7 Surprising Facts about Washington D.C

Washington, DC is commonly known as D.C., Washington, where “DC” stands for “District of Columbia”. Washington was named after the first US president George Washington and is the capital of the United States. Washington is the 20th most populous city in the US. It is famous for its historical sites and has many famous tourist attractions like memorials, monuments, etc.

Some Interesting Washington D.C Facts

1. One of the most common misconceptions is that George Washington was the first person to live in Whitehouse. But the fact is George Washington was the only president who never lived in Whitehouse. The Whitehouse was completed only after a year he died. One of the facts about Whitehouse is the second U.S president, John Adams was the first-ever president to live in the Whitehouse.
2. One of the major facts about the Capitol building is that an empty crypt can be still found behind the Capitol building, it is where George Washington was supposed to be buried but his will stated that he wanted to be buried at his mansion, Mount Vernon.
3. The Capitol building is now only the fifth-tallest building in the district of Columbia. But there was a law passed in 1899 restricting the construction of any building taller than the Capitol building, they were allowed to be equal in height with the Capitol but not taller. This is another fact about the Capitol building.
4. Most of the museums in Washington D.C are free to visit. One such museum is the Smithsonian Museum and it is a must-visit. The Smithsonian American Art Museum(SAAM) was renamed in 2000. In the 1980s, the museum focused more on American artists so it was named the National Museum of American art. It totally consists of around 40, 000 artworks representing 7,000 American artists. Another fact is that the museum was exclusively extended in 1906, to show-case the private collections of former first lady Harriet Lane Johnson.
5. The International Spy Museum is the only museum in the world that is built solely to represent the tradecrafts. It features the largest collection of spy artifacts from the 1950s to date including an invisible ink letter that was written by US President George Washington. The museum was opened on July 19, 2002, and is one of the popular tourist attractions in Washington DC.
6. With around 170 million items, The Library of Congress is considered the largest library in the world. Every day, the library receives more than 15,000 material through gifts, purchases, and copyright deposits. The smallest book in the library of Congress is the “Old King Cole”, it is 1/25” x 1/25” and the largest book in the library is 5 by 7 feet.
7. The Washington Monument was built in honor of the first president of the US, George Washington. One of the important facts about the Washington Monument is that it took almost 40 years to complete after several discussions with the architect Robert Mills. Several ideas were suggested. Initially, it was designed to have a flat top, the current obelisk design was proposed only in 1876.

You can play the Washington DC trivia to know more interesting facts.