Identifier: picturesquewas00moor (find matches)
Title: Picturesque Washington: pen and pencil sketches of its scenery, history, traditions, public and social life, with graphic descriptions of the Capitol and Congress, the White House, and the government departments ..
Year: 1884 (1880s)
Authors: Moore, Joseph West
Subjects: Washington (D.C.)
Publisher: Providence : J.A. & R.A. Reid
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
reets, filled withinnumerable moving things, no motion is apparent. You know thatthousands of changes are being made each moment, but you cannotperceive the slightest movement anywhere, although you can lookfrom end to end of the thoroughfares. To the west, beyond the city,the hills of Georgetown and of Arlington rise blue and misty, with fieldsbeyond fields spreading out to meet the sky. Along the Virginiashore the silver thread of the Potomac can be seen stretching far tothe southward in sparkling loveliness, till it is hidden by jutting banks.The green plateau of the Soldiers Home stands out boldly to the north-ward, and seemingly within easy distance is Howard University, onthe brow of its high hill. Fertile plains, rising into wooded heights,are to the east and south, and directly downward are the streets andbuildings of Capitol Hill, the ships of war in the Navy Yard, and thewaters of the Anacostia. It is a sight long to be treasured in thememory, and ever recalled with delight.
Text Appearing After Image:
CHAPTER V. INTERIOR OF THE CAPITOL —THE ROTUNDA —ITS HISTORICAL PAINTINGS ANI>CANOPY —THE NATIONAL STATUARY HALL —STATUES CONTRIBUTED BY THESTATES—THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES— THE COURT CHAM-BER—FAMOUS JUSTICES AND INTERESTING COURT CUSTOMS —THE LIBRARYOF CONGRESS—DETAILS OF THE VAST NATIONAL COLLECTION OF BOOKS. THE Rotunda, which occupies the centre of the interior of theCapitol, is a grand circular hall, ninety-five feet six inches indiameter, and three hundred feet in circumference. From thefloor to the canopy over what is called the eye of the dome,it is one hundred and eight) feet three inches in height. Lookingupward, you see at first the thirty-six long windows of the peristyle ofthe dome, which admit a flood of light, and then the gigantic iron ribsand frame of the dome itself, gradually curving to the open eye,which is fifty feet in diameter. The canopy suspended directly over-head appears very small, yet it is an immense sheet of metal andpla

Note About Images