Garden
U.S. National Arboretum
Twenty-two salvaged Corinthian sandstone columns from the Capitol, re-erected in an open meadow.
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Location
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About this audio guide
This guide to the U.S. National Arboretum's Capitol Columns in Washington, D.C. traces twenty-four sandstone Corinthian columns quarried in Virginia in 1828 for the Capitol's east portico, pulled down as structurally inadequate in 1958, and left forgotten on the Anacostia riverbank for a quarter century. It follows philanthropist Ethel Garrett's campaign to save them and landscape designer Russell Page's plan to re-erect them in a twenty-acre meadow, a project he did not live to see finished. Look at the base beneath the columns: it's built from the Capitol's own original steps.
This audio guide was created using AI.