This past October Melissa and I traveled to Washington D.C. and spent much of our time touring the area. On Wednesday the 25th we walked across the Mall to the U.S. Capitol building, walked in though the eastern visitors entrance, went through the expected security check, and enjoyed their guided tour which included a discussion of the many statues there as well as the various large historically-themed paintings ringing the Rotunda. But I wanted more: being an avid C-Span viewer, I wanted to see firsthand what the Senate and House of Representatives chambers looked like from their upper galleries. An employee there helpfully informed us that we could get passes for the Senate gallery...and possibly even for the House...by stopping by the office of one of our two Florida senators. Seeing that Marco Rubio's place, in the nearby Russell Building, was much closer than Bill Nelson's in the Hart Building, we set out there, entered this vast building, and promptly found ourselves totally lost, going up and down the labyrinth of long hallways and following misleading signs. Eventually, though, we managed to stumble upon Rubio's office...the senator wasn't there, Congress being out of session at the time...but it was full of happy, friendly staffers, one of whom graciously reached into a drawer and pulled out Senate and House gallery passes for each of us: Senator Rubio, I'm not a big fan of your politics, but your staff rocks! We returned to the Capitol visitors entrance and were now informed that we had to stand in line outside, several paces from the entrance, and endure scrutiny (including by a sniffing security dog) before we were incrementally allowed in and repeat the security check. Then we went to the Senate gallery doorway and walked in after showing a guard our passes. And there it was, just like I was used to seeing on C-Span-1: the chamber below, albeit empty of senators. A guide was in the process of talking about the history of the Senate chamber, this particular room being used since 1859, just before the commencement of the Civil War. We enjoyed the time sitting there and sat through the next presentation. Then we walked around to the House side, where they went bonkers with security: we had to leave our cellphones...along with anything remotely of an electronic nature, including simple earphones...in a special room and then had to undergo ANOTHER security gauntlet, this one much more invasive than the one for entering the Capitol building. After that, the line of visitors was gradually, again through small increments, allowed into the House of Representatives gallery looking down upon the familiar scene I see on C-Span whenever it is in session. Yet here there was no one to present historical information about this very important place: I felt a bit bummed out about it, although I did enjoy just sitting there looking around. Apparently, the Senate gallery wasn't originally scheduled to be open that day and we got in there without the security inspection. The heightened security might have been partially due to the fact that during that day there was a terrorism alert going on about those mail bombs that were sent to prominent Democrats and their supporters, probably accounting for the added scrutiny after we had returned to the Capitol with our passes...
The opening picture of the Senate chamber from the gallery isn't one I took, picture-taking from the gallery being banned for our visit, but is from the U.S. Senate website. It does look like what we saw that day, though...it's funny seeing a place like this in person for the first time, yet feeling like I've been there for years. Incidentally, we were told while in the Senate gallery that the senators (along with the representatives on their side of the building) enjoy an underground subway system that transports them directly from their office buildings to the Capitol, where they can quickly access the floor for votes and speeches. The Senate offices are on the Capitol's north side, across from Constitution Avenue, in the Russell, Dirksen, and Hart buildings while the House of Representatives offices are on the south side, across Independence Avenue in the Rayburn, Longworth, and Cannon buildings. I wonder what it's like being a senator, taking the subway to the Senate floor from your own office building: must be pretty cool...
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