Union Station & Columbus Circle & Capitol Hill, Washington DC

A brief history;

• Union Station's grand Beaux Arts facade was designed by Daniel H. Burnham and first opened to the public in 1908, it had an enormous impact on the standard of architecture in Washington DC for decades.

• Union Station facade is made up of white granite and has three main archways which were modelled on the Arch of Constantine in Rome.

• As air travel became increasingly popular, train travel became less glamorous and led to a massive decline from the late 1950s onwards.

• Congress and the railroad authorities debated it's fate for two deacdes before a joint public and private venture, in 1981 set out to restore the building.

• Union Station finally reopened on September 29th, 1988.

• Today the building serves it's original purpose as a train station, with over 100 trains passing through daily & is the second most visited tourist attraction in Washington DC.

• Columbus Circle which is also known as Union Station Plaza or Columbus Plaza is a traffic circle at the intersection of Delaware, Massachusetts and Louisiana Avenues and 1st & E Streets, north-east in Washington, D.C.

• Columbus Circle is ringed by the 50 state of the Union flags (flagpoles) in order of their admission in to the Union plus the flags of the U.S territories and the District of Columbia.

• The Columbus Fountain is the centrepiece of Columbus Circle and serves as a tribute to explorer Christopher Columbus.

• The tribute to Christopher Columbus was sculpted by Lorado Taft and made from marble, the fountain is located in front of Union Station in Union Station Plaza (Columbus Circle).

Photographs include the;

• Beaux Arts exterior of Union Station designed by Daniel H. Burnham

• Columbus Memorial Fountain

• Columbus Circle

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