United States Capitol Complex

The United States Senate Vice Presidential Bust Collection is a series of 46 busts in the United States Capitol, each one bearing the likenesses of a vice president of the United States. Each sculpture, from John Adams to Dick Cheney, honors the role of the vice president as both a member of the executive branch and as president of the Senate. The Joint Committee on the Library, acting under a resolution of May 13, 1886, was the first to commission busts of the vice presidents to occupy the niches in the new Senate Chamber. After the first 20 busts filled the niches surrounding the Chamber, later additions were placed throughout the Senate wing of the Capitol. The collection is incomplete, since the busts of former vice presidents Joe Biden and Mike Pence are in the process of being created. The bust of Kamala Harris will not be commissioned until she leaves office.

The United States Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) is a large underground addition to the United States Capitol complex which serves as a gathering point for up to 4,000 tourists and an expansion space for the U.S. Congress. It is located below the East Front of the Capitol and its plaza, between the Capitol building and 1st Street East. The complex contains 580,000 square feet (54,000 m2) of space below ground on three floors. The overall project's budget was $621 million.The CVC has space for use by the Congress, including multiple new meeting and conference rooms. On the House side, there is a large room which will most likely be used by a committee. The new Congressional Auditorium, a 450-seat theater, is available for use by members of Congress or for either House of Congress should their respective chamber be unavailable.The CVC officially opened on December 2, 2008. This date was selected to coincide with the 145th anniversary of placing Thomas Crawford's Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol building in 1863, signifying the completion of construction of its dome.

On April 2, 2021, Noah Green, a 25-year-old black nationalist, killed Capitol Police officer William Evans and wounded a second officer after he deliberately rammed his car into a barricade outside the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. As a result of the attack, the Capitol complex was locked down. Green was shot and later died at a hospital from the gunshot wounds. Green shared extremist viewpoints advanced by the Nation of Islam and other black nationalists prior to committing his attack at the Capitol.

The congressional office buildings are the office buildings used by the United States Congress to augment the limited space in the United States Capitol. The congressional office buildings are part of the Capitol Complex, and are thus under the authority of the Architect of the Capitol and protected by the United States Capitol Police. The office buildings house the individual offices of each U.S. Representative and Senator as well as committee hearing rooms, staff rooms, multiple cafeterias, and areas for support, committee, and maintenance staff. The congressional office buildings are connected to the Capitol by means of underground pedestrian tunnels, some of which are equipped with small railcars shuttling users to and from the Capitol, which together form the Capitol subway system. Congressional pages are responsible for carrying packages and messages from the two chambers to the buildings. The three Senate office buildings are along Constitution Avenue north of the Capitol: Russell Senate Office Building (RSOB, completed 1908) Dirksen Senate Office Building (DSOB, completed 1958) Hart Senate Office Building (HSOB, completed 1982)The three House office buildings are along Independence Avenue south of the Capitol: Cannon House Office Building (CHOB, completed 1908) Longworth House Office Building (LHOB, completed 1933) Rayburn House Office Building (RHOB, completed 1965)A fourth building, the Ford House Office Building, which used to house the FBI's fingerprint records, sits a few blocks southwest of the others; it houses committee staff and administrative offices. A fifth building, the O'Neill House Office Building (previously known as "House Annex-1") was named after former Speaker of the House Thomas "Tip" O'Neill. The building was demolished in 2002. However, in 2008, Federal Office Building No. 8 (formerly the headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration) was renovated, being renamed the O'Neill House Office Building in 2012. The building was transferred from General Services Administration to the Architect of the Capitol in 2017. It currently houses both House administrative staff as well as offices for the Department of Health and Human Services. The U.S. Capitol Complex also includes a Page Residence Hall and a Capitol Power Plant, both on the House side of the Capitol.

The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. The Senate is composed of senators, each of whom represents a single state in its entirety. Each of the 50 states is equally represented by two senators who serve staggered terms of six years, for a total of 100 senators. From 1789 to 1913, senators were appointed by legislatures of the states they represented. They have been elected by popular vote since the 1913 ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment. As the upper chamber of Congress, the Senate has several powers of advice and consent which are unique to it. These include the approval of treaties, and the confirmation of Cabinet secretaries, federal judges (including Federal Supreme Court justices), flag officers, regulatory officials, ambassadors, other federal executive officials and federal uniformed officers. If no candidate receives a majority of electors for vice president, the duty falls to the Senate to elect one of the top two recipients of electors for that office. The Senate conducts trials of those impeached by the House. The Senate has typically been considered both a more deliberative and prestigious body than the House of Representatives due to its longer terms, smaller size, and statewide constituencies, which historically led to a more collegial and less partisan atmosphere.The Senate chamber is located in the north wing of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The vice president of the United States serves as presiding officer and president of the Senate by virtue of that office, despite not being a senator, and has a vote only if the Senate is equally divided. In the vice president's absence, the president pro tempore, who is traditionally the senior member of the party holding a majority of seats, presides over the Senate. In the early 1920s, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began. The Senate's legislative and executive business is managed and scheduled by the Senate majority leader.

The Ohio Clock (or Senate Clock) is a clock in the United States Capitol. The United States Senate ordered the clock from Thomas Voigt in 1815, and it has stood in or near the Senate Chamber since 1859.

The Discovery of America is a large marble sculptural group, created by Luigi Persico, which adorned the front of the east façade of the United States Capitol building from 1844 to 1958, before being put into storage.

The United States Capitol crypt is the large circular room filled with forty neoclassical Doric columns directly beneath the United States Capitol rotunda. It was built originally to support the rotunda as well as offer an entrance to Washington's Tomb. It currently serves as a museum and a repository for thirteen statues of the National Statuary Hall Collection.

The United States Capitol rotunda is the tall central rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. It has been described as the Capitol's "symbolic and physical heart". Built between 1818 and 1824, the rotunda is located below the Capitol dome, which was built between 1857 and 1866. The rotunda is connected by corridors leading south to the House of Representatives and north to the Senate chambers. To the immediate south is the semi-circular National Statuary Hall, which was the House of Representatives chamber until 1857. To the northeast is the Old Senate Chamber, used by the Senate until 1859 and by the Supreme Court until 1935. The rotunda is 96 feet (29 m) in diameter, rises 48 feet (15 m) to the top of its original walls and 180 feet 3 inches (54.94 m) to the canopy of the dome, and is usually visited daily by thousands of people. The space is a national showcase of art, and includes numerous historical paintings and sculptures. It is also used for ceremonial events authorized by concurrent resolution, including the lying in state of honored dead.

The 1983 U.S. Senate bombing was a bomb explosion at the United States Senate on November 7, 1983, as a protest against United States military involvement in Lebanon and Grenada. The attack led to heightened security in the DC metropolitan area, and the inaccessibility of certain parts of the Senate Building. Six members of the radical far-left Armed Resistance Unit (also known as Resistance Conspiracy) were arrested in May 1988 and charged with the bombing, as well as related bombings of Fort McNair and the Washington Navy Yard which occurred on April 25, 1983, and April 20, 1984, respectively.

The United States Capitol features a dome situated above its rotunda. The dome is 288 feet (88 m) in height and 96 feet (29 m) in diameter. Designed by Thomas U. Walter, the fourth Architect of the Capitol, it was constructed between 1855 and 1866 at a cost of $1,047,291 (equivalent to $15.6 million in 2021).The dome is not stone, but rather cast iron carefully painted to appear to be made of the same stone as the main capitol building. It is actually two domes, one inside the other, and the total weight is 9.1 million pounds (4,100 t). The dome's cast iron frame was supplied and constructed by the iron foundry Janes, Fowler, Kirtland & Co. in the Bronx, New York. The dome marks the origin on street maps of Washington, D.C. A detailed look at the dome and its recent restoration can be found here.

The Capitol Grounds a.k.a. Capitol Park (I), was a baseball field in Washington, D.C. The grounds were the home field for the Washington Nationals of the Union Association during the league's only season in 1884. The ballpark had a seating capacity of 6,000, and was where the Russell Senate Office Building stands today.The ball field was bounded by C Street NE (north); Delaware Avenue NE (west): B Street (now Constitution Avenue) NE (south); and First Street NE (east); just northeast of the Capitol building. After dropping out of the Union Association, the club joined the minor Eastern League for the 1885 season. The club regrouped as a new entry to the National League in 1886, and moved a few blocks north to the larger Capitol Park (II).