost
Speaker 1: burning to the ground on August eighteen fourteen. In the
Speaker 1: second half of the nineteenth century, a major renovation and
Speaker 1: expansion took place of more than doubling the length of
Speaker 1: the Capital In eighteen fifty six, and almost four thousand,
Speaker 1: five hundred ton iron dome replaced a much smaller, copper
Speaker 1: covered wooden dome over the center section of the building.
Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty three, the nineteen and a half foot
Speaker 1: that's six meter nearly fifteen thousand pounds or seven thousand
Speaker 1: kilo Statue of Freedom was hoisted to the top of
Speaker 1: the new dome. Terraces were added over the years, grounds
Speaker 1: were improved, renovations were made, and in two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: the largest project in the capital's history opened, A five
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty thousand square foot that's fifty four thousand
Speaker 1: square meter visitor center located completely underground on the east
Speaker 1: side of the capital as so not to ruin Thornton's
Speaker 1: original vision, Howard said, the end product, in many ways
Speaker 1: seems inevitable by virtue of the many people involved being
Speaker 1: guided by the same essential good idea and language, along
Speaker 1: with basic principles and goals for our nation in mind.
Speaker 1: This is truly a democratic building and it shows that
Speaker 1: as a result. I do think it still stands for
Speaker 1: what Thornton and Jefferson envisioned because it is not a subjective,
Speaker 1: arbitrary application of architectural language. It is what it was
Speaker 1: always intended to be and will continue to do so.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article how the US
Speaker 1: Capital's design was chosen by public competition on how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot Com, written by John Donovan. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Klain. For
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