One of my favorite things about DC is the architecture. If you just ignore the bureaucracy-made-manifest late 20th century federal office buildings it’s like they’re not even there. On previous trips to the Mall, I had noticed the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania. Apparently it became obsolete almost immediately after it was built in the late 19th century and faced the threat of demolition for 75 years before it was restored and reopened in 1983.
Yesterday on our way to inadvertently getting trapped on the Mall by Rolling Thunder, Mr. MiddleChild observed, “There are people up there.” So there were.
We took the elevator to the top of the bell tower (Free! Another great thing about DC) and were treated to a pretty spectacular 360 view of the District.
The Raspberry takes a decent shot.
It was really fun to pick out all the landmarks – monuments, museums, the Capitol, the White House, the airport, the Cathedral, Catholic University, the World Bank – all visible from just 270 feet up. The tower had helpful pictures identifying significant buildings (which is how we found the World Bank) and was not nearly as busy as most tourist spots, especially for a holiday weekend. I’ll definitely be going back.
A couple more cell phone shots after the jump.
Cool rooftop spots on surrounding office buildings.
View towards National Airport – for some reason one side was glassed off while the other three had wires. Still, an amazing view.
