Our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., is best known to be the government headquarters and has numerous memorials and museums. It’s a fun city to explore and learn but if you are considering a vacation in Washington D.C., you should read our list of things you might not know about the city:
The U.S. Capital has a Crypt.
Did you know there is an empty crypt in the U.S. Capital? George Washington was supposed to be buried there but he desired to be laid to rest at Mount Vernon instead.
Jefferson’s and Jackson’s statues are made of what?
The Exorcist Steps
Apparently the steps from the film, “The Exorcist” is in Georgetown.
Washington D.C. is only slightly named for the first president.
It is true that our first president, George Washington chose the land in 1971 to be the site of our nation’s capital. This entire land was named “Columbia”, after Christopher Columbus. Only a city added to this territory was called “Washington” after George Washington.
There are Marble Bathtubs in the Capitol Building.
In 1859, bathtubs were put in to make sure senators could bathe. Since they lived in boarding houses, they had no running water at home.
George Washington Never Lived There.
It wasn’t George Washington who began living in our nation’s capital. Washington died before the White House was finished, though he was part of laying its cornerstone in 1792. Rather, John Adams was the first president to actually live in Washington, D.C.
The Martin Luther King Jr.’s Step
The Lincoln Memorial has a step dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have A Dream Speech”.
The White House Was Not Originally White
The famous White House was not actually white originally. It was a gray-colored sandstone. During the War of 1812, the White House was burned by the British. After that, it was painted white.
Only One President is Buried There.
It’s amazing to think this but only Woodrow Wilson was laid to rest in Washington D.C. in 1924. His grave is in the Washington National Cathedral.
Capital Building has a Statue of a Woman on it.
The Statue of Freedom is on top and it’s bronze, 19 feet tall and weighs about 15,000 pounds. It is of a woman wearing a headdress in the shape of an eagle’s head.
D.C. residents are very diverse.
Many of the people of D.C. speak another language other than English. The city includes 175 embassies and international cultural centers.
There was a Typo in the Original Inscription of the Lincoln Memorial.
While it’s been fixed since, originally the word “FUTURE” was inscribed “EUTURE”.
The Washington Monument Is Two Different Colors.
Because the project of building the monument was put on hold for several years, the marble used to finish the project was from a different quarry. About a third of the way up the monument, you can see a noticable change of color in the stone.
Voting is fairly new in D.C.
Before 1961, residents of our capital. were not allowed to vote in presidential elections because of the Electoral College. The number of electoral votes each state gets is determined on how many senators and members of the House of Representatives it has. Since D.C. isn’t a state, it has no representatives in Congress. The 23rd Amendment to the Constitution let D.C. have the number of electoral votes it would have if it were a state, but no more than the number of electors the least-populated state has (currently, Wyoming). So D.C. gets a maximum of three electoral votes.
Leave a Reply