Page 53 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Washington, DC

C APIT OL HILL  51

5 United States during World War II and the
Capitol more than 800 Japanese
Americans who died in
See pp52–3.
military service. The
6 Robert A. names of these service-
men are carved on a
Taft Memorial curving granite wall,
while etched on the top
Constitution Ave and 1st St, are the names of the ten
NW. Map 4 E4. q Union
Station. 7 ∑ aoc.gov detention camps where
Japanese American
This statue of Ohio civilians were confined.
senator Robert A. Taft An 18-foot long alumi-
(1889–1953) stands in num gong may be rung
a park oppo site the Statue of by visitors, serving as a
US Capitol. The statue Robert A. Taft call to remembrance.
itself, by sculptor Wheeler
Hallway of the 18th-century Williams, is dwarfed by a vast, 8 Ulysses S. Grant
Sewall-Belmont House white, Tennessee marble bell
tower (the Carillon), that rises Memorial
4 Sewall-Belmont up behind the figure of the Union Square, west side of US
politician. The memorial,
House designed by Douglas W. Orr, Capitol in front of Reflecting Pool.
Map 4 D4. q Capitol South, Union
was erected in 1959 as a Station. 7 ∑ aoc.gov
144 Constitution Ave, NE. Map 4 E4.
Tel (202) 546-1210. q Capitol South, “tribute to the honesty,
Union Station. Open for tours 11am, indomitable courage, and high This dramatic memorial was
1pm & 3pm Thu–Sat. Closed Federal principles of free government sculpted by Henry Merwin
hols. Donations welcome. 8 = symbolized by his life.” The Shrady and dedicated in 1922.
∑ sewallbelmont.org son of President William With its 13 horses, it is one of
Howard Taft, Robert A. Taft the world’s most complex
Robert Sewall, the original owner was a Republican, famous equestrian statues.
of this charming 18th-century for sponsoring the Taft-Hartley The bronze groupings around
house, rented it out to Albert Act, the regulator of collective General Grant provide a graphic
Gallatin, the Treasury Secretary bargaining between labor depiction of the suffering of
under President Thomas and management. fighting in the Civil War. In the
Jefferson, in the early 1800s. It artillery group, horses and
was here Gallatin entertained a 7 National soldiers pulling a cannon are
number of wealthy contributors urged on by their mounted
whose financial backing brought Japanese American leader. The infantry group
about the Louisiana Purchase in Memorial storms into the heat of battle,
1803, which doubled the size of where, poignantly, a horse and
the United States. During the Louisiana and New Jersey rider have already fallen under
Avenues at D St, NW. Map 4 E3.
British invasion in 1814, the q Union Station. ∑ njamf.com the charge.
house was the only site in Shrady worked on the
Washington to resist the attack. This memorial, designed by sculpture for 20 years, using
While the US Capitol was burning, Davis Buckley, commemorates soldiers in training for his
American soldiers took refuge in the story of the 120,000 Japanese models. He died two weeks
the house from where they fired Americans interned in the US before it was dedicated.
upon the British.
The National Women’s
Party, who won the right for
American women to vote
in 1920, bought the house in
1929 with the help of feminist
Alva Vanderbilt Belmont.
Today, the house is still the
head quarters of the Party,
and visitors can admire the
period furnishings and suffragist
artifacts. The desk on which
Alice Paul, the leader of the
Party, wrote the, as yet unratified,
Equal Rights Amendment of
1923 is here. The artillery group in the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial

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