Summer’s on: A visitors’ guide as Capitol gets ready for busy tourist season

Capitol officials are busily preparing to welcome hundreds
of thousands of visitors to the nation’s capital this summer, bolstering staff
levels and readying congressional staff to brace for what is expected to be one
of the area’s busiest tourist seasons to date.

Officials with the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) are
expecting to see as many as 800,000 tourists — or 8,000-9,000 each day — by the end of the
summer and are maxing out staff levels while initiating a volunteer program to
ease the workload of paid guides and visitor assistants with crowd control
duties and directing tourists.

{mosads}With the muggy summer heat already flooding D.C. streets,
the prospect of a 580,000-square-foot, air-conditioned facility with scores of
available educational displays and activities is no doubt high on the list of
visiting tourists. 

The $621 million CVC boasts a 530-person restaurant, two
250-person theaters, which each show a 13-minute educational film about
Congress and the Capitol, and 26 bathrooms, addressing one common complaint of
visitors in years past.

Before the CVC opened nearly 18 months ago, visitors to the
Capitol would have to wait as long as 4 hours to get inside. At the CVC’s
opening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) reminisced about the days of
walking past tourists waiting to get into the Capitol.

“In the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you
could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol,” he said in
December 2008. “It may be descriptive but it’s true.”

But now visitors proceed across the Capitol’s East plaza and
down a set of stairs where they face a 6- to 10-minute wait to get through metal
detectors.

“We are learning every day,” said Sharon Gang, a spokeswoman
for the CVC. “What we know is that we need to prepare our visitors for what to
expect when they come here.”

Visitors are prohibited from bringing in any food, liquids,
weapons or drugs.

And CVC officials are encouraging congressional staff to
remind visiting constituents to leave enough time to visit the expansive
Exhibition Hall where they can see the newest collection of documents on
display entitled “Pirates, Protests, and Public Health,” on display through
the end of September.

The display includes the original 1790 report from the
Secretary of State listing prisoners captured by Barbary pirates and the
ransoms demanded for their release, and it walks visitors through how such acts
of piracy led Congress to create the U.S. Navy. 

Also on display are the map that the National American Woman
Suffrage Association used during rallies and meetings during its state-by-state
campaign for voting rights, and a dramatic poster produced by the Food and Drug
Administration in the 1930s warning truckers not to transport milk from farms
containing contagious diseases.

For elderly or disabled visitors who need assistance in
traveling from the West front of the Capitol to the East front CVC entrance,
the CVC has made available a free shuttle service. Visitors with large groups
in need of a shuttle are encouraged to call ahead at (202) 224-4048.

Hours of operation:

Monday – Saturday: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Sunday: Closed

Holidays:

Open regular hours on May 31 (Memorial Day), July 5, and
Sept. 6 (Labor Day)

Entrance:

The entrance to the CVC is located one level below the U.S.
Capitol and can be accessed from the Capitol’s east plaza by taking an elevator
or climbing down a set of stairs. 

It can also be reached by a walking ramp from the intersection
of 1^st Street & East Capitol Street, NE — between Independence
Avenue, SE and Constitution Avenue, NE.

Travel:

Parking around the Capitol is highly limited. It is highly
advised to walk, take public transportation, or a taxi.

Nearest Metro stops:

Red Line: Union Station

Orange or Blue Line: Capitol South