Washington D. C. - Library of Congress - 2006 Trip

The Library of Congress is comprised of three buildings: The Jefferson Building, the Adams Building, and the Madison Building.  The Jefferson Building is a beautiful building inside and out.  The reading rooms are only open to people with Library of Congress ID cards.  To get a Library of Congress card you must cross the street to the Madison Building and fill out a form indicating the reason you need the card (as a souvenir isn’t reason enough).



The free tour of the Jefferson Building is quite interesting.  The paintings depicting not only the history of writing but also many occupations important to the United States economy are lovely as well as educational.  Our tour included a trip into what appeared to be a storage room overlooking the main reading room.  Seeing the paintings adorning the walls as well as the old printing encased in glass are worth the visit while viewing the reading room is worth taking the free tour.

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