Inside the U.S. Capitol Center

Free tickets for Capitol tours are available online for order ahead of time. Tickets are not required to enter the Visitor Center.

By Angel Cristobal & Felicia Jimenez / text, photos & videos / South Press Online

(Washington D.C., 03/28-25).- The United States Capitol Visitor Center, the largest addition to the Capitol in its 250-year history, is the new entryway for people touring or visiting the Capitol. The Visitor Center officially opened on December 2, 2008. This date was selected to coincide with the 145^th anniversary of placing Thomas Crawford’s Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol Building in 1863, signifying the completion of construction of its dome.

The Visitor Center contains three underground levels: the upper level where the main entrance is located, the lower level where Emancipation Hall is located to the public level. The construction of the Visitor Center represents the largest-ever expansion of the United States Capitol and more than doubles the footprint of the Capitol.

With the addition of the Visitor Center, visitors now have a secure, accessible, and educational place to wait before their Capitol tours commence.

Visitors are free to explore the Visitor Center, which houses an Exhibition Hall, two gift shops, and a 530-seat restaurant, before or after their tours, which now begin and end at the Visitor Center.

Free tickets for Capitol tours are available online for order ahead of time. Tickets are not required to enter the Visitor Center.

Emancipation Hall is the heart of the Visitor Center. The original plaster cast of the Statue of Freedom, the bronze statue that stands atop the Capitol dome, is on display in Emancipation Hall. Visitors can also see 14 statues from the National Statues Hall Collection. The hall is dominated by a pair of curving 93-foot marble walls housing historic documents from the Library of Congress and the National Archives.

Many historic artifacts are included in alcoves that highlight the history of the House and the Senate, and each alcoves includes a scale model of the Capitol and grounds, illustrating how the building has expanded over time.

Tours of the Capitol begin with a 13-minute orientation film, “Out of Many, One,” which is shown continuously in two theaters in Emancipation Hall. Visitors enter the theaters from here and exit at the top of the theater, where they will be met by Capitol Guides and proceed to the tour of the historic part of the Capitol.

Facts about the Capitol

On November 17, 1800, Congress first met in the Capitol Building.

The top of the Washington Monument is 209 feet higher than the top of the Capitol.

The Capitol dome is made of 8,909,200 pounds of cast iron.

The original Capitol Building was completed in 1826.

The Rotunda, a circular room in the center of the building beneath the Capitol dome, is 96 feet in diameter and rises 180 feet from the floor to the canopy, with a volume of approximately 1.3 million square feet.

Nobody is buried in the Capitol. A tomb area was built for the remains of George Washington beneath the Crypt, but his will specified that he wished to be buried at his home at Mount Vernon, and his descendants honored this wish.