Purple Tunnel of Doom

Union Square is an 11-acre public plaza at the foot of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It encompasses the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial (1924) and the 6-acre Capitol Reflecting Pool (1971) and is just west of the United States Capitol building. Views differ as to whether the Square is just east of the National Mall or is itself the eastern end. Interstate 395 transits the Third Street Tunnel just beneath Union Square. The George Gordon Meade Memorial (1927) formerly stood in the northwest section of Union Square; that memorial now stands near the intersection of Constitution Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.

The Capitol Reflecting Pool is a reflecting pool in Washington, D.C., United States. It lies to the west of the United States Capitol and is the westernmost element of the Capitol grounds (or the easternmost element of the National Mall, according to some reckonings). The Capitol Dome and the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial are reflected in its waters.

The Ulysses S. Grant Memorial is a presidential memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring American Civil War general and 18th United States President Ulysses S. Grant. It sits at the base of Capitol Hill (Union Square, the Mall, 1st Street, between Pennsylvania Avenue and Maryland Avenue), below the west front of the United States Capitol. Its central sculpture of Grant on horseback faces west, overlooking the Capitol Reflecting Pool and facing toward the Lincoln Memorial, which honors Grant's wartime president, Abraham Lincoln. Grant's statue is raised on a pedestal decorated with bronze reliefs of the infantry; flanking pedestals hold statues of protective lions and bronze representations of the Union cavalry and artillery. The whole is connected with marble covered platforms, balustrades, and stairs. The Grant and Lincoln memorials define the eastern and western ends, respectively, of the National Mall. The Grant Memorial is a contributor to the Civil War Monuments in Washington, D.C., of the National Register of Historic Places. James M. Goode's authoritative The Grant Memorial in Washington, D.C. (1974) called it "one of the most important sculptures in Washington." It includes the largest equestrian statue in the United States and the fifth-largest in the world.

Mary Ann Hall (1814 or 1815 – January 29, 1886) ran a successful brothel from the 1840s until about 1878 at 349 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, D.C., about four blocks west of the U.S. Capitol. Before the National Museum of the American Indian was built on the site in 1999, the Smithsonian Institution conducted an archeological excavation of the foundations and garbage dump of the house. The expensive tableware in the garbage dump was made of ironstone and porcelain. Food remnants include meat, fowl, fish, and exotic fruits like coconuts and berries. French champagne corks were especially numerous. She built a three-story house on the site which rose greatly in value. Her business was apparently very successful and she died with a net worth of $87,000 - worth over $2,000,000 in 2005 dollars.In 1864 the Union Army's Provost Marshal published a list of brothels in Washington and Mary Ann Hall's had 18 "inmates," making it the largest in the city.She was buried with her sister and other family members under "large and dignified" memorials at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.Her summer home in Arlington was later owned by Presley Marion Rixey and is now Marymount University.

The James A. Garfield Monument stands on the grounds of the United States Capitol in the circle at First Street, S.W., and Maryland Avenue, Washington, D.C. It is a memorial to United States President James A. Garfield, elected in 1880 and assassinated in 1881 after serving only four months of his term, by a disgruntled office-seeker named Charles J. Guiteau. The monument, sculpted by John Quincy Adams Ward (1830–1910) and cast by The Henry-Bonnard Co. of New York, with a pedestal designed by Richard Morris Hunt, is an outstanding example of American Beaux-Arts monument. It was unveiled on May 12, 1887. Today it stands as part of a three-part sculptural group near the Capitol Reflecting Pool including the Peace Monument and the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial. The memorial was commissioned in 1884 by the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, of which Garfield had been a member. The Society raised almost $28,000 to pay the sculptor. Some of the funds were raised by The Garfield Monument Fair, which was held in the Capitol's Rotunda and National Statuary Hall in 1882. Also in that year, Congress appropriated to the Society $7,500 in funds from the sale of condemned cannons; in 1884 it appropriated $30,000 for the pedestal. The monument was incorporated into the Capitol Grounds on January 2, 1975.

Peace Circle is a traffic circle in Washington, D.C., located at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and First Street NW. At its center is the Peace Monument, also known as the Naval Memorial. It is a monument to the naval deaths during the American Civil War. The monument is topped by the allegorical sculptures of Grief and History. On the southeast side facing the United States Capitol there is a figure of Peace, and on the northwest side, there are figures of Victory and the babies Mars and Neptune. The monument is located on Capitol grounds adjacent to the Capitol Reflection Pool. The monument was sculpted by Franklin Simmons and completed in 1878. The monument was restored in the 1990s.

The United States Botanic Garden (USBG) is a botanical garden on the grounds of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., near the James A. Garfield Monument. The Botanic Garden is supervised by the Congress through the Architect of the Capitol, who is responsible for maintaining the grounds of the United States Capitol. The USBG is open every day of the year, including federal holidays. It is the oldest continually-operating botanic garden in the United States.

Bartholdi Park is a public park named after French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who is known primarily for designing the Statue of Liberty. It is located at the corner of Independence Avenue and Washington Avenue. Bartholdi Park is part of the United States Botanic Garden located on the grounds of the United States Capitol.

The Peace Monument, also known as the Naval Monument or Civil War Sailors Monument, stands on the grounds of the United States Capitol in Peace Circle at First Street, N.W., and Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. The 44 foot (13.4 m) high white marble memorial was erected from 1877 to 1878 in commemoration of the naval deaths at sea during the American Civil War. Today it stands as part of a three-part sculptural group including the James A. Garfield Monument and the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial.

Always Becoming is an artwork created in 2007 by Nora Naranjo-Morse, a Native American potter and poet. The artwork groups five sculptures made with natural materials, which allows them to gradually change over time. The National Museum of the American Indian selected and commissioned the artwork to be exhibited by one of its entrances in 2006.

The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers.The museum has three facilities. The National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., opened on September 21, 2004, on Fourth Street and Independence Avenue, Southwest. The George Gustav Heye Center, a permanent museum, is located at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in New York City, opened in October of 1994. The Cultural Resources Center, a research and collections facility, is located in Suitland, Maryland. The foundations for the present collections were first assembled in the former Museum of the American Indian in New York City, which was established in 1916, and which became part of the Smithsonian in 1989.

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemployment benefits, reemployment services, and occasionally, economic statistics. It is headed by the Secretary of Labor, who reports directly to the President of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet. The purpose of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote, and develop the well being of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights. In carrying out this mission, the Department of Labor administers and enforces more than 180 federal laws and thousands of federal regulations. These mandates and the regulations that implement them cover many workplace activities for about 10 million employers and 125 million workers. Julie Su is currently serving as acting secretary since March 11, 2023 following the resignation of Marty Walsh. The department's headquarters is housed in the Frances Perkins Building, named in honor of Frances Perkins, the Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945.