The National Capitol Columns is a monument located in Washington's

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 National Arboretum

United States National Arboretum

The United States National Arboretum is an arboretum in Washington, D.C., operated by the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service as a division of the Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center...

. It is designed in the style of Corinthian columns, with twenty-two columns submerged in 20 acres (8.1 ha) of open meadow, known as the Ellipse Meadow.

Original use

The columns were quarried from sandstone

Aquia Creek sandstone

Aquia Creek sandstone is a type of brown to light-gray freestone used extensively in building construction in Washington, D.C. in the late 18th and early 19th centuries...

 near Aquia Creek

Aquia Creek

Aquia Creek is a tributary of the tidal segment of the Potomac River and is located in northern Virginia. The creek's headwaters lie in southeastern Fauquier County, and it empties into the Potomac at Brent Point in Stafford County, south of Washington, D.C....

 in Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 and transported to Washington on a barge

Barge

A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...

. Old identification marks from the quarry are still visible on some of the stones.

They were originally built as part of the east portico

Portico

A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...

 of the Capitol

United States Capitol

The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...

 in 1828, long before the familiar Capitol dome

United States Capitol dome

The United States Capitol dome is the massive dome situated above the United States Capitol which reaches upwards to in height and in diameter. The dome was designed by Thomas U...

 was completed. However, when the dome was completed in 1866 it appeared as if it was not adequately supported by the columns, because the iron dome was significantly larger than the dome that the designer envisioned. In order to correct this visual illusion an addition to the east side of the Capitol was proposed, finally being constructed in 1958, and the columns were removed.

Transfer to arboretum

During the 1980s arboretum benefactor Ethel Garrett took up the cause of establishing a permanent home for the columns. Russell Page

Russell Page

Montague Russell Page was a British gardener, garden designer and landscape architect.Former partner of Geoffrey Jellicoe and author of The Education of a Gardener . In this book he includes some reference to Islamic and classical gardens...

, a landscape designer

Landscape architecture

Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio-behavioral, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and processes in the landscape, and the design of interventions...

 and close friend of Garrett's, visited the Arboretum in September 1984, only months before his death. He determined that the east side of the Ellipse Meadow would be an ideal location, as the columns would be in scale with the more than 20 acres (8.1 ha) of open meadow

Meadow

A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...

 available at the site.

The columns were relocated to this site, and set on a foundation of stones from the steps that were on the east side of the Capitol. A reflecting pool

Reflecting pool

A reflecting pool or reflection pool is a water feature found in gardens, parks, and at memorial sites. It usually consists of a shallow pool of water, undisturbed by fountain jets, for a calm reflective...

 fed by a small rivulet of water running down a channel in the steps reflects the columns, and provides sound and movement.

A capital

Capital (architecture)

In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...

, or top portion, of one of the columns is located elsewhere in the meadow, allowing the detail that the stone carver

Stone carving

Stone carving is an ancient activity where pieces of rough natural stone are shaped by the controlled removal of stone. Owing to the permanence of the material, evidence can be found that even the earliest societies indulged in some form of stone work....

 incorporated into the design to be observed. Acanthus

Acanthus (ornament)

The acanthus is one of the most common plant forms to make foliage ornament and decoration.-Architecture:In architecture, an ornament is carved into stone or wood to resemble leaves from the Mediterranean species of the Acanthus genus of plants, which have deeply cut leaves with some similarity to...

leaves are clearly visible, and the many layers of paint applied while the column was in place at the Capitol are visible on portions of the stone.

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