The south wing, containing the chamber of the , was completed in 1807. During the the Capitol was looted and burned by British troops, though rain prevented the building’s complete devastation. Latrobe began reconstruction in 1815 but resigned two years later. By 1827 his successor, the distinguished Boston architect , had joined the two wings and built the first copper-sheathed dome, again adhering to Thornton’s original design. In January 1832 the French historian visited the Capitol and observed that it was “a magnificent palace,” though he was less impressed with the sessions of Congress, writing that they were “frequently vague and perplexed” and that they seemed to “drag their slow length along rather than to advance towards a distinct object.”U.S. CapitolWest facade of the U.S. Capitol, showing the replacement cast-iron dome designed by Thomas Ustick Walter. (more)In order to provide more space for the increasing numbers of legislators from new states, in 1850 Congress approved a competition for a design to expand both wings of the Capitol. The winner, the architect , finished the extension of the south wing in 1857 and the north wing in 1859. The new additions did not seem to alter the behaviour of the members, however. Aleksandr Lakier, a Russian visitor to the United States, wrote that everyone wears a black frock-coat or tails and sits where he pleases. Had I not felt regret for the nice new furniture and carpet in the House of Representatives, I would not even have noticed the rude, but perhaps comfortable, position of the feet raised by a son of the plains above the head of his neighbor, and the nasty habit many Americans have of . United States CapitolUnited States Capitol, Washington, D.C.(more)The major architectural change to the Capitol during Walter’s tenure was the replacement of the old Bulfinch dome with a 287-foot- (87-metre-) high cast-iron dome, which Walter modeled after the dome of in Rome, designed by . At the onset of the , the dome remained unfinished, surrounded by scaffolding and cranes. In 1861 the Capitol was used temporarily to bivouac federal soldiers who had been hastily dispatched to protect Washington from an attack by the . These soldiers set up camp in the House and Senate chambers and in the unfinished Rotunda, occupying their free time by holding mock sessions of Congress and freely helping themselves to franked stationery. At the insistence of President , work on the dome continued, despite the war, as an important symbol of national unity. On December 2, 1863, Freedom, a bronze statue 19.5 feet (6 metres) high by , was installed on top of the dome’s crowning cupola. Crawford’s first drawings in the 1850s had adorned the statue with a liberty cap—the symbol of freed slaves—but after objections from , then the secretary of war and later the president of the Confederacy, the cap was replaced with a Roman helmet. (According to records that surfaced in 2000, the workers who cast the statue, as well as the worker who devised the method of raising it, were slaves.) allegorical fresco Apotheosis of Washington (1865), which depicts gods and goddesses intermingled with Washington and other American heroes, adorns the ceiling’s dome. In 1864 Congress established what would later be called , where statues of two prominent figures from each state were to be displayed. (All the statues were to be displayed in National Statuary Hall, the original chamber of the House of Representatives; but by the 1930s engineers found that the weight of the many statues exceeded the floor’s load-bearing capacity, thereby threatening its structure, and some statues were moved elsewhere.) After his assassination in April 1865, Lincoln became the first person to lie in state in the newly finished Rotunda, an honour since bestowed on some 30 people.With the exception of various modernizations, including the installation of central heating, electricity, and elevators, no significant architectural alterations or additions were made until 1959–60, when the east front was extended 32.5 feet (10 metres) under the supervision of J. George Stewart. In December 2008 the 580,000-square-foot (53,884-square-metre) Capitol Visitor Center opened. Designed as an underground extension of the Capitol, it features exhibits about the building and Congress; the centre also provides shelter to visitors who previously had to wait in lines outdoors. Not including the Capitol Visitor Center, the building contains about 540 rooms and stands in a 131-acre (53-hectare) park., To help expedite entry into the Visitor Center, please review the prohibited items list before you arrive. We also recommend that visitors arrive at least 60 minutes in advance of scheduled tour times. For more information, visit the “ Know Before You Go ” page on the website., The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government. It is located on Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C..