The Schumin Web Salutes America
- Part 1 -
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"The Schumin Web Salutes America" was a photography set taken in its entirety on July 7, 2001. Over the course of the day, I photographed a number of landmarks in Washington DC's monumental core, walking from just east of the Capitol all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial, and then doubling back to catch the White House. Along the way, I photographed at the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, the Capitol, the National Gallery's sculpture garden, the Museum of American History, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, and the White House.
The format of this photography set is different from most. Rather than a focus exclusively on a subject, this photography set focuses on the day, as we pass by many different subjects, starting with the trip into Washington...
As this photo taken from the eastbound rest area on Interstate 66 shows, traffic is always fairly busy 'round these parts, though a Saturday morning is nothing like rush hour, where the freeway is considerably more congested.
Metro in Vienna. The beauty of it is its simplicity. It's an end station, and only serves the Orange Line, and so any train you get on is destined for New Carrollton, Maryland. No dual-level platforms, as Rosslyn, Metro Center, L'Enfant Plaza, and others are, and no accidentally getting on a Blue Line train (which is destined for Addison Road). And it's also built between the two sides of Interstate 66, allowing maximum accessibility. This photo was taken from the top of the new South Parking Garage at Vienna.
Speaking of the South Parking Garage, this is frightening... though it is structurally sound, and I trust it enough to park my car in it, it's frightening to think that the actual decks are only that thick...
I ultimately parked in the North Garage due to its awesome accessibility to I-66, with its equally thin parking decks, put up the sun-shade (why not?), grabbed up whatever I needed (Mavica and lots and lots of disks), and headed out.
The only reason I went to the South Garage in the first place was because it was new, and I wanted to take a look-see.
What happened here?
"Smoking prohibited". Now most people with half a brain know better than to smoke in an elevator, but for that other 0.01%...
The famous Metro pylon... It's more decorative than anything else here because the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU station is a huge complex with parking, but when you're in DC, and many of the stations aren't above ground, the pylons are your only indicator from a distance where the station entrances are. Stripes under the "M" indicate what serve the station.
A constant at Vienna - the farecard machines are ALWAYS crowded.
"Capitol South... that's where I'm headed!"
At Vienna, unless you're at the wrong station altogether, as I said before, it is impossible to get on the wrong train, with both tracks going to New Carrollton.
Metro cares about your safety. Since it's quite dangerous if you fall off the platform, especially if a train is coming or you touch the electrified third rail, they've installed these bumps along the edge of the platform, so that you can be darn sure you know that the edge of the platform is near (you can really feel them through your shoes!).
I made a quick stop at Rosslyn, and thus here we are leaving the train at Rosslyn...
Rosslyn has one of the longest escalators I've ever seen (though not the longest in the Metro system). The acoustics are interesting, too. Because of the architectural design, you could be standing on the far right side going up, and talking to your friend using your "inside voice", and could be heard loud and clear by riders going down on the other far end. Gives you an idea... advertising!
Leaving Rosslyn, I caught a Blue Line train (a Rohr!), since Blue and Orange merge at Rosslyn for most of their route through the District, and with it being the first train to show up, why not?
After reaching my destination, the escalator up reveals a mostly sunny day, though a bit on the hot side...
As you can see, Metro's street pylons while actually in Washington are much more like landmarks to show where the station is than at Vienna, where they're just there because they look like they should be there.
After leaving the Metro at Capitol South, I kind of went on blind faith to find what I was looking for initially, because I had never used this station before. I knew that the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court building were behind the Capitol. So if I saw one of those two buildings, I knew I was in the right place, and then knew where I was going. So, I took a slightly educated guess (based on the not-to-scale Metro System Map), and took a left out of the station. A few blocks up from the station entrance, there was the object of my desires...
Before this particular day, I'd never seen what the Library of Congress looked like from the street (only an aerial photo), so I had to use something else to figure out that this was it. This sign was the identifier for me.
And there she is, the Library of Congress. This particular building is named for Thomas Jefferson. I didn't go in, because I was on a schedule and had a lot of ground to cover on a preplanned track, but did take a moment to admire the fountain complete with classical figures in uncomfortable positions when you take the water into account...
The centerpiece of the scene was a statue of (I believe) Zeus, king of the gods in mythology, sitting there looking important.
To the right of Zeus was a goddess from mythology, riding an animal.
 
To the left of Zeus was another goddess, this one in an incredibly uncomfortable position. One would think that the human being would have more sense than the horse. Wrong... As you can see in the picture at left, she's getting sprayed right in the face with a pretty good blast of water. As you can see at right, the horse had the right idea...
Passing by the statues, and leaving the vicinity of the Library of Congress, we cross the street to go to the Supreme Court building, and catch a glance of what will be coming up later on...
This is the Supreme Court building. I believe that it's just a little bit hard for most of us to fathom what all has been decided in this building by nine men and women in black robes. Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, for instance, which ordered the integration of public schools. Slightly more recently, there was Roe vs. Wade, which made abortion legal. And in 2000, the Supreme Court ended the recounts in the election that year, essentially giving the presidency to George W. Bush.
EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW
All people are created equal, and there should be no difference between the way we were created (equally, that is), and how we are treated under the law.
In front of the Supreme Court building, two statues sit guard on either side of the stairs, watching all that pass by.
 
Here's a close-up of the two statues, the woman on the left, and the man on the right.
The front of the Supreme Court building...
The building was closed on this particular day, and it was then that I noticed the interesting architecture of this building. First of all, let me point this out for the record... the columns on this building may look small from a distance, but up close, they are giant!
The columns, as you would expect, reach to the roof. To complete a checkerboard pattern up there on the underside, there are flowers carved up into the ceiling.
This is a close-up of one of the flowers in the underside of the roof. I actually took this picture and the previous picture while lying flat on my back, which I'm sure some people thought was somewhat odd.
These are the doors that open to the Supreme Court... on the faces of the doors are carvings of justice through the ages, and as you can see, with these tourists helping me demonstrate (unbeknownst to them) that the doors are absolutely HUGE!
Outside on the patio, there were two of these fountains (one on each end).
Meanwhile, hoping to make a few bucks by feeding a few justice-minded people, a hot-dog vendor has his cart all set up and ready to go.
Continue on to Part 2...
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