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White House

Washington D.C. November 17th until 20th 2013,
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States of America

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States.

There is also the office of the Vice-President. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. In 1901 it received its name officially by Theodore Roosevelt due to its white walls, but it can be assumed that it was named like that before by the people. The white villa mostly shown in the media is actually only the middle part of the building White House Complex, consisting of the main building, two neighboring buildings ( East Wing and West Wing), the connecting galleries and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.









The Capitol

First St SE, Washington, DC 20004, United States of America

The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the U.S. Congress, the legislature of the U.S. federal government. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall. Besides the parliament chambers, the neo-classical building houses many artworks from the US history. With three to five million visitors each year it is one of the most popular touristic spots of the county.

The building was constructed from 1793 until 1823 and widely expanded from 1851 until 1863 and consists of a rotunda with a dome with the two parliament’s wings on both sides. The Capitol is 229 meters long, up to 107 meters wide and 88 meters high at its highest point. After the White House, it was the first larger building in Washington, D.C., around which the city was constructed. The Capitol Complex is located around the Capitol, amongst others including the Library of Congress and the buildings of the Supreme Court.

The Capitol’s architect is responsible for Building inspection and administration of the Capitol as well as the Capitol Complex. Distinctive architects of the construction history were William Thornton, who has made the original planning, Henry Latrobe, who has completed the Capitol in its first version, and Thomas U. Walter, who has designed the current form of the dome and the annexes of the side wings.

The name Capitol comes from the most important of Rome’s seven hills, the Capitol Hill. In the neo-classical era, its name was transferred on other buildings, amongst others also on the domicile of the American Parliament. It shall thus emphasize on the republican tradition in which the USA see themselves.













Lincoln Memorial

National Mall, Independence Ave. & 23rd St. NW, Washington DC

The Lincoln Memorial is a memorial which has been constructed between 1915 and 1922 in honor of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, and is located at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It was designed by Henry Bacon.

The 36 Doric columns of the greek-style monument symbolize the 36 states that constituted the United States at the time of Lincoln’s term. The names of the next 12 US states were carved around the roof of the memorial later, and finally two plates were added on the ground for the new states Hawaii and Alaska.

The building stands on a foundation of up to 20 m depth, necessary due to the soft soil of the former Potomac marsh. At the northern side, Lincoln’s second inauguration speech from 1865 is carved into the stone, at the southern side the famous Gettysburg Speech. There is also a 5.8 m high statue of the sitting Lincoln. The statue made of white marble is the creation of the sculptor Daniel Chester French and composed of 28 single parts. It shows Lincoln sitting on a chair, his hands on one fascio each, a symbol of national power. It was originally planned the make the statue of bronze with a height of 3 m, but then Chester saw that the bronze statue was much too small for the large temple. So he constructed a statue that was almost as twice as high, made of 28 blocks of white marble.

On the wall above the statue’s head you can read the following text:
IN THIS TEMPLE
AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE
FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION
THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
IS ENSHRINED FOREVER











World War II Memorial

17th St SW, Washington, DC 20006, United States of America

The project of this memorial has been started in the 1980s and inaugurated on May 29th 2004 in the presence of many war veterans. Architect was the US-American Friedrich St. Florian of Austrian origin.

The Memorial is located between the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool at the Mall and consists of 56 columns standing in a semi circle in two rows framing a large fountain, the Rainbow Pool. Each column is fit with a metallic crest (oak and wheat), representing a state or area of the country. Every row represents an Atlantic or Pacific war zone.

From the 17th Street West, a staircase is leading to the fountain. Carved plates show different war scenes, realized by Ray Kaskey. A wall, the "Freedom Wall", with 4048 stars honors the killed soldiers. Each star represents 100 Americans killed in the war. In front of the wall you can read: "Here we mark the price of freedom".













Arlington National Cemetary

U.S. Army • Arlington National Cemetery • Arlington, VA 22211
Tomb of JFK

The Arlington National Cemetary is one of the 139 national cemetaries in the United States. It is located in Arlington in the State of Virginia, directly southwest of the capital city Washington, D.C., separated only by the Potomac River. In the southeast it borders on the area of the Pentagon.

The cemetary has been formed in 1864 during the War of Secession. There are about 5,400 funerals each year. With over 260,000 funerals since its creation, the Arlington National Cemetary is the second largest cemetary of the USA – after the Calverton National Cemetary in New York. The area is about 252 ha large and administered by the army ministry, just like the United States Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery in Washington D.C., while most of the other national cemetaries are administered by the ministry of war veterans and the National Park Service.

There were three state funerals on this cemetary until now, for the presidents William Howard Taft (1930) and John F. Kennedy (1963) as well as for General John J. Pershing (1948).































John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Art

2700 F Street NW, Washington, D.C., DC 20566
www.kennedy-center.org

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is the largest cultural center in Washington, D.C.. It was named after John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States.

The Kennedy Center comprises the Eisenhower Theater with 1,100 seats, the Opera House with 2,200 seats, a Concert Hall with 2,750 seats, as well as a cinema of the American Film Institute, showing popular old movies, as well as some other smaller theaters. In the foyer there is a bust of President Kennedy by Robert Berks. The flags of American states hang in the Hall of States, in the Hall of Nations the flags of all nations of the world with which the United States have diplomatic relations. Under the roof, there are several restaurants that are not only for theater visitors. Outside the Kennedy Centers, on the other side of the main entrance, there is a sculpted stone – a gift of the Federal Republic of Germany on the occasion of the opening of the Kennedy Centers in 1971. The Opera House in the Kennedy Center is the domicile of the Washington National Opera.