This is quite a building. Five domes! I guess you could say it's magnificent.

Parking was hard to find. I was looking for the visitors' parking lot. Saw a sign -- "Visitors' Parking Next Right." Ah. Turned right at the next place. It was an entrance to restricted parking; there was a card-lock gate. Too narrow a driveway to make a U-turn. Couldn't go forward. Didn't want to back out into the busy street. So I back-and-forthed, inching my car around, blocking traffic trying to enter. Seems like the sign could have been put in a place where "next right" meant "next right" and not "second right." Signs that don't say what they mean or mean what they say were the most irritating thing I ran into on my trip. And there were lots of them.

Inside, there were busloads of kids which was OK. Saw a sign, "To the Dome." Ah. I'll go up there. I was near the end of a line of about 50 kids and a few adults. We started up a spiral staircase that kept going, and going, and going. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm an old man. Old men quite often can't deal with long staircases, spiral staircases, closed-in spaces, or heights. This was all of those. We stepped out of the staircase onto a balcony with a low railing, waaayyyy up there, several stories above the floor. Whoa! I froze. I let everyone who was behind me squeeze by, and I hung on there for dear life. Fortunately the tour guide saw me and gave me some assistance in heading back down.

With those two experiences behind me, I explored some of rest of the building. The details in the building are exceptionally fine.

This statue on the capitol grounds is purported to be the only graphic representation anywhere of Abraham Lincoln with any of his kids.

Here are two more outside views: the domes, above, and the reflection of the capitol, below, in the Henry A. Wallace building across the street. Remember Henry A. Wallace? Franklin D. Roosevelt's second vice-president. He had been a very effective cabinet member during the 1930's and vice president 1941-1945, but Roosevelt dumped him in 1944, choosing Harry Truman for vice-president that time around. Wallace was later accused of being "soft on Communism"; no doubt an unfair accusation. But Wallace probably would have had a great deal of trouble if he had become president.

Photos and text ©D.L. Mark 2002

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