East Coast Trip

Friday

Library of Congress     The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, and it serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with more than 120 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 18 million books, 2.5 million recordings, 12 million photographs, 4.5 million maps, and 54 million manuscripts.  The Library's mission is to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations. The Office of the Librarian is tasked to set policy and to direct and support programs and activities to accomplish the Library's mission.

US Capitol Visitor Center
http://www.aoc.gov/cvc/

The $621 million underground U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, which opens Tuesday, December 2following six years of construction, features exhibits, orientation theaters and a restaurant. It offers Capitol guests a more comfortable and educational experience, according to the office of the Capitol architect.

The facility, built under the Capitol's east grounds to make it unobtrusive, presents historic artifacts from across the country and teaches guests about the House of Representatives and the Senate. Admission is free.

Capitol tours will now begin and end at the center, which the government hopes will cut down on long outdoor waits.

The three-level center takes up 580,000 square feet, roughly three quarters the size of the Capitol. The construction was $356 million over budget, partly because Congress redesigned the facility while it was being built and upgraded security plans for the center after the September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.