Inside Washington DC's most beautiful building, the Library of Congress
 

The Library of Congress is often said to have the most beautiful interior in Washington. It's like a cathedral, except it's a library. Unfortunately it's notoriously hard to photograph, because they don’t allow photography during reading hours.

But a couple of weekends ago they hosted an open house, during which cameras were allowed. I took the opportunity and ended up with these pictures.

Here's the library's most famous room, the Main Reading Room:




























Only slightly less famous is the Great Hall:














The 2nd floor of the Great Hall has a mezzanine, which is just as awesome:


























Below the mezzanine there are some anterooms, also amazing:




















In one of the anterooms they have one of the original Gutenburg Bibles.




Even the back hallways are freaking gorgeous:










And then there's the catalog room, which isn't even the least bit grand, but is a whole different kind of beautiful:










Here it is from the outside:

In a city known for grandiouse and monumental buildings, this might be the most elegant I've seen.
Great photos!

Holy crap, thats amazing. Ill be there in 2 weeks and cant wait. Why cant we build buildings like this anymore?

That
is
Stunning

I never went there in 6 years, shameful!

Sadly I missed this building my one trip to Washington. Beautiful!

Wait- they let you in the reading room? Gaaah why didn't I know about this????:duh

What a beautiful temple of knowledge.

The grandest Cheesecake Factory of all.

Nice pictures of a great building!

Thank you so much for sharing. That is a spectacular structure. Gorgeous!

Things like this make you proud to be American... until you try to imagine the collective conservative screech that would go up if anyone dared propose a public building this gorgeous or elaborate nowadays.

Would it even be possible? I'd imagine much of the artistry and craftsmanship needed to build such a structure has been lost.

A regret of mine is that I still haven't been to the building.

Speaking of often overlooked pieces of architecture in the city, the National Building Museum is the other one that needs to be seen more. I remember when Hillary Clinton gave her Democratic primary concession speech in the building, and being embarrassed I had no idea the place existed.

So did I... Hey, it's not my fault, blame on locals who didn't tell an innocent tourist.

I was thinking the same thing. If this didn't exist and someone proposed it, after they all laughed to the point of tears, they'd call him the biggest Euro-loving socialist in the history of the world! Then they'd order up a jumbo freedom fries and work on a bill to increase spending at the D.O.D.

What a beautiful interior, thanks for posting.
:tup:

What a stunningly beautiful home for my #2003112062 :)

That one I did get to. Really excellent museum and fantastic building.

Amazing building porn. It could only be this ornate if it were built in America's guilded age which apparently it was. The marble is so great:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8522/8...b6bd744f_b.jpg


Am I being a pessimist or a realist by feeling slightly nervous while viewing these pics of the greatest collection of knowledge and thinking about it going up in flames (or more likely, nuclear ICBMs) such as the great ancient library of Alexandria, Egypt?

Watch this classic clip with Carl Sagan if you're not familiar, for a heart wrenching and tragic tale of world history.
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