CONGRESSIONAL TOURS

WELCOME TOWASHINGTON D.C.

SHARON JOHNSON

INTRODUCTION History

White House

Inside the White House

The Supreme Court

Library of Congress

Treasury

Questions

HISTORY The presidential mansion was designed by James Hoban and personally approved by

George Washington. The mansion would be situated on the angled Pennsylvania Avenue at the 1600 block, down the street from the Capitol building.

Construction of the White House was begun on October 13, 1792, with Washington overseeing the laying of the cornerstone. He never lived to see it complete, however, as construction was slow.

Second President of the United States John Adams became the first chief executive to take residence in the building now called the Residence on November 1, 1800, while it was still unfinished.

In 1835, running water and central heating were installed. In 1848, gaslight was installed. Electric lights in 1891, and the first electric elevator was added in 1898. In 1902

HISTORY Theodore Roosevelt also built an early, one-story East Wing as a formal guest entrance. The present East Wing was

added to the White House in 1942

In 1909, William Howard Taft expanded the building and created an oval office for the president.

In 1923 is was remodeled

In 1930 it was rebuilt after a Christmas fire.

In 1934, Franklin Roosevelt had a second floor constructed and moved the Oval Office to the southeast corner for better light and privacy. He also had a swimming pool and gymnasium constructed in the gallery to allow him to exercise regularly.

Richard Nixon converted the pool and gym to a briefing room and offices for the press. He also dedicated the conference room to Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt.

In 2006, the George W Bush modernized the press areas and enlarged and updated the Situation Room.

WHITE HOUSE

WHITE HOUSE The White House tour through parts of the east wing of the building on Tuesday through Saturday. First Floor

The first floor of the East Wing contains the lobby, which welcomes public visitors to the White House, the east Garden Room, the White House Family Theater, and the visitors entrance to the ground floor of the White House.

INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE

INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE

The White House has:•A main residence and architectural wings on the east and west sides•4 stories, plus a basement and sub-basement •55,000 ft² (5,100 m²) of floor space (67,000 ft² including the wings)•132 rooms and 35 bathrooms•412 doors•147 windows•28 fireplaces•8 staircases•3 elevators (main, pantry, and a lower-levels elevator under the Grand Staircase) •several gardens •a tennis court•a basketball court •a putting green •a bowling alley•a movie theater•a jogging track•a swimming pool

WHITE HOUSE

Step 1

Identify your congressional representative.

Visit the website for the United States House of Representatives at house.gov

Find your representative, You'll be taken to a page where you can enter your zip

code and find the representative for your district.

Step 3

Wait for your representative's office to contact you. Depending on the office, you may get

an email or phone call or may hear nothing at all. If you haven't heard about tickets six

weeks before your visit to D.C., call the office to inquire. You're not guaranteed tickets, as

each representative only has a limited number of tickets to hand out. (10 TICKETS A

WEEK AND 20 FOR SENATOR)

HOW TO GET A WHITE HOUSE TOUR

THE SUPREME COURT

The Supreme Court offers lectures to the publicAs well as a Congressional lecture at 2 pm onDays when the court is not sitting. CongressionalLecture is limited to 6 guests

HOUSE AND SENATE

Contact your Congressman office with at lease 8-12 weeks advance notice

Capitol building House and Senate

LIBRARY OF CONGRESSStatistics

The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with nearly 145 million items on approximately 745 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 33 million books and other print materials, 3 million recordings, 12.5 million photographs, 5.3 million maps, 6 million pieces of sheet music and 63 million manuscripts.

The Library receives some 22,000 items each working day and adds approximately 10,000 items to the collections daily.

This year, the Library of Congress turns 208 years old.

The collection of the Library of Congress contains more than 130 million items, which includes materials in over 460 languages.

In 2007, the Library of Congress registered 526,378 claims to copyright.

The Library of Congress was established in 1800 by an act of Congress, and was begun with $5,000

. In 1814, the Library, which was then located in the Capitol Building, was destroyed when

British troops burned the building and ran off with a bunch of the books.

The library was re-established in 1815 when Thomas Jefferson offered his personal collection of 6,487 books to Congress for that purpose. (Congress paid him $23,950 for the books.)

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

TEST QUESTIONS

1. How many tickets can you get from your congressman.

2. How many tickets can you get from your senator.

3. How many guests can attend a Supreme Court Lecture.

4. How many weeks in advance to request US Capital tickets.

5. What year was the White House Build.

6. How many miles of bookshelves are in the Library of Congress.

7. How old is the Library of Congress