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

[Cirrus]

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: