(Washington, D.C., U.S.A.)

A couple of months ago, I applied to take a tour of the Pentagon.  You need to apply at least 6 weeks (preferably more) in advance…and then you wait.  You are screened for security reasons and, if approved, only receive notification of that approval 1-2 days before your requested tour date.

It was by no means a sure thing.  After all, the Pentagon is the command centre of the U.S. military and is a highly sensitive facility.  Not being an American citizen, I didn’t expect my visit to be a priority for the Pentagon.  However, shortly after arriving in Washington, I found out that my application had been approved and that I would be able to take the tour.  After passing through an airport-style security check, I was in the Pentagon and about to begin my tour with a group of students from Georgia (the state) and a family from the U.K.

The tour is not for the feeble.  You walk almost constantly for just under an hour.  You cannot stop, not even for a drink of water.  The leader walks backward throughout the tour to keep an eye on the group, with a second “leader” following at the rear to ensure that the group keeps moving and remains intact.

The Pentagon is huge.  23,000 people work there, consisting of 7,000 officers, 4,000 enlisted personnel and 12,000 civilians.  At one point, we were walking down a hallway that was more than 3 football fields long.  The Pentagon is essentially a self-sustaining city; once inside, it almost feels like you are in a suburban mall…except that almost every customer is in uniform and is striding with an unusually strong sense of purpose.

Much of the commentary consisted of general information about the various branches of the U.S. military.  We did not visit many specific sites within the complex, although we did see the internal memorial to the 184 victims of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.   It is located at the point of the plane’s impact.  To get there, we walked down a hallway (now completely rebuilt) that was wiped out by the plane after it first struck the building.  At one point, we even saw some scorch marks on a wall that were left by the burning aircraft once it came to a halt.  We also learned that the death toll would have been much higher (perhaps several thousand more), but the area hit by the aircraft was being renovated at the time and most of the personnel from that area had been relocated.

For obvious reasons, photography is prohibited inside the Pentagon except in the tightly-controlled visitor centre (see photo at the top of this post).  Outside, photography is not allowed either, except at the 9/11 Memorial.

The external 9/11 Memorial does not require pre-approval; anybody can visit it without making advance arrangements.  The Memorial consists of one “bench” for every victim (one of whom was only 3 years old) of the attack.  The angle of each “bench” is 43 degrees, being the plane’s angle at the moment of impact.  As each victim’s name and year of birth is part of the Memorial, the tragedy is personalized.   I saw that 5 of the victims were my age; each one was a member of the military and would have been working at the Pentagon when the plane struck.

After visiting the site of one of the 9/11 attacks, any discussion of the remainder of my day can’t help but seem rather inconsequential.  Among many other things, the Pentagon visit reminded me how much the world changed on that day in 2001 and what a profound and continuing effect it has had on our American neighbours in particular.

(Washington, D.C., U.S.A.)

I went a little crazy today on Washington’s National Mall.

First up was a tour of the U.S. Capitol building (pictured above).  This is similar to Canada’s Parliament buildings, with a lot more marble.  I had to apply for this in advance and, given all of the security and complicated logistics, the tour itself was somewhat underwhelming.  It’s a remarkable building but, after a 15 minute video, the tour itself was barely 30 minutes long and was extremely crowded.  The tour nonetheless reinforced how Canada and the U.S.A. arose from very different circumstances and how those differences continue to shape our respective countries today.

Already growing weary of the security measures at every site, I took advantage of the fact that I could take a shortcut tunnel to the Library of Congress and not go through another metal detection process.  The Library of Congress is another opulent structure with a couple of special items…including an original Gutenberg bible.  Oh yes, it also contains basically every book,  recording and document ever published.

Growing hungry, I remembered that the nearby National Museum of the American Indian had a very highly regarded cafeteria.  I decided to eat food from the Northern Woodlands; my main course was maple-brined turkey with cherry marmalade and it was very good.  I’m really glad that I decided to see the museum after lunch, as it had extensive displays from not only the U.S. but also from indigenous peoples throughout North and South America.

There were some common themes in the exhibits – in particular, a number of different groups had philosophies based on the four points of the compass.  In fact, the Anishinaabe of Manitoba have a legend about a man who travels extensively in each of the four directions in order to bring wisdom back to a tribe that has lost its way.  I have come across the theme of travel as a valuable means of learning quite a bit recently.

Next up was a visit to the top of the Old Post Office building.  With the Washington Monument closed, this was a good alternative way to see the National Mall from above.

From there, I dashed over to the National Archives.  The chief attractions there were a trio of original American documents (the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution) and an original Magna Carta from the 13th century.  While it was great to see these “star attractions”, there were also many other worthwhile items.  I particularly enjoyed the exhibit on “signatures” – it turns out even celebrities like to get autographs from other celebrities!

I was getting quite tired by this point, but nonetheless proceeded to the National Air & Space Museum as it was open late.  It was sobering to see the nuclear missiles (both Soviet and American) as well as the spacecraft from the Apollo/Soyuz joint mission of the mid-1970s.   Other notable exhibits included an actual lunar landing module and a series of photographs from Mars.

Objectively, this was probably too much sightseeing for one day.  However, all of the above sights are free and are located within easy walking distance of one another.   I am treating this as a “first cut” at Washington:  Louise and I will undoubtedly return before long, so I now have some ideas about what deserves a closer second look and what is of relatively lesser interest.

I’m very excited about tomorrow.  I’ll be exploring a new (museum-free) neighbourhood…and finally seeing something special that I began setting up two months ago!

(Washington, District of Columbia, U.S.A.)

From the capital of the ancient Roman Empire…to the capital of the modern American Empire!

Many other commentators have drawn analogies between ancient Rome and modern America, so I won’t rehash them here.  However, it is fascinating to see so many glorious monuments to America and wonder if they will suffer the same fate as the glorious monuments of Rome.

I started my tour with a visit to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.  The Smithsonian is not just one museum…it is a collection of many huge museums that cannot possibly be seen in one trip to Washington.  I chose this one to start, as I thought it would be interesting to see how Americans see themselves and what they consider to be important in their history.

There were extensive displays on food, transportation, the Civil War, and the office of the President, to name a few.   Having just watched a movie called “The Butler” that incorporated a number of key civil rights events, it was fascinating to see a Woolworths lunch counter from Greensboro, N.C.  In the early 1960s, this counter (and others like it throughout the South) was the location of nasty confrontations between civil rights advocates and segregationists.  Taken out of that context, the lunch counter looks very mundane but it also illustrates how pervasive segregation really was.

Moving forward a few years, a single display included Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves, Bob Dylan’s leather jacket and Archie Bunker’s chair!

With the thermometer pushing 20’C, I spent the rest of the afternoon outside.  I saw the White House and took the top photo but it was (understandably) difficult to get too close.  Similarly, the towering Washington Monument was understandably closed as the damage from the 2011 earthquake has not yet been completely repaired.  It should be open again later this year.  I really wasn’t expecting an earthquake to impact my DC sightseeing.

I was able to get very close to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  At first glance, it is underwhelming…a black marble V cut into a small slope.  However, its power derives from the fact that every single American fatality in Vietnam is listed on the monument.  It is relentless.  Seeing the individual names reinforces the sheer scale of the conflict and personalizes the losses in a way that mere numbers cannot.

Finally, I stopped by the Lincoln Memorial.  It is a much more traditional monument and it is very popular with visitors.  It was also the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech; the speech location is clearly marked on the monument steps.

After dinner at a Pakistani restaurant in the unusually-named neighbourhood of Foggy Bottom, I returned to my hotel and updated my plans for the next couple of days.  I’ve just received some very good news about Thursday and need to adjust my schedule as a result.