The Capitol

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Mañana veremos cientos de veces este edificio de Washington pues delante de él, de esta fachada, Barack Hussein Obama jurará el cargo de Presidente de los Estados Unidos de América.

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Pero veremos un Capitolio cambiado respecto a estas vistas, más grande y más alto.

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Esta primer imagen de la izquierda es un daguerrotipo de 1846, la fotografía más antigua que se conoce del Capitolio.

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"The old Senate wing, begun in 1793 and completed in 1800, is to the right; the House wing is to the left. Both were torched by Britush troops in August 1814 during the War of 1812."

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"In 1850, Congress (which had grown along with the nation) authorized a badly needed expansion of the Capitol, begun the following year. Subsequently, in 1855 Congress authorized a larger dome in keeping with the larger building. The photo despicts the march 4, 1861, inauguration ceremony of Abraham Lincoln, while the dome was still under construction.

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Extraído del libro "Washington, D.C."

Washington D.C.

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Washington, D.C. Then and now
Alexander D. Mitchell IV
Edita Thunder Bay Press
144 páginas con ilustraciones en blanco y negro y color
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Otro libro de la colección que plasma la historia de diversas ciudades en fotografías de ayer y de hoy.

Esta vez le toca a Washington D.C., capital de los Estados Unidos de America y que vamos a ver bastante en los medios de comunicación los próximos días.

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"The area now known as the District of Columbia had its origins in 1785 when, after years of a nomadic existence, the new governement of the 13 former British colonies voted to set up shop in a permanent "federal town". After much debate over whether to place the city on the Delaware River or the Potomac River, the governement decided on the southern option. In 1790 George Washington himself selected the 100-square mile diamond of land that would be named after him.

It incorporated parts of Alexandria, Virginia (near his own home at Mount Vernon), Georgetown, Maryland, and both banks of Potomac and Anacostia rivers."

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Extraído del libro mencionado

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