Tag Archives: Washington DC

The National Building Museum – Washington DC

June 9, 2011 jd

Photo courtesy of http://www.wheretogetapassport.net/

By Judy J.Pinegar

Although it now houses the National Building Museum, and serves as one of the ballrooms for the Presidential Inaugural Ball, the beautiful brick building was originally designed to be the US Pension Bureau. Constructed between 1882 and 1887, it was designed by Montgomery Cunningham Meigs, who studied both architectural design and engineering at West Point. The exterior of the building is modeled closely on the sixteenth century Palazzo Farnese in Rome.

As Megs planned the new home for the Pension Bureau, he has several goals in mind. First he wanted it to be fireproof as it would house pension records and funds. He therefore employed brick, laid in a running bond with narrow joints tinted to match, giving the effect of a smooth continuous surface. Second, to honor the veterans who worked and visited the Pension Bureau, Meigs used a variety of military imagery on the building’s exterior in the form of a terra cotta frieze which is 1,200 feet long, 3 ft high and features Union infantry, cavalry, artillery, navy, quartermaster and medical units.

Entrance to National Building Museum Photo by John J. O'Dell

Meigs also wanted to produce a modern, healthful environment for the clerks at the Pension Bureau. His innovative plan included omitting doors between offices and the Great Hall. Fresh air would enter the offices through three missing bricks underneath the exterior windows, pass over the clerks at their desks, and enter the Great Hall. Slightly heated, the air would exit through openable clerestory windows above the fourth balcony. In 1885, Meigs determined that under prime conditions the volume of air in the Great Hall would turn over every 2 minutes. 1n 1886, Meigs reported that after one year in the new building, time lost to sickness had been reduced by 8,622 days!

The building was also designed with a document track around the inside perimeter of the Great Hall near the offices. Originally a basket capable of holding 125 pounds of documents would hang from this allowing easy movement of paperwork from office to office on each floor. In addition there was a dumbwaiter used to move paperwork vertically, among the four floors of the building.

The Building Museum - Interior photo by John O'Dell

And as a final touch Meigs made the arcaded columns inside the building be used to collect and store information of interest to “historians or antiquarians of the age when ruins of this building… shall be opened to the public. Collections of maps, reports, and records from the War Department and a copper facsimile of the Declaration of Independence were among the documents enclosed in the columns, which remain closed to this day. In 1995 the Museum employed an endoscope to explore inside a small hole one column, which had been damaged by vandals in the 1960s. The exploration revealed construction catalogs, journals and newspapers from 1883!

Judy J. Pinegar is a writer
She has written for many blog sites and magazines

Travel

US Botanical Garden, National Museum of American Indians and The Spy Museum, Washington DC

May 22, 2011 jd

By Judy J. Pinegar

May 19, 2011 taking the Metro now, as it seems to have better hours than the commuter train; we arrive in DC on Thursday 5/19/2011, and walk to the United States Botanical Garden (near the Capitol). This garden was first established in 1820, by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison!! It moved to its present location in 1850. After a stroll in the outside garden with mostly native plants we enter the big glass walled garden. Here there are different sections devoted to almost any environment imaginable, from the desert to the jungle and everything in between. One area explores the use of plants as medicines, proving that the original medicine men and women really knew what they were talking about. There are some truly amazing orchid plants and dozens of other amazing flowers.

Then, basically across the street we find the National Museum of American Indian, the 18^th Smithsonian museum, opened in 2004, with a beautiful exterior design, reminding me of rock formations in the southwest of America, and even inside, everything is rounded, I don’t think there was a straight wall in the whole place.

Photo courtesy of Wikepidia — Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

And what really surprised me, was, this museum covered Indians from Antarctica to the Arctic, the whole of the “Americas”, South, Central and North, even Hawaii… and I had no idea that there were so many different tribes, customs and foods. Speaking of food, we went to the renowned native inspired Mitsitam cafeteria for lunch, trying foods from South America, Central America, and the Northeast. All were quite good, so we ventured on, learning of each tribe, their customs, beliefs, and lifestyles. The overwhelming sense was how badly most of the indigenous population of the Americas have been treated by the “conquering” Europeans, really, continuing to the present day. A very sad side of our growth as a nation.

In the afternoon, we went to the National Air and Space Museum, just up the street, but knowing that we would have to come back the next day to “finish.” We spent most of our time in an IMAX presentation about the Hubble Telescope, how it has been repaired multiple times in space, and what it has taught us about our universe, and millions of other universes. It is a truly amazing film, including the sensation of actually being in space with the astronauts, if you ever have the chance, please go see this IMAX film, the stars will virtually come to dance on your face.

May 20, 2011, returning to the National Air and Space Museum on Friday, we viewed many other historical aircraft and stories, from the Wright Brothers, delivery of the US Mail, WW I, WW II and the current day. The museum is quite complete, having full size airplanes, unmanned drones, and a replica of the first space craft on the moon. There were TONS of excited children there, and many interactive sites, one of the most child friendly museums we have seen. And the “cafeteria” was only McDonald’s!

photo courtesy of the National Archives — Photo courtesy of the National Archives

Moving on, we went to the National Archives for a peek at the founding documents of our nation, and a tour of the importance of the archives in recording the truth, researching the past, and even righting some of the wrongs that we have made as a nation. The National Archives and Records Administration is our national record keeper, created in 1034. Anyone is allowed to access the records, researching family trees, citizenship records, and any other research you are interested in. Through its records proof was found of the money the Nazis stole from Jewish families, resulting in a return of that money to relatives of the victims.

From there we went to the private International Spy Museum, with some chilling looks at the past, present and future of the damage that is possible to be caused by spies. There were truly some interesting stories of people in the past who were spies, including famous actors and actresses, I would have never thought it was possible.

There was a chilling glimpse of spy tactics and terrorism in the future that might be ahead for us, using the internet. It was a very scary ending. Thinking back over our trip, one day we were at cafeteria where the computers had gone down, and we witnessed the mass confusion that that caused, people with no cash, huge lines etc. …Just think what would happen if we had no electricity for an extended period of time, and it was a deliberate action, with no rapid repairs on the way??? Or any number of mass scale interventions in our country.

Judy J. Pinegar is a writer
She has written for numerous web sites and magazines

Travel

Newseum Museum, Capitol Tour and The Ford Theatre, Washington DC

May 19, 2011 jd 1 Comment

On Monday May 16, 2011, our day started with a Capitol Tour set up by our Congressman’s Office. We discovered this was a MUCH nicer way to go that the regular public tours. First we were in a group of about 10, instead of the 20-25 in the public tours, and secondly we were able to go three places the regular tour doesn’t go to: the “Old Supreme Court”, The “Old Senate Chamber”, and the overview seats in the House of Representatives Chamber. Unfortunately the Congress was not in session, so we didn’t get to see what is normally chaotic sessions, with yelling and such other good things that our congress men and women do.

From there we went to the Newseum, a fantastic (relatively new) museum. It is not part of the Smithsonian, but it was well worth the money, I would recommend it highly to anyone going to DC. We had only an hour or so, but the tickets were good for two days, so we knew we could be back. (and in fact we spent another three hours after our visit to the Ford Theater (below) and again Tuesday morning for another 4 hours. All historical events related to reporting of the news up to current day were recorded. We saw everything from a piece of the Berlin wall, to a replica of the Unabomer’s cabin, to the damaged radio tower from the top of the World Trade Center in 9/11, and everything in between.

At 2 PM we arrived at the Ford Theater for a viewing of the museum, followed by a ranger talk in the Ford Theater, complete with the Presidential Box where President Lincoln was shot. We learned there were two other assignations planned for that day (they were not successful) and John Wilkes Booth had about 8 co-conspirators who were all caught and all but one was executed. Even the boy who coincidentally (not knowing of the plot) held Booth’s horse in the alley was sentenced to 8 years hard labor!

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln - Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

On Tuesday 5/17/11, we returned to the Newseum, this time also getting to see a 4-D (the seats moved!) …….. Following this we walked to the “Castle”, the Smithsonian Museum central office and information center, on the National Mall. The landscaping was unbelievable.

As we walked off to the next museum, we discovered John had left his (brand new) I-pad with 3g somewhere in the information center. We rushed back, searched various locations and were about to decide it was stolen, when someone found it and returned it to a security guard!! John gave that nice lady a big hug! He had put it down while taking a picture of this orchid display.

Then we were off to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, also set up by our Congressman’s office, for a small private tour of this facility, where money is MADE. This was very interesting, and we toured the four areas where the paper is first printed, checked, stamped with the seals, re-checked and serialized. We were told it wasn’t actually “money” until it had been received by the Federal Reserve, and the serial numbers entered into the computer. But we saw a stack of printed bills, about chest high, which represented $64,000,000!! And in the shop you could buy shredded dollars (bad printing jobs) for about $5.00 for a small bottle.

Travel

Lincoln Memorial, War Memorials and Arlington Cemetery in Washington DC, Day 4

May 18, 2011 jd

By Judy J. Pinegar

Sunday May 15, 2011 was supposed to be the day the rain really came in to DC. But the morning was bright and sunny, so Pat drove us up to Washington for an overview. We found a parking place near the monuments, and proceeded to view: The World War II Memorial, The Reflecting Pond (not reflecting anything right now, it is under reconstruction, so all we saw was the pile-driver and hundreds of piles being driven into the ground to support the concrete for the reconstructed reflecting pool), the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the Vietnam War Memorial.

Following this, we drove to Arlington Cemetery, and took the bus tour to see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (actually three unknown solders, from World War I, World War II and the Korean War) The day we were there they actually had two ceremonies to change the wreath, as well as the normal changing of the guard.

cataratas-nauyaca

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Upper Cataratas Nauyaca

We then moved on to Arlington House, which was built by George Washington’s grandson, partly as a memorial to the first president. But his only surviving daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, married General Robert E. Lee, of Confederate fame. After he left to fight for the confederacy, Mary Lee was forced to leave when the Union army took over her house. Almost immediately they began burying Union soldiers in the gardens around Arlington House. The Federal Troops did this on purpose so that General Lee would never again occupy the Arlington House. That was the start of the present day Arlington Cemetery. We were told that every day except Sunday 18 to 25 people are buried there.

Robert E. Lee and his wife never legally challenged for the return of the home, as Lee felt it would be too divisive. In 1870, after his father’s death, George Washington Custis Lee, their eldest son, filed a lawsuit in the Alexandria Circuit Court. The case was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision in United States v. Lee, 106 U. S. 196 (1882). The court found that the estate had been ‘illegally confiscated’ in 1864 and ordered it returned, along with 1,100 acres (4 km²) of surrounding property. In 1883, Custis Lee sold the mansion and property to the U.S. government for $150,000 (roughly equal to $3.5 million in 2011 dollars) at a signing ceremony with Secretary of War, Robert Todd Lincoln.

Arlington House photo courtesy Wikipedia

Judy J. Pinegar is a writer
She has written for numerous blog sites and magazines

Travel

Trip to Washington DC – Day 2 and 3 – Overview of DC and visit to Mount Vernon

May 15, 2011 jd

May 13 – 14, 2011

By Judy J. Pinegar

John O'Dell sitting with Abraham Lincoln in his booth prior to his assassination. (At the Wax Museum in Washington DC)

Awaking in time to catch the 8:20 am Train to Washington DC, we soon arrived at Union Station. Beautifully restored, with fantastic food venues I had to drool over even though my tummy was full from breakfast. On the way outside, we found a Double Decker Bus Tour, promising overview tours of the city, and decided that this was the best way to start… with an overview. After the “red line” tour through central DC and the monuments, we got off at Ford’s Theater, where President Lincoln was assassinated. We discovered reservations were needed (now set for next Monday afternoon) and that the house across the street where he died was closed for renovations!

Humm… so we visited a wax museum while waiting for the “yellow line” tour.

Judy Pinegar being questioned by J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI. (In the Wax Museum in Washingto D.C.) — Judy Pinegar being questioned by J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI. (In the Wax Museum in Washington D.C.)

The yellow line is more of a residential and hotel tour to the north and west of central DC. After a stop for lunch (Thai) we finished the circuit in time to get off in “foggy bottom” (home of George Washington University) for a walk to the JFK Performing Arts Theater where we had been promised a tour. Very nice, through the three major theaters, and many minor theaters with lovely sights along the way, gifts from other countries, presidential suites, etc.

That ended our first day in Washington DC (after Turkish Food)

Saturday, after a late sleep, Pat drove us to Mount Vernon, truly a wonderfully restored and very educational site to visit. We discovered much more about George Washington than two Californians had ever known. What a man! After winning the war against the British, he could have gone on to military rule of the country, a king, or a dictator as so many generals became after winning major wars. Think of Caesar in Rome as an example.

His enormous stature and political skills kept Congress, the army, the French, the militias, and the states all pointed toward a common goal. By voluntarily stepping down and disbanding his army when the war was won, he permanently established the principle of civilian supremacy in military affairs. And yet his constant reiteration of the point that well-disciplined professional soldiers counted for twice as much as erratic amateurs helped overcome the ideological distrust of a standing army. Yet, he wanted the people to be in control of this great nation and not to be ruled by a king or the military.

We discovered he was not one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence it because he was with his army at the time. And that he really thought of himself as more of a farmer than a soldier or statesman. He made wonderful inventions to assist in his farming process, and had over 8,000 acres of farms in Virginia alone (plus he owned land elsewhere in the country.) P.S. his teeth were NEVER made out of wood!

entrance-doka-plantation

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Entrance to the Doka Plantation

Travel

Trip to Virginia and Washington D.C. – Day 1 – Quantico, VA

May 14, 2011 jd 1 Comment

May 12, 2011

By Judy J. Pinegar

Arriving at Dulles International late Wednesday, John and I were picked up by John’s daughter’s husband’s mother, Pat who drove us to Dale City, Virginia, her house, to be our base for the trip.

Sleeping to an embarrassing 11:00 AM local time, and after breakfast, we were dropped by Pat at a train station thinking to go late to Washington DC. NO Deal… it was a commuter train station. After reading all signs in the building and outside (the office [and bathroom] was closed from Noon to 3:00 PM), we decided our only option was a local bus to Quantico VA, about 15 miles south of our location. A helpful bus driver (and all of the passengers) encouraged us to stop first at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, off the Jefferson Davis Highway at the “Triangle.” A brief walk and we see the beautiful first view of the Museum.

After a quick visit to the Mess Hall, we spent a couple of hours in the museum.

museum-rafael-angel-calderd

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Rafael Angel Calderón Museum

Knowing we had to catch the local bus to go to the town of Quantico, we walked back to the bus stop, and with impeccable timing, the bus was there within 5 minutes (pure luck on our part). I was hoping to see the FBI training center and other sites I had read about (crime novels), but I was disappointed as the bus went through trees and more trees, with some turnoffs we didn’t get to take, until we got to the tiny town of Quantico. One of the residents told us it was “the only town in America totally within a Marine Base”… and indeed that was what we found. No museums, lots of housing, lots of barbershops, lots of military clothing stores, a few restaurants, and not as many bars as I had expected. Really very quiet.

But we toured the town, found a place to eat and were back at the bus stop by 8:00 PM for the ride back to the Woodbridge Train/Bus Station.

At least we were successful in doing something with our first half-day in Virginia! On to DC tomorrow… this time with an early wake-up call.

By Judy J. Pinegar
Judy is a writer who has written for numerous websites and magazines
She may be reached by email jpinegar@calwisp.com
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