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The design
A late entry by an amateur architect won the design in 1793
On January 31, 1793, William Thornton submitted a late entry. Washington praised its Grandeur, Simplicity, and Beauty. Thornton was inspired by the east front of the Louvre and the Paris Pantheon, and the design was approved on April 5, 1793.
Cornerstone
President Washington laid the cornerstone on September 18, 1793
Washington and eight other Freemasons in masonic regalia laid the cornerstone, made by silversmith Caleb Bentley. The 6th U.S. Congress convened in the building on November 17, 1800, moving the national capital from Philadelphia.
1814
British forces burned the Capitol in 1814, and it was restored in five years
The Capitol was partially burned by the British on August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812. Latrobe was rehired as Architect of the Capitol to oversee the restoration, and the building was fully restored within five years.
The dome
The cast-iron dome was completed around 1866
Thomas Ustick Walter designed the dome in the 1850s. It stands three times the height of the original dome. The Statue of Freedom, a colossal statue, was raised to the top of the dome in 1863.
8,909,200 poundsof cast iron in the dome
Visitor Center
The Visitor Center, built underground, opened on December 2, 2008
Ground was broken on June 20, 2000. From 2001 through 2008 the East Front was the site of construction for the underground complex, designed to give visitors a more orderly entrance to the Capitol.
Day 3, morning
Next is Library of Congress.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article United States Capitol, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.