Rep. Lincoln Davis
Rep. Zach Wamp

WASHINGTON — For most first-time visitors to Washington, a tour of the Capitol is high on the agenda, and for some, their own representative in Congress will serve as tour guide and offer an insider’s perspective.

Reps. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., and Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., say they conduct a few hundred tours a year, showing their constituents around the Capitol, with its famed rotunda, murals, House and Senate chambers and other historic features.

“It’s one of those things, even when you lose your voice and have to shout above the crowd, that I enjoy most,” said Rep. Wamp, whose tours are renowned among his colleagues and Capitol Hill staffers for their historical breadth.

To give their tours a Tennessee flair, the congressmen intersperse their narratives with stories about famous members of Congress from the Volunteer state, including Andrew Jackson, Daniel Boone and James K. Polk.

“My constituents drive a long way, 10-12 hours, from our district, and to see the congressman. (Having) him take them through the Capitol is a special treat,” Rep. Davis said. “I just think it’s important that young people have an opportunity to actually engage with their congressmen in this unbelievably historic building.”

Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., also occasionally gives Capitol tours, his office said.

The Capitol, with its Greek-inspired architecture, was constructed beginning in 1793 and has been expanded several times over the years. Uniformed Capitol tour guides or congressional staffers usually lead tours around the Capitol, which now covers about four acres.

LESSONS FROM HISTORY

Visitors on tours led by members of Congress are afforded some special access to features that are otherwise off-limits to the public. One off-limits stairway often used by Rep. Wamp on his tours has bullet holes from when the British stormed the Capitol during the War of 1812.

A feature still under construction that Rep. Wamp makes sure to point out is the Capitol visitor center, set to open in December. He was the lead co-sponsor of a bill, signed into law by President Bush last December, that named the visitor center’s main hall as Emancipation Hall to honor the slaves who helped build the Capitol 200 years ago.

Blacks, both free and slave, provided the bulk of the labor that constructed the Capitol, White House and other early government buildings, according to the White House Historical Association.

Beth Berkhouse, an eighth-grade teacher at East Lake Academy, recently took one of Rep. Wamp’s tours with a group of students. Visiting the Capitol and seeing the congressman dovetails nicely with the American history that the students learned during the school year, she said.

“Congressman Wamp is very historically oriented, so the fact that he’ll give tours and give information related to what they’ve been studying is great,” she said.

UP IN THE DOME

Rep. Davis said his favorite feature of the Capitol is the rotunda, with its nearly 300-foot-high dome that prominently forms the center of the building. Inside the rotunda are several murals depicting momentous scenes in American history, and on the ceiling is mural, painted by Constantino Brumidi in 1863, depicting George Washington ascending to the heavens.

The original dome was wooden but was replaced by the current cast-iron dome with columns and windows in 1859.

Tours led by members of Congress are allowed to go to the top of the rotunda — the journey involves hundreds of stairs and is not for the faint of heart — but security regulations restrict the group size to no more than eight.

Those who make it to the top are rewarded with an up-close look at the ceiling mural and, on the balcony outside, a panoramic view of Washington, D.C.

“When anybody in the world sees this building, they know that this is the symbol of freedom,” Rep. Davis said.

Other highlights of the tour include Statutory Hall, which formerly was the House chamber until it was deemed too small; the Hall of Columns, lined with 28 marble pillars and statues; and the old Supreme Court chamber near the Senate floor, where several famous cases, such as the Dred Scott case in 1857, were decided before the justices moved into a different chamber in 1860.

Dindisha Hodge, 13, an East Lake student, said the Capitol tour was her favorite part of the school’s Washington trip.

“There was a lot of stuff to see here,” she said. “It was pretty cool going into the rotunda and seeing all the statues.”

Rep. Wamp, who tailors his tours depending on the size and composition of the group, said reaching out to students is what makes giving tours so rewarding.

“If I can make history real with them, if I can inspire one young person every tour to consider a life of politics or government service, then it’s worth my time,” he said.

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