The Senate Chamber is 113 feet 3 inches in length by 80 feet 3 inches in width and 36 feet in height. The galleries will accommodate 682 persons. The House of Representatives Chamber is 139 feet in length by 93 feet in width and 36 feet in height. In 1800 the Chambers were lighted by lamps and tallow candles, and the 142 Representatives were seated in chairs. To-day there are 435 Members of the House of Representatives, in addition to 2 Delegates and 2 Resident Commissioners, who are seated on benches, which are arranged in a semicircle like those of the theater of Dionysius. To-day the Capitol is lighted by electricity and equipped with a modern ventilating system. The room later occupied by the Supreme Court of the United States was the Senate Chamber until 1859. Previous to that time the court occupied the room immediately beneath, now used as a law library. Beautiful paintings by Brumidi, Trumbull, and others adorn the Capitol, and many statues, gift of the States, may be seen in Statuary Hall, set apart as such in 1864, being formerly the House of Representatives Chamber. [Illustration: THE CAPITOL AT NIGHT] [Illustration: STATUE OF FREEDOM] Massive bronze doors by Rogers, depicting scenes from the life of Christopher Columbus, are at the main entrance, the east, and open from the portico to the Rotunda. They call to mind the Ghiberti doors in Florence. There are 24 columns of Maryland sandstone, 30 feet high, in the central portico. Statues by Greenough and Persico flank the steps. The Capitol is to-day the most significant building in this country. Its assessed value in 1930 for building and grounds was $45,000,000. On the east portico of the Capitol newly elected Presidents of the United States take the oath of office. STATUE OF FREEDOM As has been stated, the Statue of Freedom surmounting the Dome of the Capitol is the work of one of America’s great artists, Thomas Crawford. The modeling was done in Rome, and at the time of his death, in 1857, he was endeavoring to secure the necessary funds for the casting of it at the Royal Foundry at Munich. On April 19, 1858, the plaster model was shipped from Leghorn, Italy, and after a perilous voyage to New York it arrived in Washington in April, 1859. At that time work on completion of the Capitol was proceeding under the supervision of Thomas U. Walter, architect. On May 24, 1860, the Secretary of War, in a statement concerning the casting of the statue stated that-- it will be cast by Clark Mills and he will be paid for his services and for the rent of his foundry [at Mills Avenue toward Bladensburg, where the Andrew Jackson equestrian was cast in 1853] and necessary expenses at the rate of $400 per month and that the material, fuel, labor, etc., will be paid for by the Government.