A walking tour around political Washington

Ahead of the presidential election on November 8, we take in Washington’s political sights and tours.

The Capitol building on Capitol Hill in Washington, as seen from the tower of the Old Post Office, which is now the Trump International Hotel. incamerastock / Alamy Stock Photo
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Tom Diemer likes to start things in The Willard, because so many things have started there since it opened in 1847. ­Abraham ­Lincoln and his family lived in the hotel for 10 days under high security before moving into the White House. The Lincolns' US$773.75 bill – enormous for that era – is still on display. It's where Martin Luther King Jr put the finishing touches to his "I Have A Dream" speech, and the story goes this was where Ulysses S Grant coined a famous term. Diemer says: "At the end of the day, Grant would walk over from the White House for brandy and cigars. People would bug him in the lobby when he wanted to relax, and he started muttering about the 'lobbyists'."

Whether this is a true story or not, Diemer isn't 100 per cent certain. But it has stuck and it feels right. "We always came here to do interviews in the lobby," he says. Diemer should know where things happen in Washington. He spent decades as part of the political press pack in the most powerful city in the world, reporting for Associated Press and Politics Daily, among others. He now spends part of his time leading tours for Context Travel that delve into Washington's power-­wielding hotspots.

The most obvious of these is the White House, a couple of blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue from The Willard. Unless you’re an American citizen booking well ahead for a tour, you’re unlikely to get in without a special invitation. Otherwise, the public are simultaneously allowed to get close and kept far away. The railings go right up to the edge of the lawn, but the house seems cocooned well inside.

But the White House is just one part of Washington’s three-way power split, and the other two – the Capitol and the Supreme Court – are at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. “You often hear of things being sent up to Capitol Hill or down to the White House,” Diemer says. “And that’s a physical thing.”

Between the two are many of the government departments, most constructed in a tremendously pompous neoclassical style. But some buildings have a rather different look. The Old Post Office could pass for a Disney castle, with its distinctive grey stone, little turrets and soaring bell tower. “For years, it was kinda an albatross, massively underutilised,” Diemer says. Now, however, after a $200 million (Dh735m) renovation, the building has reopened as a Trump hotel, perhaps predictably not before considerable controversy. Washington’s star chef José Andrés pulled out of opening a restaurant in the hotel after Trump’s comments on immigrants, and Diemer predicts that Trump’s brashness wouldn’t sit well in DC. “It’s not a town that celebrates excess. Here, you’re serious and you work hard.” Rooms at the hotel cost from $800 (Dh2,938) per night.

On the stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue, Diemer points out some of the less-obvious buildings. The Fogo de Chão restaurant seems innocuous enough, but engraved into the stone is its previous incarnation: "Evening Star. Founded 1852." "It was the home of The Washington Star, a real writer's paper," Diemer reminisces. "At times, it was more prestigious than The Washington Post."

Another restaurant, the ­Capital Grille, he says, is “a classic American-­style steakhouse with big dishes. It’s an expense-­account place, and it was always understood that the lobbyists would be picking up the tab.”

The walk passes the FBI building, the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and the US District Courthouse – “almost all corruption and scandals cases come through here, and it’s just as musty and draughty inside as it looks outside” – on the way to Capitol Hill.

The giant office complexes to either side are arguably more important than the Capitol itself – most of the work and horse-­trading is done inside them – but there’s also one quirky little escape on the West Front Lawn. The summerhouse is a bizarre hexagonal brick structure that looks fabulously out of place. It was designed in the 19th century by Frederick Law Olmsted – who landscaped Central Park in New York – and has long been the perfect spot to retreat to away from prying eyes and ears. Many a deal has been done there over a smoke and a sandwich. The grotto next to it, visible through the railings, is a tiny green gully, once used by congressmen to give their horses a drink.

The final schlep is up to the Capitol itself. “It has always been open, not fenced in,” Diemer says. “Anyone can walk right up.” Contrary to popular belief, the side facing the National Mall is not the front, because there’s no official back. But the West Front is the one everyone knows – ­Ronald Reagan decided to move his inauguration there so more people could pile on to the mall and see it. “It was my first day in Washington DC,” Diemer says. “It was so cold that the parade had to be cancelled because the kids’ instruments froze up.”

Unexpectedly for such a ­security-conscious country, you can saunter into the Capitol and have a look around. Theoretically, you’re supposed to apply in advance, but walk-up tickets for the tours are available on all but the most ridiculously busy days. After a flag-waving film that explains how American democracy works, the tour heads inside.

Some rooms are more famous than others – the Rotunda is the most instantly recognisable. It is a ceremonial space that has hosted official visits by foreign dignitaries, state funerals and wild speculation in Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol. Giant canvas paintings depict various scenes from American history, but it’s the giant fresco within the dome that holds the attention. ­Constantino Brumidi’s The ­Apotheosis of Washington depicts the first president, George Washington, becoming a god. It’s an image with which Washington himself probably would have been mightily uncomfortable.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the building, however, are the statues scattered around it. A good few are in the ­Emancipation Hall, which acts as a milling-around zone for those waiting to go on tours. These depict various people, including Chief Washakie of the ­Shoshone tribe, blind-and-deaf activist ­Helen Keller and Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swigert Jr. Each state gets two statues within the Capitol building, and they can choose whomever they like. Theoretically, they could pick a mass murderer with no link to the state. It's a one-in, one-out policy, so if a state wants to honour a new person, they have to choose which of the two existing statues is ditched. The surprise is that Mississippi hasn't chosen to replace Jefferson Davis, who was from Kentucky and is best known as the Confederate President who waged war on the United States and its Congress.

But for all the clout vested in the White House, Capitol and ­Supreme Court, the United States’ real power is held inside the National Archives, close to the new National Museum of ­African American History and Culture, which was under construction during my visit. The National Archives are part museum, part document storehouse, but the originals of three particularly vital documents are inside under the rotunda. The first is the Declaration of ­Independence, which Thomas Jefferson spent days crafting to set out the ideals of and justifications for the new country.

The second is the Constitution, and display panels around it go into the bargaining required to get nine of the original 13 states to sign off on it. Eventually, enough were persuaded to go for a sign-now, amend-later deal. Which is where the third document – the Bill of Rights – comes in. Of the 12 rights written down, only 10 were initially ratified. The first one – decreeing that members of Congress can’t grant themselves pay rises to take effect during the current Congressional session – was finally adopted in 1992 as the 27th Amendment.

There are some fascinating differences between the ­Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The former is densely scrawled and ugly on the eye, while the latter is neatly bullet-pointed with delicate cursive writing. The Declaration makes reference to God, while the Constitution conspicuously doesn’t. While both were worded meticulously to keep everyone happy, fights have long raged about what precisely those words mean. The “all men are created equal” section of the Declaration didn’t seem to apply to slaves by the time the Constitution was put in place. And the “well armed Militia” and “right to keep and bear arms” of the Second Amendment are a massive source of debate with regards to 21st-century gun laws.

The words of these founding documents have incredible power. But, as ever in Washington, there’s always someone prepared to argue about what that power should be – and who should wield it.

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