DC

Last week I visited Washington DC for the first time since 1988...only the third overall.  Wendy and I went to the Museum of American History.  Among other things I found an amazing item.  This is the hat Lincoln wore the night he was assassinated.  I'm still sad about that.  Had he lived, history might be different.  He would have been more conciliatory toward the South than his successor, Andrew Johnson, was.  We can only speculate whether that would have solidified the nation more than actually happened.

The Washington Monument rises through gray skies.  About a quarter of the way up you can see a line of demarcation in the shade of the marble.  That's where construction stopped in 1854 due to lack of funds, political squabbling, and the Civil War.  in 1877 it resumed and the monument was completed in 1884. 

The Lincoln Memorial.  Fountains of the WWII memorial in the foreground.

The World War II memorial is a recent addition to the capital scene, opened in 2004.  There are impressive metal reliefs, including this one of allied troops making their way through the beach fortifications on D-Day in Normandy.

Here the American and Russian troops are meeting on the wrecked Elbe River bridge in Torgau, Germany.

This is the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, a 19th century classic built in French Empire style between 1871 and 1888.  As we get deeper into the 21st century, the 19th becomes more historic and distant.

Here's Barack's crib.  I toured it in 1969.  No tours no'mo'.

And the US Treasury,  looking much like it does on the ten dollar bill.  The massive government buildings project power, stability, and permanence.  They're built in a similar fashion throughout the world.  Power, yeah.  Stability and permanence, maybe si, maybe no.