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Ready for Tourists: Capitol visitors will be able to tour in comfort, thanks to $621M project
AP Photo
The Capitol Dome is visible through the skylights of the new Capitol Visitor Center in Washington.
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Published: November 11, 2008
WASHINGTON
Three years behind schedule and almost $360 million over budget, the Capitol Visitor Center will soon be opened to millions of tourists who now must endure long lines without food, restrooms or shelter to catch a glimpse of the halls of Congress.
The underground center, the largest single construction project in the Capitol's 200-year history in terms of size and expense, will be opened to the public Dec. 2. The final cost of the project is put at $621 million, more than double the $265 million estimated cost had the center been completed on schedule in December, 2005.
For the 3 million tourists who visit the Capitol every year, the center is long overdue. People now form lines at the bottom of Capitol Hill and wait in the heat, the cold and the rain to sign up for tours. They then must walk up the hill to enter the building.
With the Capitol Visitor Center, below ground between the Capitol and the Supreme Court, visits will begin in the vast Emancipation Hall filled with statues moved from the Capitol and a model of the Statue of Freedom that is perched above the Rotunda. The Capitol Dome looms overhead through skylights. Dec. 2 is the 145th anniversary of the raising of the statue atop the Dome.
Before beginning tours of the Capitol, visitors will be able to stroll through an exhibition hall with historic documents, artifacts and interactive computers, see shows in two theaters and eat at a 530-seat restaurant area. There are two gift shops and 26 public restrooms, compared with five inside the Capitol.
Visitors will also be able to book tours of the Capitol in advance at www.visitthecapitol.gov, a Web site that will open Nov. 14, or by phone, 202-226-8000.
The idea of the visitor center dates to the 1970s, and in 1991 Congress authorized money for planning.
But momentum for the project did not come until 1998, when a mentally unstable man burst through the doors of the Capitol, killing two police officers before being subdued in the office of then-Republican Whip Tom DeLay. That impressed on legislators the need to move security stations for visitors away from the main building.
Security was a key factor in the cost overruns. After the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress decided to add two tunnels, one for truck deliveries and one linking the Capitol with the Library of Congress, that could also serve as emergency evacuation routes.
Stephen Ayers, the Acting Architect of the Capitol, at a news conference Monday, defended the center, calling it "a treasure in itself," that would enhance security and contribute to the experience of visiting the Capitol. "I don't think it's extravagant," he said. "We have built a building that's here to last another 215 years."
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